Subscriptions

One key feature that we haven’t seen with previous blockchain-powered social networks is the inclusion of subscriptions. This is a huge feature of monetizing content that we see on popular Web2 platforms such as YouTube, Patreon and Substack.

The appearance of subscriptions into the ecosystem of content creation has allowed people to start working independently and connect much closer with their fans. While YouTube adverts offered something of a proxy before these sites came along, these sites went further in allowing private content for different tiers of subscribers.

The biggest downside is that these platforms can block or remove content that they don’t like, plus the creators trust the platform owners with their private content. Removing points of trust is important for the blockchain ecosystem.

The technical part of adding subscriptions to the Subsocial chain is easy; however, there is still some research to be done with how to handle hosting for private content in a decentralized way, while still preserving the privacy of creators.