{"signature": "0x4bc6777d79a7a1a1d15f49802640277b8d441065cb5cf783efa35bdc396c2bfb3777a9692e287fb8bbc1d29edcaaa1523ea3d52bacb24851ba8cd3890fc5d06f1c", "application": {"round": "0x347ff9951d24e29b559e3323b5370aa29993e613", "answers": [{"type": "email", "hidden": true, "question": "Email Address", "questionId": 0, "encryptedAnswer": {"ciphertext": "vdYJQBus/DnV5SyiiBvwZAxqG5SQ1m0XqrikE8NQrw7aNvOmo+YuX8B7Re/eOgus", "encryptedSymmetricKey": "9a4d49d1911db28d41dc6c0fa0a321fbd330e0da93bf6439cf1c8057ed4d39d2b44911e5cbbc84747c51bb6d6ceff20a32b20708d40c131c8f8e0b07884057c602870a92ca41c139d1c58e8aee8ca272aa1ed06d45e5d04b152d2fc572fa449182dbc31c38e1d925d71b7898f613e10d7708dcda37ee3805c4814cd7fffc6cae0000000000000020750cff8af4905677f3a3babcec160523013c2599927ce67b9a4820a7ad7721809aba06d71d6a6ea537b9ad40d0d565a3"}}, {"type": "short-answer", "answer": "Personal funds", "hidden": false, "question": "Funding Sources (how is the project financed outside of this round)", "questionId": 1}, {"type": "number", "answer": "4", "hidden": false, "question": "Team Size (including full and part time)", "questionId": 2}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Plebbit, as a decentralized social media protocol, can be considered a collaboration technology in several ways:\n\n    Open-source development: The protocol itself is open-source, allowing developers from around the world to collaborate on improving and expanding its functionality.\n\n    Community-driven content creation: Users can create and moderate their own communities (subreddits), collaborating to curate and share content relevant to their interests.\n\n    Decentralized moderation: Unlike centralized platforms, moderation is distributed among community moderators, allowing for collaborative decision-making on content policies.\n\n    Peer-to-peer interactions: Users can directly interact with each other through comments, messages, and voting,d discussion.\n\n    Distributed hosting: The decentralized nature of Plebbit allows users to host their own instances, collaboratively maintaining the network's infrastructure.\n\n    Cross-platform integration: As a protocol, Plebbit can be integrated into various applications, enabling developers to collaborate on creating diverse user experiences.\n\n    Governance: Decentralized platforms often involve community governance, allowing users to collaborate on decision-making processes for the platform's development and policies.\n\n    Knowledge sharing: Like other social media platforms, Plebbit facilitates the sharing of information and ideas, enabling collaborative learning and problem-solving.\n\n    Project coordination: Communities can use Plebbit to organize and coordinate projects, similar to how Reddit is collaborative efforts.\n\n    Decentralized content distribution: Users collaborate in distributing and accessing content without relying on a central authority, enhancing resilience and reducing censorship risks.\n\nBy enabling these various forms of collaboration, Plebbit serves as a tool for collective action, information sharing, and community building in a decentralized manner.", "hidden": false, "question": "How is the project CollabTech?", "questionId": 3}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "The targeted user group for Plebbit and the problems it aims to address include:\n\nTargeted User Group:\n\n    Privacy-conscious individuals: Users who are concerned about data privacy and want more control over their personal information.\n\n    Censorship-resistant content creators: People who want to share content without fear of centralized platform censorship.\n\n    Blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts: Those interested in decentralized technologies and tokenized ecosystems.\n\n    Open-source advocates: Individuals who support open-source software and decentralized governance models.\n\n    Reddit users seeking alternatives: People who are dissatisfied with Reddit's centralized structure or content policies.\n\n    Tech-savvy internet users: Those comfortable with newer, potentially more complex.\n\n    Free speech advocates: Users who prioritize platforms with minimal content moderation.\n\nNeeds/Problems Addressed:\n\n    Data privacy: Addressing concerns about personal data collection and usage by centralized platforms.\n\n    Censorship resistance: Providing a platform where content is less likely to be removed by a central authority.\n\n    Platform control: Giving users more say in how the platform operates and evolves.\n\n    Decentralized governance: Allowing community-driven decision-making rather than top-down management.\n\n    Reduced reliance on central servers: Mitigating risks of server outages or platform shutdowns.\n\n    Tokenized incentives: Potentially rewarding users for contributions to the platform.\n\n7 Customization and flexibility: Enabling users to create and moderate their own communities with greater freedom.\n\n    Interoperability: As a protocol, Plebbit could allow for better integration with other decentralized applications.\n\n    Addressing concerns about algorithm manipulation: Potentially providing more transparent content ranking systems.\n\n    Mitigating issues of corporate influence: Reducing the impact of advertising and corporate interests on content visibility.\n\nBy addressing these needs, Plebbit aims to provide an alternative social media experience that aligns with the values of decentralization, privacy, and user empowerment.", "hidden": false, "question": "Who's the targeted user group and what's the need/problem being addressed?", "questionId": 4}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Ensuring ongoing value delivery and commercial sustainability for a decentralized protocol like Plebbit is challenging but can be approached in several ways:\n\n    Token Economics:\n\n    Implement a native token that provides utility within the ecosystem.\n    Design tokenomics that incentivize long-term participation and development.\n    Create mechanisms for value accrual to token holders as the network grows.\n\n    Developer Ecosystem:\n\n    Foster an active developer community to continually improve and expand the protocol.\n    Provide grants or bounties for developers building valuable features or applications on top of Plebbit.\n\n    Partnerships and Integ Collaborate with other blockchain projects or Web3 platforms to increase utility and user base.\n\n    Integrate with existing tools and services to enhance functionality.\n\n    Scalable Infrastructure:\n\n    Ensure the protocol can handle increasing user loads without compromising performance.\n    Implement upgrades and optimizations to improve efficiency over time.\n\n    Governance Model:\n\n    Implement a decentralized governance system that allows stakeholders to propose and vote on protocol changes.\n    This ensures the protocol can evolve to meet changing user needs and market conditions.\n\n    Community Building:\n\n    Foster a strong, engaged community that contributes to the platform's growth and sustainability Implement community rewards or reputation systems to incentivize positive contributions.\n\n    Monetization Strategies:\n\n    Optional premium features for users or communities.\n    Facilitate decentralized advertising models where users can opt-in for rewards.\n    Implement transaction fees for certain actions (while keeping basic usage free).\n\n    Continuous Innovation:\n\n    Regularly release new features and improvements to maintain user interest and attract new users.\n    Stay ahead of technological trends in the decentralized space.\n\n    Education and Onboarding:\n\n    Provide resources to help new users understand and effectively use the platform.\n    Lower barriers continually grow the user base.\n\n    Data and Analytics:\n        Provide valuable, privacy-preserving analytics to communities or third-party developers.\n        This could be a paid service for larger communities or businesses.\n\n    Open-Source Sustainability:\n        Explore models like open-source sponsorships or maintainer funding to support ongoing development.\n\n    Cross-Chain Interoperability:\n        Ensure the protocol can interact with multiple blockchain networks to maximize reach and utility.\n\nBy implementing a combination of these strategies, Plebbit can work towards becoming commercially sustainable or a perennial public good. The key is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem where value creation and captured with the growth and usage of the protocol.", "hidden": true, "question": "How do you ensure value keeps being delivered after the round is over? (How will the project become commercially sustainable or a perennial good? )", "questionId": 5}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "Months 1-3:\n\n    Finalize core team and roles\n    Detailed project planning and roadmap creation\n    Begin core protocol development\n    Start community building efforts\n\nMonths 4-6:\n\n    Continue protocol development\n    Begin work on basic user interface\n    Initiate security audits\n    Launch testnet version\n\nMonths 7-9:\n\n    Refine protocol based on testnet feedback\n    Develop more advanced features -d developer outreach\n    Begin integration with existing blockchain networks\n\nMonths 10-12:\n\n    Final security audits and bug fixes\n    Launch mainnet beta\n    Implement governance mechanisms\n    Start onboarding early adopters\n\nMonths 13-18:\n\n    Full public launch\n    Continuous improvements based on user feedback\n    Expand partnerships and integrations\n    Focus on user acquisition and retention\n", "hidden": true, "question": "How long will it take after funding is received to deliver value? (share a high level timeline)", "questionId": 6}, {"type": "paragraph", "answer": "@estebanabaroa", "hidden": true, "question": "Contact info (telegram handle or whatsapp)", "questionId": 7}], "project": {"id": "0xd77bec3500a1b3e54ead391aeaad9a664f92643beaa8a50d4302bd67ef7949cf", "title": "Plebbit", "logoImg": "bafkreifvkkfu3do7o2wawba3my7rirune5yeyait44nv2hwqothv4uwjne", "metaPtr": {"pointer": "bafkreiawjcbzhfoe2lc7naz3x2ry77afsf6peksmoxdpfhmz7fkvqqu3d4", "protocol": "undefined"}, "website": "https://plebbit.com", "createdAt": 1718559288527, "userGithub": "rinse12", "credentials": {}, "description": "Plebbit is a protocol and tooling for creating decentralized forum applications like Reddit, Facebook groups, Discourse, etc. It's a pure P2P protocol, it doesn't use any central server, databases, public HTTP end point, DNS, etc. It uses parts of the IPFS and Ethereum stack to create everything it needs:\n\nIPFS for immutable data, like a published comment or a recent subplebbit page.\n\nIPNS for mutable data, like replies to a comment, upvote counts, new posts/comments published on a subplebbit, etc.\n\nIPFS pubsub for authors publishing comments/votes to a subplebbit and for the captcha challenge exchange between authors and subplebbits.\n\nENS for usernames, community names, and serving the client in browsers.\n\nScalability and fees\n\nA decentralized social media/forum has 2 problems: How to store the entire world's data on a blockchain, and how to prevent spam while being feeless. We propose solving the data problem by not using a blockchain for content, but rather IPNS and IPFS pubsub. Unlike cryptocurrencies that must know the order of each transaction to prevent double spends, social media does not care about the order of posts, nor about the availability of old posts.\n\nNote that we must still use a blockchain (ENS) for usernames and community names because those do care about doublespends and ledger history availability.\n\nIPNS\n\nThe IPNS name (also ENS name) is the name and address of the subplebbit, e.g. \"memes.eth\".\n\nPubsub\n\nTo publish a post to a subplebbit, a user would publish a pubsub message with a \"topic\" equal to the subplebbit's ENS name. This allows the subplebbit owner to reply with \"challenge\" and \"challengeverification\" messages signed with his ENS' public key that all pubsub peers can verify.\n\nCaptcha service over pubsub\n\nNondeterministic pubsub (like user generated comments) is susceptible to spam attacks that would DDOS it, as well as makes it impossible for moderators to manually moderate an infinite amount of bot spam. We solve this problem by requiring publishers to first request a captcha challenge from the subplebbit owner's peer. If a peer or IP address relays too many captcha challenge requests without providing enough correct captcha challenge answers, it gets blocked from the pubsub. This requires the subplebbit owner's peer to broadcast the result of all captcha challenge answers, and for each peer to keep this information for some time.\n\nNote: The challenge implementation is completely up to the subplebbit owner. He can decide to prompt all users, first time users only, or no users at all. He can proxy 3rd party services like Google captchas. He can use other challenge types, like a proof of stake/holding/payment of a certain token, a whitelist, invite list, etc.\n\nLifecycle of creating a subplebbit\n\nSubplebbit owner starts a Plebbit client \"node\" on his desktop or server. It must be always online to serve content to his users.\n\nHe generates an IPNS public key, and adds it as a TXT record to his ENS name, which will be the \"address\" of his subplebbit.\n\nHe configures captcha options, like how often and what kind of captchas to show.\n\nHe publishes the metadata of his subplebbit to his IPNS record. This includes subpebblit title, description, rules, list of public keys of moderators, etc.\n\nLifecycle of reading the latest posts on a subplebbit\n\nUser opens the Plebbit app in a browser or desktop client, and sees an interface similar to Reddit.\n\nHis client joins the public key addressing network as a peer and makes a DHT query for each address of each subplebbit he is a member of. The queries each take several seconds but can be performed concurrently.\n\nThe query returns the latest posts of each subplebbit, as well as their metadata such as title, description, moderator list and captcha server URL.\n\nHis client arranges the content received in an interface similar to Reddit.\n\nLifecycle of publishing a post on a subplebbit\n\nUser opens the Plebbit app in a browser or desktop client, and sees an interface similar to Reddit.\n\nThe app automatically generates a public key pair if the user doesn't already have one.\n\nHe publishes a cat post for a subplebbit called \"cats.eth\"\n\nHis client joins the pubsub network for \"cats.eth\"\n\nHis client makes a request for a captcha challenge over pubsub.\n\nHis client receives a captcha challenge over pubsub (relayed from the subplebbit owner's peer).\n\nThe app displays the captcha challenge to the user in an iframe.\n\nThe user completes the captcha challenge and publishes his post and captcha challenge answer over pubsub.\n\nThe subplebbit owner's client gets notified that the user published to his pubsub, the post is not ignored because it contains a correct captcha challenge answer.\n\nThe subplebbit owner's client publishes a message over pubsub indicating that the captcha answer is correct or incorrect. Peers relaying too many messages with incorrect or no captcha answers get blocked to avoid DDOS of the pubsub.\n\nThe subplebbit owner's client updates the content of his subplebbit's public key based addressing automatically.\n\nA few minutes later, each user reading the subplebbit receives the update in their app.\n\nIf the user's post violates the subplebbit's rules, a moderator can delete it, using a similar process the user used to publish.\n\nWhat is a \"post\"\n\nA post is an IPFS file for its immutable content, like timestamp, title, author signature, etc. Each post's IPFS file also contains its own IPNS name which links to its mutable content, like its upvote count, replies, etc. Each post is part of a linked list, i.e. it points to the previous post's IPFS CID.\n\nWhat is a \"subplebbit\"\n\nA subplebbit is an IPNS record updated every 5 minutes, it contains the latest post's CID, the title, description, the CIDs of the latest post pages sorted by new, hot, top, etc. It also contains the pubsub \"topic\" address to publish to it. Full schema available at https://github.com/plebbit/plebbit-js#schema\n\nUsing anti-spam strategies other than the captcha service\n\nThe captcha service can be replaced by other \"anti-spam strategies\", such proof of balance of a certain cryptocurrency. For example, a subplebbit owner might require that posts be signed by users holding at least 1 ETH, or at least 1 token of his choice. Another strategy could be a proof of payment, each post must be accompanied by a minimum payment to the owner of the subplebbit. This might be fitting for celebrities wanting to use their subplebbit as a form of \"onlyfan\", where fans pay to interact with them. Both these scenarios would not eliminate spam, but they would bring them down from an infinite amount of spam, to an amount that does not overwhelm the pubsub, and that a group of human moderators can manage. Proof of balance/payment are deterministic so the pubsub can block spam attacks deterministically. Even more strategies can be added to fit the need of different communities if found, but at this time the captcha service remains the most versatile strategy.\n\nConclusion\n\nWe believe that the design above would solve the problems of a serverless, adminless decentralized Reddit alternative. It would allow unlimited amounts of subplebbits, users, posts, comments and votes. This is achieved by not caring about the order or availability of old data. It would allow users to post for free using an identical Reddit interface. It would allow subplebbit owners to moderate spam semi-automatically using their own captcha service over peer-to-peer pubsub. It would allow for all features that make Reddit addictive: upvotes, replies, notifications, awards, and a chance to make the \"front page\". Finally, it would allow the Plebbit client developers to serve an unlimited amount of users, without any server, legal, advertising or moderation infrastructure.\n\n", "lastUpdated": 0, "projectGithub": "plebbit", "projectTwitter": "getplebbit"}, "recipient": "0x5Bc4FF33f86E0272be53Fa25861294489AB2FE2a"}}