Top 5 Social Media Cryptocurrencies

[TL;DR]

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5. Status (SNT): Ethereum-based protocol to build decentralized messaging apps through digital wallets and data privacy focus. Market cap currently at $218 million dollars.

4. HIVE (HIVE): Originated from STEEM, HIVE is a Layer-1 protocol where developers can build dApps based on Social Media, NFT and DeFi while users can earn HIVE rewards for using and creating content on the network. Market cap currently at $438 million dollars.

3. Decentralized Social (DESO): Very similar goal and tools as HIVE, but with a stronger focus on social media platforms. Market cap currently stands at $509 million dollars.

2. RALLY (RLY): Ethereum-based social media platforms where content creators can make their own crypto which is used in rewards by their fanbase. Market cap currently at $546 million dollars.

1. Theta (THETA): Social media platform centered around video streaming where creators get rewarded with Theta. With support from companies like Google, Sony, Samsung and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, it currently has a market cap of whopping $3.2 billion dollars.


[Full Article]

The crypto asset class has grown into several different verticals over the past few years. We went from separate blockchain projects who didn’t do much outside of being a digital reserve, like Bitcoin and Ethereum at their start, to digital assets that serve completely different functions. DeFi, NFTs, Automated Market Makers, Metaverse and of course, Social Media cryptos.

Being the most used platform format in the online society, it was just a matter of time until cryptocurrencies made their way into developing social media projects. With that in mind, this article provides a summary of the top 5 social media cryptocurrencies that are gaining a lot of traction amongst their users.

5. Status (SNT)

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With its ICO launching in June of 2017, Status seeks to become a base blockchain platform for messaging social media apps to integrate their network and be safeguarded from data privacy breaches and centralized oversight. Built on Ethereum with SNT as the ERC-20 token, Status’ main focus is on mobile apps - therefore, it offers services to companies working on Android and iOS applications.

Although it focuses on decentralization, the team is fully doxxed and located in Zug, Switzerland. The Status organization was founded by developers Jarrad Hope and Carl Bennets.

What makes Status unique and attractive is the ability for users to send and receive encrypted messages. Although this approach is already similar to other popular messaging apps such as Signal, Status takes privacy and decentralization to a whole other level using good old blockchain tech. With its platform, users can sign up to these messaging apps using their crypto digital wallets, and freely navigate across several messaging apps with the same anonymous account.

At the time of writing, Status’ SNT had an accumulated market cap of $218 million dollars.

4. HIVE (HIVE)

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A hard fork originating from another blockchain project named STEEM, HIVE seeks to become the home to decentralized applications, or dApps, for Web 3.0 - with a strong focus around social media and peer-to-peer communication. HIVE already supports 126 different dApps ranging from social media platforms, messengers, DeFi, games and more.

Like most other projects in this list, HIVE is a Layer-1 blockchain protocol that’s not built on top of different popular networks.

What makes HIVE innovating is the creation of a new mining concept called Proof of Brain, or PoB. Introduced by STEEM, which HIVE originates from, Proof of Brain basically means that users of the social media platforms can earn HIVE by posting or consuming content. With a limit supply cap of 21 million coins, like Bitcoin, HIVE is also subject to a 50% reward reduction of tokens every four years. This method promotes not only the HIVE project itself, but every single platform that’s built on it.

Officially launched in April of 2020, HIVE currently possesses a market cap of $436 million dollars.

3. Decentralized Social (DESO)

Founded in 2019 by crypto veteran Nader Al-Naji, Decentralized Social pursues the goal of becoming the main social media application and hosting platform for Web 3.0 projects, similarly to its competitor HIVE. The main problem that DESO wants to solve is quite similar to Status but, instead of focusing on messaging apps, Decentralized Social wants to promote decentralization for social media platforms as a whole.

Unlike other projects which are made for foundations that seek to profit, the DESO group is officially registered as a non-profit foundation. It has a $200 million dollars treasury to support the decentralized workers, development funding and any obstacle the project may face.

Decentralized Social is also a Layer-1 protocol, meaning it is not built on top of other blockchains such as Ethereum or Polkadot. DESO holds a very impressive track record of applications - as of now, it has helped develop more than 200 Web 3-focused projects, all through an open source and open-data basis without a central hierarchy.

At the time of writing, the Decentralized Social project had an accumulated market cap of $509 million dollars.

2. RALLY (RLY)

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RALLY is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token platform for content creators. It provides a decentralized network where creators can stream, publish content, engage and receive rewards for their work. It offers users a unique opportunity to create their own “influencer” cryptos within the Rally ecosystem, without needing to have any previous knowledge or experience in digital asset development.

Through these created cryptos, users can support their favourite content creators who earn rewards in the form of their chosen cryptos for their work. Although the platform focuses mostly on streaming, RALLY is open for creators of any genre and style to do as they wish - musicians, comedians, visual artists, you name it. It even allows for creators to sell or share physical items or experiences - a meet-and-greet, for instance.

When creating cryptos in the RALLY platform, users can develop it far beyond a standard token that doesn’t do much - with a simple step-by-step process, they can decide on the token’s tokenomics, supply, what they do and if they are also available across different creators. Besides each creator earning rewards through their own token, the platform offers general RLY rewards based on their treasury.

As of now, RALLY stands at a market cap of $546 million dollars.

1. Theta (THETA)

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Released in 2019 and by far the most popular social media project in the entire crypto ecosystem, Theta has the goal of becoming the main entertainment platform of the entire Web 3.0. Similarly to RALLY, it focuses on content creators to provide their services in exchange for rewards in their native token THETA.

Contrary to RALLY, the Theta network focuses entirely on streaming video content, still keeping its framework of functioning as a decentralized network for creators.
With open support of several mainstream companies and tech giants, Theta’s partnership track record is beyond impressive: Samsung, Google, Sony are just a few to be named. It also has the very public support of Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube.

Users interested in taking part of the Theta content-creation and viewing ecosystem simply need to download the desktop application of macOS, Windows or Linux. First released in March 2020, Theta takes a very strong lead as the main social media project with a market cap of $3.2 billion dollars at the time of writing.



Author: Gate.io Researcher: Victor Bastos
* This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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