The BOTI Bounty as a Growth Driver

Cent has done a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. It's proven that bounties aren't just for programers or vigilante types. And thanks to the Ethereum network, it has created a few unique bounty distribution methods (e.g. automatic, simultaneous payouts from 1~100 users that are payback resistant).

On top of that technical innovation an exciting emergent development appeared and has continued to persist and even grow over the past few months. This newly emergent "thing" has become a new user habit; a ritual if you will. It's something that I as the poster and other users as paid contributors/curators look forward to each week.

That "thing" is of course the BOTI, my weekly bounty that asks users to source, share and curate what they think was the best of the internet over the last week. The result of each BOTI is a super timely list of some pretty good and often delightful content from around the world.

Lists have always been a thing. Buzzfeed listicles are the most recent popular instantiation of the lists as a thing. But just think of the 10 commandments or equally ancient SportsCenter top 10 highlights or even elections which list up the most to least possible candidates as well as the common 'best of' lists that are as ubiquitous as air: lists have always been with us.

But for as long as they've been around, they've also always been local, individually or centrally determined and highly edited.

The list that comes out of the BOTI each week is global (users hail from 148 countries!), decentralized, and open to include literally any piece of content on the internet. And again, the result is not terrible; in fact, it's pretty darn good, all things considered.

That said it for sure could be better. The main limitation, though, to increasing the quality of the BOTI as well as broadening its application (becuase lists can literally be applied to *anything*) really comes down to the potential pool of contributors.

And while Cent has been growing its user base, the overall number is still relatively small. That is where Seeding comes in. Since that feature will coincide with the ability to make bounty-less posts, the potential base of users should increase as soon as or shortly after Seeding is introduced.

Aftet that happens, it's my belief that the BOTI, especially BOTIs or BOTI-like bounty posts applied on a broader basis, could potentially act as a lever that could accelerate user growth and satisfaction at a high rate. Maybe.

Nothing like this was ever possible before. And it's kinda crazy that this is even theoretically possible, since the result would mean that a large percentage of the world would begin receiving large amounts of crypto...

Enzypt.io

I had another blog post in mind to write about originally, but thanks to fellow Centian @BryanXV I found out about a really cool new project to write about instead.

As the title of this post makes pretty clear, that dApp is called Enzypt. Enzypt was developed by Melbourne based Flex Dapps and in their own words:

"Enzypt was borne of our fascination for IPFS and distributed storage technologies. Enzypt allows [creators] to encrypt and upload files and their metadata, and create a completely p2p payment gateway for themselves. When money hits the creator's wallet, the files are downloaded and decrypted..."

There are a few more things I'd like to say about the dApp, but I want to put the dApp through its paces a little longer before I go deeper. That plus it's late and I'm beat.

Check out Brian's website (he has a lot of good stuff going on and is a rising crypto-native creator/entrepreneur) here: https://brianxv.wixsite.com/home/enzyptstore.

Limits of Decentralization

If your name is associated with something, that knowledge is a potential central point of failure for that "thing."

As long as the identities of people involved in "decentralized" projects are public knowledge, that is an unavoidable reality.

That isn't necesaairly a criticism as much as it's a reality and tradeoff. I mean, if you were on the Peepeth team, for example, and some user posted kiddy pron[sic], you wouldn't be able to simply use 'blockchain' as an excuse not to do anything. Just as they do now (since the team is identifiable) they allow for admins to delete such content. And no one can be mad at them for doing that; but that means they can only describe their product as 'censorship resistant' and not 'uncensorable'.

That leads me to believe that the most powerful applications will be developed and released into the wild by anonymous devs. In that situation, any "value" will then accrue exclusively to end users (that may or may not include the original devs, and if it does, no one will be able to distinguish them from other users) so as to limit the liability issues that any dApp dev team faces.

Hypocognitive

The term 'hypocognitive' refers to that lack of a linguistic or cognitive representation for an object, category or idea that one often experiences when first confronting an "unknown unknown."

It's attributable to Robert Levy.

If you want to use hypocognitive in a sentence, 'to be hypocognitive of...' is an acceptable form to employ the term.

With something like crypto - or Cent - anyone who hasn't gone down the crypto rabbit hole is fundamentally hypocognitive of it. We're essentially selling ice to people from Martinique in the 19th century - they have no concept of frozen water let alone the value of it.

So, we need to market the eff out of it, and educate a whole bunch of people. And that's ok, because, well, can you imagine what the world would be like without ice today?

Token Extensibility

Extensibility. That's a word I've been hearing more and more lately, and I'm sure we'll soon be hearing seemingly all the time in the not too distant future.

Unfortunately it isn't the easiest term in the world to intuit.

Thankfully though crypto has Bryan Flynn, an awesomely clear thinker on all things NFTs, who has in a recent article provided what I think is the best example that clarifies what token extensibility actually is: Access.

"If users obtain a token in their wallet, they can unlock new features or tokens in other dApps. Tokens which were once worth nothing, now are worth the equivalent of whatever feature/token it unlocks."

For example, say you have a CryptoKitty. And say I have a dApp that is looking to attract a bunch of crypto-familiars. Since every CryptoKitty owner is a crypto-familiar, and since ownership is provable, I can provide something of value just for CryptoKitty owners who sign up to my dApp using the ETH address that their CryptoKitty is tied to. That token can then be used as an avatar. And it can be tied to all the work/actions they carry out on the dApp. But they can use it on other dApps too.

We live in amazing times. And things keep getting better and better.

Reddit vs. Cent

This month I'm focused on getting my Reddit comment karma up.

I'm doing this so my posts to r/ethereum stop getting auto-moderated...

Anyways, as I'm engaging more with Reddit I am noticing how dramatically different it actually is from Cent.

Mainly, from what I can tell, the type of comments that get up-voted the most on Reddit seem to be pithy little one liners, whereas on Cent thoughtful (i.e. civil and substantial) responses that are of a non-trivial length tend to get voted up and thus receive a share of the bounty.

Of course there are many, many thoughtful responses on Reddit too, but they don't seem to get up-voted as much as one would expect. Users can tell, and it seems to be discouraging.

The fact that thoughtful responses get up-voted basically 100% of the time on Cent is therefore quite remarkable, and should be viewed as one of it's greatest strengths.

Early Days of Crypto Collectibles

How early is it for crypto collectibles?

This early:

There is still sooo much more that needs to be done to help stimulate adoption.

Degree for the Internet

On Cent's Telegram, Summers Haley left a comment suggesting that setting up a TCR (Token Curated Registry) could be a useful way of helping to improve the quality of sorting on Cent. TCRs are definitely going to be super interesting, but I'm not sure if their time has come yet, particularly when it comes to a project like Cent.

As it stands, industry incumbents and those with established reputations/credentials stand to gain the most by getting their name on a TCR, but the incentive(s) to join any TCR is unclear as of now. Also the politics and management assumed by TCRs seem to contain a ton of slippery slopes (e.g. determining who should be kicked off, deposits withheld, etc...).

For a much larger number of individuals around the world lacking such reputations/credentials, even if they have something unique to offer, it seems a bit cruel to demand they deposit something (that they probably don't have).

That said, the social signal that those lists can and will broadcast is super interesting. And what kind of signal would they broadcast? For individuals, getting their name on a list would probably be akin to what diplomas have done for decades: signal that one has what it takes to follow a set of arbitrary rules for a non-trivial period of time, perhaps with some specialized knowledge to boot.

Cent sort of does this already with the leaderboard. Users are ranked based on their 30-day earnings. Behind the rankings though is an ETH address that's basically a record (or proof) of work they put in and got paid for. Instead of a diploma that is a signal of some future potential, the Cent leaderboard generally, and the work that individuals do specifically, provides proof that users have been able to consistently draft responses that are sincere enough and of a significant level of quality to get paid based on the validation and approval of their fellow Centians.

Proof of being able to consistently do something with sincerity and at a sufficient level of quality in the digital realm: that's basically the equivalent of a degree for the internet. If there isn't value in that for any individual who puts work in on the internet, or for the site or organization they belong to, then I'm not sure I know what's up and what's down anymore.

Cash, Privacy, & Digital Social Primitives

"There is a reason why people used cash to transact. It was private and only the two parties engaging in the transaction knew about it."

   ~ Michael J. Casey, 'Privacy is Vital to Crypo - and the Global Economy'

While what Michael J. Casey wrote may be true, in addition to privacy, cash also made it easier - by orders of magnitude - for anyone to earn a living by being paid in cash, instead of an unwieldy commodity for example, by simply doing something for someone who had cash. By extension it was likewise much easier for someone with cash to attract a larger group of potential workers for whatever task they needed to have carried out.

That said, a key shortcoming when it came to cash was, and still is, it's fundamental lack of force or ability to guarantee that the exchange of cash in advance of services rendered brings about the expected outcome or that a cash payment following services rendered is really made.

So, societies developed social constructs to help enforce transactions such as: legal systems and contracts, banks, bonding requirements, escrow transactions, degrees, certifications, CVs, identification cards and so on. All of these pre-digital third-party institutions, rules and social proofs served as proxies for trust; the same trust that cash intrinsically lacked.

Now though, the world has just recently been introduced to cryptocurrencies, which are (for some at least) not only intrinsically trustless, but they allow for trust to actually be programmed on top of them in the form of automated smart contracts.

But without sufficient privacy in the form of fungibility in money, or to borrow Michael's clear prose, "...[the] unspoken agreement between market participants that information about a product's history is not only hidden but is actually lost," money loses its "moneyness."

Or so goes a major critique of cryptocurrency as currency, at least as of today.

This critique applies to the many individuals who connect to traditional institutions like banks to either buy cryptocurrency/tokens or convert them into fiat. Where the critique falls apart though, is when individuals open a virgin digital wallet and *earn* cryptocurrency (e.g. on a site like beta.cent.co).

In other words, when cryptocurrency remains as digital money, when it is exchanged natively (i.e. over the internet either via a smart contract or between parties who utilize digital wallets) its "moneyness" is just as good as the paper kind, with the added benefit of being able to be sent to anyone that is able to send or receive digital messages, anywhere (including space).

When it comes to earning money today, whether it be our next job in real life or over the internet, it is implicitly assumed that we will get paid by way of one or many or all of the pre-digital third-party institutions, rules and social proofs mentioned above. To keep things simple, I think that because of that implicit assumption, most people are trying to insert those pre-digital third-party institutions, rules and social proofs into and on top of the fundamentally new and different digitally native crypto-worlds that are unfolding upon the digital universe. To me, however, that seems a bit like if someone from 19th century Philadelphian high society ventured into the lawless Wild West expecting to be able to force Victorian era modes and manners of living upon everyone and everything.

Instead, what I envision as being a more likely early outcome is this: across these new crypto-worlds, digitally native reputation based on some human aspect that is either impossible to account for and keep track of now, or simply not valued that highly by society - or some combination of the two - will begin to manifest and become the first key, digital social primitive on top of which an unimaginable future will arise.

This reputation will be portable and provable to anyone, and will become the universally attainable, clear and straightforward key to earning a living in the digital realm. As an illustrative example of how that would happen and what it may look like, let me take Cent as an example, and project out onto its current reality a few eminently reasonable hypothetical changes. [Note: if you are unfamiliar with Cent, please go through some of my previous posts, or at the very least please read [this article] before reading further]

Let's imagine that the work-based bounties, or the bounties set mainly by businesses and organizations seeking some minimum number of workers to sincerely complete surveys, take polls, or some other series of simple, straightforward digital work, that are already appearing on Cent today become a real thing. All of a sudden tens of thousands of dollars begin to pour into the platform in the form of bounties. But there is a quality control problem: Since any Centian (Cent user) is able to reply and sort responses to any bounty, the quality of responses and accurate verification of those responses - to say nothing of the total number of responses - is simply far, far below the expectations of what the businesses and organizations are expecting.

So what's Cent to do? First they identify the facts. A small segment of active Centians has been consistently responding to work-based bounties sincerely. Another segment of users respond sincerely, but selectively to work-based bounties. A larger portion of users respond sincerely to semi-formal and playful bounties regularly, and the remainder are sporadic responders or low quality responders.

After identifying these groups, Cent leadership decides to restrict the ability to respond to and evaluate responses to work-based bounty posts to the group of users who have demonstrated "regular and consistent sincerity" across previous bounties on the platform. As a practical example, Cent could say that only users who were in the top 10 of at least three bounty post responses over the last 3 months, which let's say is a small number of only around 400 or so users, will be able to participate in and earn money from work-based bounties.

Put yourself in the shoes of a CEO from one of the nearly 75,000 blockchain startups operating on not simply a small budget, but with an even smaller network and even fewer precious seconds to waste - a couple hunderd dollars here or there for feedback or product testing or whatever carried out nearly instantaneously by fifty to several hunderd reliably sincere responders is a no brainer.

And so very soon these Centians begin to earn hundreds of dollars *a day*. Mind you, all this money, in the form of bounties and user earnings, is visible to all users. So you better believe the responses and curation of the semi-formal and playful bounties rapidly impoves in terms of quality and sincerity as everyone vies for the chance to become a Centurion and earn some serious money.

It's key not to forget that while the money of the work-based bounties may be attractive, the work is pure work. And as pure work it is draining. The semi-formal and playful bounties, by contrast, are not just fun but they are constructive as well in a creatice, social, and financial way. If regular users are able "prove themselves" (i.e. that they are capable of consistently providing sincere responses) by having fun, then Centurions simply continue to prove themselves across each work-based bounty and then have fun.

Over time the types of work-based bounties will probably change. Just as there is demand for educated "specialists," so to the demand for Centurions with very specific reputations and reputation patters (i.e. the history of their performance within the various crypto-worlds) as more and more complex work is able to be carried out digitally. If work-based bounties become more complex, it would only be natural that the semi-formal and playful bounties become more niche and complex. I'm imagining something like a Reddit-esque site but with some unimaginable twist...where Centurions will come to blow off steam and socialize - almost like a bar, except they get paid and continue to prove themselves.

If you've followed me to this point, thank you. Bounties are nothing new, and there are mutliple bounty networks besides Cent that are trying to grow their businesses today. Where Cent distinguishes itself as something completely different from everything else, is in the incentivized social network that has formed around it and proven itself as being something that is genuinely delightful and enjoyable.

Pairing that with the traditional work-based bounties, allows Cent to actually grow a pool of passionate and dedicated workers whose growing numbers helps improve and make the site more and more valuable for everyone else. And it is out of this growing pool of workers that I have caught the first glimpse of that first provable, digital social primitive: a reputation for sincerity that individuals can build for themselves without having to rely on any pre-digital third-party institutions, rules and social proofs.

Jobs: Work, Social & Play

If you've ever watched Madmen, or are older than 50, you know that the workplace used to be a place where work, social and play all occurred and co-existed.

Owing to multiple factors, not least of which being the great many abuses that took place in the name of "fun," play was the first element to be steadily extricated from the workplace. Professionalization is the euphemism that is often employed to signal this change, especially in startups that want to shed their "sophomoric" image and signal they have become a place totally focused on work and the generation of profits.

At most jobs today, regardless of what the leadership or PR departments might say, the demarcation between work and 'social' is also getting starker by the day. The work/life balance that most employees demand and many employers claim they provide speaks to this. That said, while it may be a shell of its former self, the social aspect of work cannot be fully eliminated from jobs that require employees to work out of physical offices.

The splitting of the constitutional elements of the workplace - work, social and play - as a way to create the purest form of distilled work possible would seem to have its apotheosis in gig economy jobs that have begun to come online over the past few years. In the so-called gig economy the job is work, and work is the job. It should go without saying, but the workplace-as-family has no home in the gig economy.

While jobs have been made play-less over the last half century or so, it's my belief that the social aspect of the office has made work bearable. The British and American versions of the classic TV show 'The Office' make this clear - in a very ironic way to be sure. But just try to imagine what the gig economy equivalent of 'The Office' would look like. If they made it about Uber drivers, for example, well, it'd just be fooking depressing.

And that's kind of the rub, for me personally at least, when it comes to the gig economy and its future prospects. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely think the gig economy is where the overwhelming majority of new jobs will be created heading forward. That said, I think it would be an incredible mistake to simply play forward the trend of the work maximizing and social/play minimizing workplace that originated in and has been propagated throughout the world by the West.

What if, instead, there was a way to bring the social and play elements - without their past problematic baggage that led to their respective minimization and extirpation from the realm of work - back into the gig economy which is the future of work?

What if, amidst the slog of isolating digital work, the gig economy worker could sit down at the equivalent of a digital bar and simultaneously tap into that social connection and lost play?

Furthermore what if that digital social and play facilitates, bolsters and contributes to digital work of that gig economy worker?

I am envisioning something along the lines of a digital weigh station (the evaluation centers of the quintessential 20th century nomadic worker, the trucker) that users will be able to use to verify certain basic or minimum requirements in addition to everyone's favorite local watering hole where digital laborers can connect and have a little fun. And that is exactly what I see Cent positioning itself as, all the while strengthening its vision of allowing anyone to earn money anywhere by providing their knowledge and creativity, Madmen style.

Video of the Week No.1 - CryptoKitties & Fred Wilson

I don't normally watch a lot of Youtube, so when I do watch something on Youtube (that's not a music video) that almost certainly means it's share-worthy.

Over the past week I was daily checking Youtube to see if the talks from Token Summit III had been re-broadcast yet. They were finally released yesterday, including the talk I have been most eager to watch: Where CryptoKitties Are Going, a talk between Fred Wilson (USV) and Dieter Shirley (Crypto Kitties).

They discussed all things NFTs (non-fungible tokens), the state of development on Ethereum, and of course CryptoKitties. It was a great talk and is indeed share-worthy. You can check out the full chat here.

Explaining Something Brand New

A lot of what we're doing on Cent is brand new.

Bounties for non-coders, new. Paying users to sort answers supported by an algorithm, new. And there is a whole lot more 'new' that's about to be released soon.

None of what we're doing is overly complicated though, but because it's so new there is a thick fog of doubt surrounding it.

For example, when it comes to our sorting system (a dead simple mechanism that relies on users signaling their preference for one response over another) many believe that it is being abused by users who seek to take home a portion of the bounties that get distributed to users by sorting responses blindly.

If you take a look at the responses that are finally sorted to the top and bottom of the response threads though, it becomes clear as day that the system is working. But since users aren't seeing, or aren't believing what they're seeing, we need to constantly repeat the fact that - at least as of now - it is actually working.

Repetition or brute forcing new concepts into peoples minds is the only way to get new concepts to stick.

So I put together a brief explainer that looks into sorting and how Centians are sorting responses in this week's Cent Spotlight #4. Check it out here and share it on Twitter or somewhere else on the internet then give me feedback or suggestions for next week's Cent Spotlight topic over on Cent here. And Cent on.

My Wife Cents for the First Time

Last night I helped my wife (@Monica) post her first bounty on beta.cent.co and it was a good one.

She loves to cook and share pictures and cooking tips on insta with a small clique of in-chin or insta friends, so I was curious how other Centians would respond to a food and recipe posting.

So far, so good.

You can check her bounty out here and feel free to share your food porn and recipes and sort through the other pictures and recipes that users upload. Why you ask? Because you'll get paid.

Will Cent Make it out of Beta?

The other day on Cent a concerned user posted a bounty [here] asking if Cent will make it out of beta or not. In typical fashion I provided a deep but brief response.

As a comment on Cent and my feelings about its future, I think my response would hold up well on its own, so I'll leave it here for those who may not be active Centians. I've edited it lightly for clarity.

The Future of Cent

Yes, Cent will make it out of beta.

How do I know? I talk with Max & Cam every week and know a bit about their plans for Cent. They can fill in the details later. But I can assure you that some amazing updates are comming our way soon.

About Bounties

It's important to remember that a bounty is a tool that is attached to posts. Moreover, posts don't even need to be questions. I agree with other users and think that the content of posts is much more important than the bounty value that gets attached.

Regardless of whether a bounty is high or low, it is much more important for a post to be interesting and appeal to other users. Higher bounties don't necessarily mean more responses, and low bounties have attracted boatloads of really well written and sincere responses.

Users

Daily and monthly users on Cent continue to grow. The number of users who post bounties ebbs and flows. For my part, I have come up with a weekly bounty to crowdsource a list of the top items from the internet last week. We should think of more of these regular bounties.

Other Sites Similar to Cent

I've heard of sites like gitcoin, bounties network, earn, steemit and yours.org where some people are earning a bit of pocket crypto. Cent is different than all of those projects in that it isn't limited to coders like gitcoin or bounties network and the social network forming around it feels so much better than places like steemit or yours.org. I think Cent allows users to earn more money in less time as well (this may differ case by case for now though).

Personal Feelings on Cent

If it wasn't already clear, I am all in on Cent. I think Cent is the future. The community of Centians and the calibre of discussion - both in the responses to posts but also in the sub-comments of responses - are creating a ton of value on their own. Add to that, the growing number of users that are getting paid ETH is laying the groundwork for a future network of Centians that will be able to pay others and get paid for their creativity and time, from any place in the world at any time.

Cent on everyone.

Team Building Part Deux

I made that (refer to picture) at my team building session yesterday. Yep, we made neon signs. And yes, that sign says HODL.

Korea is pretty much the global epicenter for crypto, but most Koreans are unfamiliar with 'hodl' and don't know what it means.

Of course you can explain the concept behind hodling, and you can explain the reason for the mis-spelling, but the best way to really explain the meaning is to use the 1:1 Korean equivalent: 좀버.

Now excuse me while I pass out on this commuter bus. It was a long damn night. Hodl on, hodl strong.

Playing for Keeps on the Blockchain

First of all, Cryptogs.io is a cool new Dapp. For those of you who don't know, Cryptogs has put Pogs on the blockchain as ERC-721 tokens and allows anyone to play for keeps against an opponent that could be anywhere around the world.

I wrote about it last week [here] after I came across a bounty on Cent looking for original artwork to create more pogs posted by the sites creator, Austin Griffith. The bounty is still live [here].

Well yesterday, I was finally matched up with another player located somewhere on the other side of the globe, and got three matches in. I lost more Pogs than I won, but that's not the big story.

Rather, after nearly 22 years, I found myself playing Pogs for keeps, on the blockchain. Crazy, right?

The game play is simple and straight forward, but before you begin to play for keeps there are a few steps you need to make it through.

First, go to Cryptogs.io, click 'Play Togs', and then click 'Create Game'.

Next, select five Pogs that you will play for keeps with. Bear in mind you may lose all of these, so if you have any precious Pogs, think twice about playing with them. That said, in the future a rare Pog will be a great incentive to attract an opponent who is also willing to play with a rare Pog.

After you click 'Submit' you will need to wait for an opponent. Pro tip: join the Cryptog slack or discord and try to find an opponent there before trying to start a game on the site.

Success! An opponent has finally joined.

You're almost there, just click 'Transfer to Contract' and make sure your gas levels are where they should be before signing the transaction in MetaMask or on your mobile Web3 client (I'm on CipherBrowser which takes care of setting approriate gas levels for you).

Sometimes you will be asked to generate the game. Simply click 'Generate Game', and again sign the transaction in MetaMask or on your mobile Web3 browser. Now you're ready to slam. Super excited (I really want that top Pog!).

The game will proceed automatically from here until all the Pogs have been flipped over. Remember, you keep the Pogs that flip over on your slam.

You can see the final results of my match here:

So there you have it. I lost more Pogs than I won, but I scooped that coveted kitty Pog that was designed by fellow Centian @MTimeTraveller, so I am super stoked.

If you want to play me for keeps, hit me up on the Cryptogs slack, I'm Matthew.

Fred Wilson Hearts Cent

Having someone hearting your Tweets isn't that big of a deal. But it isn't nothing. And if Fred Wilson hearts your Tweet, well that's just pretty damn cool.

I'm in charge of Comms at Cent and outside of our user base on beta.cent.co, our biggest following is over on Twitter, so that is where I concentrate a good bulk of our messaging and signaling.

Cent has been doing what few Dapps have been able to, and not just in terms of finding and growing an actual audience. Our users are putting real money in the form of ETH onto our platform that is flowing through our smart contracts and into the wallets of our users.

In fact tens of thousands of dollars have been distributed to 1300+ users since the beta went live at the end of last summer. Not only is that demonstrating real value, it represents tens of thousands of transactions that would not have been possible but for ETH and the Ethereum network.

That is real value, the same kind of value that Fred Wilson talked about in his post on Sunday [here]. So I linked that article and him into our Tweet. And he hearted it.

Idea Clicks

Have you ever wrestled with an idea, repeatedly turning it over in your mind trying to work it out until it feels right? Sometimes it's a real struggle, but there's nothing as satisfying as when everything comes together and the idea finally clicks into place.

As many of you know I've been wrestling with figuring out how I will operate this blog when I move it over to Cent. The general direction has been clear for awhile now - I will publish daily on Cent instead of here - but specifics like how I'll use the bounty mechanism have been unclear to me, so the idea hasn't really clicked yet in my mind.

Well, that is until last night when I was enjoying some of the best lamb in the world with my wife. I was explaining how a tipping function will be introduced to Cent soon that will coincide with the introduction of the original content function when it hit me, and everything finally clicked into place: I will employ a combo of bounty-first posts and more directed tip-based posts.

I will use the bounty function as a way to make big announcements or simply to attract quick, on-demand responses.

For an example of when I will deploy bounties, I will set a bounty on my first post in order to broadcast my plan to move my blog to Cent as well as recruit anywhere from 1~3 Centurions (i.e. moderators) for my blog. These moderators will be in charge of stimulating discussion under each of my posts and creating an atmosphere that is attractive to readers almost independently of my daily posts. For their efforts, the Centurions will get a cut of the $5 I will allocate to each post.

For daily posts, instead of attaching a bounty, I will instead utilize tips. Centurions will get a majority of the daily $5 tip allotment, and top comments from other users will split the remaining cash.

My plan is to develop a couple of recurring, regular posts for the weekend that I will attach bounties to. Currently I feature my favorite podcast from the past week every Saturday. I will continue to do so on Cent, and will ask other Centians to submit their favorite podcasts from the past week. Additionally I will try to set up a weekly 'crowdsourced RSS feed of sorts' by asking Centians to submit the single best thing they came across on the internet over the past week. Observant Centians will have noticed that I've just tried out this latter idea on Cent [here].

Well, that's it. It feels good to me. How about you? It looks like this change will happen sometime this week, so get your applications ready if you want to get paid for starting and curating discusssions under my posts. My short-term plan is to collect $150 in tips from readers to break even, but if I get more tips, my Centurions will for sure get raises. So get ready for the beginnings of something super different.

Cheers everybody.

Cool New Project - Cryptogs.io

Yesterday a really cool new project in the Ethereum space posted a $70 bounty on Cent. They're looking for more artists to upload unique artwork to mint new Pogs that'll live on the blockchain. Yep, you read that right.

The project is called Cryptogs.io and they have put Pogs on the blockchain as ERC-721 tokens. Their site lets anyone mint their very own ERC-721 Pogs by simply uploading original art and paying 0.02 ETH for a stack (5 Pogs) or 0.004 ETH for a single. When you do upload a design, just make sure to add the name and email of the artist of the design.

After you mint your Pogs you can play someone for keeps (i.e you gamble with another player by stacking a certain fixed number of your Pogs with theirs, slamming the stack, walking away with whatever Pogs land facing up after your slam and losing Pogs that land facing up after the other players slam), or trade/sell them on other open exchanges like Opensea.

It's a simple project that seems well designed. I just received my stack of Pogs that I minted last night. Of course they are Cent Pogs, and of course I attributed the art work to the original artist cum Cent CEO and co-founder, Max Brody. Check out Cryptogs, then check out Cent and get paid to sort the best Pog designs.

Thoughts on Marshall McLuhan?

Yesterday I was privy to some pretty freaking awesome news about Cent and original content.

While I can't go into specifics, I can say that good things will be happening soon. Very soon.

So in preparation of these 'good things', I posted on Cent and attached a bounty of 0.03 ETH [link]. This isn't a normal Cent post though, it is a bit of a test-post of sorts.

I'm not sure if my writing style will change when I start blogging on Cent, but I know I'll be able to interact in several new ways that just haven't been possible before.

One of those new interactions is soliciting immediate suggestions or ideas people may have about something or someone.

I know I want to write about Marshall McLuhan and his book "Understanding Media" that I'm currently reading and make some connection with crypto, but I'm not sure what that connection is yet.

So I made a post to see if there's any Centian out there who has already formed that connection as well as to solicit any informed takes that may exist that aren't reflected in Wikipedia or dusty journals.

Anyways, check out my Cent post [here] and discuss.