31 Jan 2020 Jane Whitmoore
Crypto-Based Network Gains Momentum Amid Facebook`s Fall
Facebook, considered to be the leading social media to date, had a rough 2019 when it comes to regaining trust in its customers. Various privacy scandals, combined with data-sharing accusations and billion-dollar fines, crumbled down Facebook’s reputation. On the other hand, Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for launching a stablecoin project – Libra, faced regulatory resistance.
Although Facebook's annual report states an increased number of active users and capital expenditures, the net income shrank with 16% to $18,49 billion, as opposed to $22,1 billion at the end of 2018. The primary reason, according to market watchers, is the loss of trust for social media by large-scale investors. U.S. regulators also fined Facebook with $5 billion for violating privacy policies. However, Facebook’s reach isn’t focused on the primary company. Social media subsidiaries like Instagram and WhatsApp secured a 26% rise in revenue from last year, reaching $70 billion.
Despite the regulatory havoc, Facebook is getting ready to push its Libra project live later in 2020. The stablecoin project created a wave of voices, calling for an alternative solution. Revolution Populi, with its plans to raise billions of dollars through an ICO, is believed to be the first crypto-based large-scale alternative to the social media hegemon.
Yale professor and computer scientist David Gelernter and the Wall Street veteran Rob Rosental teamed up behind the Revolution Populi social media project. According to them, this will be the first time “a social media would give the data ownership rights back to the users.”
“Revolution Populi will act as a public square, and as such, it will provide users with a refined social media platform, as we saw the rise and fall of many social media networks over the past years. Giants like Facebook and Google have too much power on their hands, and Americans never allowed this to happen before,” stated the 64-year-old Gelernter.
In order to be successful, the ICO must gather billions of dollars. If Gelernter and Rosental succeed, they will create a yet-not-specified digital token, connected to Bitcoin, the global crypto leader. According to Rob Rosental, the social media will utilize its own “independent” crypto exchange.
Also, third-parties, like banks or governments, will be able to use the Revolution Populi database with a form of a decentralized application (dApp). However, Rosental commented that current dApp blockchains like Ethereum and EOS are still in a 1.0 phase. He further clarified that projects like Ethereum and EOS provide a solution to non-existent problems, while the blockchain answers various issues.
However, some crypto experts don’t see the project thriving, as the ICO market, at least in the United States, is dead. David Johnston, managing director of Yeoman’s Capital, made an example with the latest Telegram ICO vs. SEC battle, which delayed the issuance of the Gram token with a whole year.
The experts are also considered about the true intentions of the project because currently, information different from a whitepaper and a manifesto isn’t available to the public. Many of the ideas in the manifesto have no real representation.
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