Memes on the Blockchain. Good idea or bad idea? | Hacker News Reader

Memes on the Blockchain. Good idea or bad idea?

2 pointsglitr7 comments

Imagine a meme app where the memes are stored on the Blockchain.

the memes will be moderated before they go onto the blockchain to make sure it is appropriate content, but the memes going on the Blockchain will be submitted by app users only.

I can try to ensure this by requiring authentication from Facebook, Google, or any other suitable identity provider(s). I would only need some unique identifier to ensure that a person is who they say they are. I simply rely on this service to ensure that an account is a real person and not a bot.

I can create some ability blacklist users, so that if a user is found to be a bot or regularly posts inappropriate memes, the user and their posts will be marked as blacklisted, and the app will not display that content any more.

I could use Ropsten Ethereum and IPFS in Combination. This way the app would be free to use.

This way the list of memes displayed can be an immutable record of truly user generated content that would be available to everyone. All users will be able to look at memes and post memes from anywhere they can access the blockchain.

Once put on the blockchain the record of memes can not be retroactively censored because the blockchain would ensure that the records are distributed.

If you're have any questions, feel free to ask.

P.s. there is no crypto currency involved. This app is simply taking advantage of blockchain technology. This app in question will be available for free. Transaction on the blockchain will be on the free-to-use Ropsten ethereum blockchain, and image files will be stored on IPFS.

I think it's a good idea. I'd look into eventually putting the memes on an Ethereum sidechain that enables low/zero cost transactions, like one of Loom's DappChains or the POANetwork.

Ropsten is fine to start off which, but a testnet can't be relied upon to be stable.

Also, I'd look into making the memes non-fungible ERC721 tokens, to enable transferrence/trading.

What value does a blockchain serve here? Is anyone asking for a distributed meme ledger?

The intention of the blockchain is to provide a feed of memes to user where the memes aren't tailored for each user unlike things like Facebook which proactivly show you the content you want to see to keep you on the site for longer. You would only see the memes in a category you subscribe to. Think of it like a distributed social network based on memes.

What about making something useful instead

What did you have in mind? I'm working on this as a side project. It's a fun way to spend my spare time.

A good way to measure what this person means would be removal cost: how harmed is society if this category of solution is removed from it one day?

Cryptocurrencies are a joke in my opinion. Given all the hype around blockchain technology, people have chosen to champion crypto coins as its main use. But blockchain simply allows for a variable to be stored. That's all cryptocurrencies are; A variable that only you own and can only update based on some rules.

Blockchain provides a public data store. That is what I am using it for. Maybe memes are not the best use-case for something like this, but it's a start. Imagine if instead of memes you stored something else... For example: news articles. You could have a permanent uncensorable record of news articles. Would this be useful? Of course the argument can be made. Why don't you just rely on news organisations websites. Why don't you just rely on the information shown on your Facebook feed. Etc.

The main problem with such centralised systems, is that you have to ask if something like this is valid for an international audience. Would the memes you see in one country, be the same in another country? The same case stands for the news articles example.

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