Cent.Co: Upvote with Ethereum | Hacker News Reader

Cent.Co: Upvote with Ethereum

beta.cent.co

45 pointsbase69824 comments

Hey! I'm one of the cofounders of Cent. That link goes to the beta app which lets you earn Ether (the currency powering Ethereum) by responding to questions. You can also ask a question, provided you put a bounty on it.

Happy for any questions or feedback - we just launched Tuesday!

Recommend you identify in some way other than showing the age of the question which ones are past the answer bounty stage. Also, I think the questioner should set the lifespan, and it should be related to the amount of bounty offered - i.e. higher bounty allows a longer lifespan, (hopefully) soliciting a better reasoned response.

Yeah, looking at the stackoverflow model would be good.

It's also worth noting that the anonymous nature of this will probably drive down engagement. Look at Quora, people use it solely to build their personal brand.

Right now people would answer on cent solely for the money.

Let them do both so you can appeal to a broader market.

Hey guys - cofounder/CEO here. Happy to answer any and all questions about the service. I'm seeing a lot of talk of microtransactions, but really microtransactions are not the core of the model. The core is the giving and receiving of actual value as opposed to imaginary value that other networks provide. That said, I do generally believe in the concept of microtransactions and believe we will see more and better products that utilize them now that things like Ethereum are maturing.

I think failures of BitcoinTip and flattr and later relative failure of Steem.it shows that there is really no market for micropayments for content.

But what do I do know, maybe ethereum is different.

Isn't the main issue converting 'analog' money into digital? I think Twitch was pretty successful with their tipping system..

I think it has been quite obvious for very long time that in general there is no market for micropayments/microtransactions. I don't see why on earth someone would be willing to make small transactions all the time. Normal people prefer doing less transactions than more. That's why subscription services are popular.

CEO here. It's not that micro-transactions will replace macro-transactions, but that micro-transactions provide a new type of behavior for people to choose from. Rather than give a value that is network-specific (like a "like"), you give and receive currencies that have actual value outside of the network you are in.

We think altruism isn't a good model -- people aren't willing to pay for things which have already been delivered (e.g. content). This is why we're starting with bounties.

The title of this submission is a little misleading - when you upvote an answer on Cent, you're effectively allocating a portion of the bounty to that answer.

re: Ethereum. We definitely think there is huge potential for decentralized apps (dapps) and that Ethereum is at the forefront of making them happen. One HUGE barrier to adoption is that, aside from maybe having a gpu that can mine a tiny bit, your only gateway to getting Ether is by buying it, e.g. through Coinbase. Without Ether, you can't use any of the dapps, and if it's just a bunch of speculators holding Ether, the dapps may never gain traction. Fundamentally, we believe that currencies are meant to be earned, and we want to be a mechanism for people new to the decentralized world to get involved by earning them.

I wouldn't call Steemit a failure.

I think donations will be massively used when the necessary conditions are met:

- One platform/standard to donate to or receive for any content on the internet.

- Ease of use, secure online wallet.

- Very low transaction fees, accepting donations from say 10 cents.

Flattr is subscription oriented and most people don't like having a recurrent expense. Steem.it, like Cent.co are limited to content on their site, and there is much better content in the internet that most people would donate first.

So the question is how to make this platform/standard and get youtube, twitter, facebook, quora... adopt it. Some rely heavily on advertising and I don't think they are interested to change that business model yet.

> - Very low transaction fees, accepting donations from say 10 cents.

That is a feature of the Iota coin, transaction fees are zero. Of course there are some other problems, but in general, it would be perfect for such micropayments.

I think it's cool, despite Hacker News' general bearish outlook on cryptocurrencies. +1 for not issuing your own tokens via ICO and using ETH instead.

Why pay when quora is free?

Why answer on quora if you can get paid on cent? (assuming it ever gets any traction)

The most valuable answers I've seen on Quora were typically written by people who don't need (and probably wouldn't notice) small tipped amounts.

True, it's like if someone helps you with a favor, say helping you to move, then you turn around and offer them three bucks for their help, you're likely to get a rather negative reaction. Small tips are really not going to provide any more incentive for people who can provide valuable answers. But I'd love a way to attract attention to questions even if it meant having to put up significant money. Stack Overflow sort of does this with the reputation bounties.

Exactly. We see this as a new type of income source for many people. You provide cognitive value to the network and the network rewards you financially.

Because the psychology of doing something for free vs. doing something for 10% of your usual hourly rate.

Plus answering on popular sites for making connections, building personal brand and even SEO.

We think there is a market for information somewhere in between free, open sites like Quora/StackOverflow, and expensive, closed sites like Experts Exchange.

Our hypothesis is that by adding bounties to the equation, the quality + speed of the answers you receive will increase due to competition for the bounty.

I often find Quora answers to be thinly veiled marketing by "growth hackers". They are getting paid indirectly and it lowers answer standards.

> Our hypothesis is that by adding bounties to the equation, the quality + speed of the answers you receive will increase due to competition for the bounty.

Well, either that or maybe the opposite. When there's a financial incentive people will respond to as many questions as possible just out of hope that they'll be awarded for any of the answers. If that happens then that will kill the quality of the answers. Good answers take time to research or require knowledge that only a minority of people have for any specific question. Spewing out garbage answers takes no time and no skill so it's more likely that more people will be doing that.

Also, what I'd you receive a satisfactory answer and agree to pay the bounty.

Now the ten better answers never get posted.

Currently, the default timeframe for answering and voting on a question is 24 hours. This may change in the future, and we may also allow question askers to choose their own time durations.

What happens if my question receives no answers?

If your question receives no answers and the answering period has expired, you will be re-funded the bounty amount less any transaction fees. Keep in mind that Cent is all about timing - try posting your question again when you feel the moment is right.

I live in Tasmania (+10hrs). How am I going to know when global domain experts are awake and ready to respond?

But How likely is it that the Bounty is going to be remotely near what a subject matter expert is worth? If I'm going to spend my time providing an in-depth answer for someone is the fact that I'll get two bucks really going to motivate me? Once you introduce money you're putting a definite value on someone's time and knowledge and it just seems like the amounts won't be enough to make that a positive experience.

But if there was a way to reach experts and offer enough serious compensation in an easy to do way, it could take off. There's been plenty of times where I'd be willing to toss fifty or a hundred bucks to get a quick answer, something that only take a couple minutes from someone familiar with the subject.

It might help if you find a way to piggyback off of something like stack overflow. I wish you success.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com