Jan 27, 20186 min read

Sphere, Social Media, and the ever changing Technology

Updated: Feb 5, 2018

Upon entering the 21st century, people were just using phones with keypads from brands like Nokia, Siemens, Blackberry, and Ericsson. After the keypads, the craze went to the advent of touchscreen-enabled phones and tablets. I could still remember when Fujitsu launched their Windows tablet PC that was worth above $2,000. After that, O2 launched their XDA phones. XDAs were improved Personal Digital Assistants but with the incorporation of phone functions. Although touchscreen-enabled phones and tablets were in the market before, it didn’t gain widespread use because of its high price.

In the same decade, Steve Jobs disrupted the tech-scene by launching the first iPhone. Although it was still expensive by its launch in 2007 with the price of $499, it was cheaper compared to the tablet PCs of that year. The executives of Microsoft even laughed to Steve Jobs because they said that the mass market will never need a gadget without a keypad. The rest is history.

Let’s make use of Televisions (TVs) as our next example. Before, everyone was just using TVs made from Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). After CRT, Plasma TVs came into play. After Plasma TVs, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) replaced CRT and Plasma. Further improving TVs, Light Emitting Diode (LED) TVs eventually replaced them all because of its small form factor and smaller energy footprint. Now, there are Smart TVs with the function of browsing the Internet and playing your favorite music and videos. For the past 2 years, curved TV screen had been commercially available. Soon, we’re to witness TV screens that can be bent.

For the past 18 years, the technological advancements improved exponentially and the world of Internet shouldn’t be disregarded.

From the simple email and websites of the 90s, the 21st century witnessed the use of the chat rooms, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), and even make the people on the Internet to socialize. The first famous one was Friendster.

Friendster was so hit that time. Coming from the simple email system, people can interact in Friendster, send messages, post to their own bulletin boards, and even post testimonials to their friends. It’s considered to be the best thing around 2002 – 2004. Users can customize their own profile with all those shining graphics and epic intro music and videos.

Since the speed of the Internet before weren’t even comparable to the speeds of today, Friendster eventually suffered its demise. Before you can even load your own profile, it will take a minute or two because of all those gibberish things you loaded on your profile. There were many contenders to Friendster before like Multiply and MySpace but one entity triumphed.

Facebook became a worldwide sensation and the benchmark of any social networking site. Facebook is not just used as a way of communicating with friends but it’s also used as a platform to share information, cause change, and influence other people. Aside from Facebook, there are other social media platforms today such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, and so on. These platforms not only let you communicate with other people but they also let you create programs for social change. Just like when the 90s and early 2000s introduced the Age of Information for the gathering of knowledge through search engines, the year 2010 introduced the Age of Influence.

Users now sign for online petitions to create a movement or change. Companies can now reach their target customers via targeting ads by the social media platforms. Websites, partnered with the social media, cater to a widespread scope of people for sharing information and news. Even candidates for a government seat now harness the power of social media to promote their ideals and activities. One good example about the influence of social media was how Barack Obama promoted his presidential campaigns in the United States of America. As a matter of fact, he was still posting on Twitter even after his tenure in the White House but his posts were more personal.

I have a very good question. If the social media is so powerful, we can communicate, cause change, or even influence other people, how come it is free until now?

You may say that they get their funds from advertising companies that show you their advertisements. Well, that’s one part of the equation because the truth is, these social media platforms collect the data of all of its users then they sell it to the companies that research about what we like, where we eat, and other things about us. So, the next time they’ll be launching a new campaign, we might be enticed to purchase their products or services. Facebook won’t even try to tell that your info is part of the billion dollar industry they’re selling to big companies.

I personally never came to realize that fact because I thought it was just harmless. It’s like saying to myself, “I’m using Facebook for free so I think it’s just okay”. Actually, social media platforms are earning from the info about our online behavior. I just never thought about it until after reading an article about Sphere. Aside from that, on a business standpoint, social media platforms ask huge amounts of money from companies to advertise their products and services to them while exchanging our info.

Sphere plans to revolutionize the digital era by having a social media platform that you can monetize your own info and activities by using blockchain technology. It’s like Facebook but you have more control of everything about your social media account. Since it will be having its own blockchain, it’s like a combination of Facebook built on top of Bitcoin. To know more about Bitcoin, blockchain, and even cryptocurrencies, you can check my previous article here: https://cryptobyea.wixsite.com/home/blog/an-intro-to-blockchain-crypto-sphere

Sphere prioritizes the users and advertisers. On current social media platforms, these platforms are the only ones who earn from the experience. They get the info of the users then sell it to the companies in return for our free use of their platform. The companies get the info of the users then they create advertising campaigns to target the users. Unfortunately, those campaigns are still considered inefficient because most users just give a cold shoulder to ads that they are not interested to. Because of this, even though companies pay large sums of money to the social media platforms, money are still wasted in this transaction.

With those things in mind, Sphere is now in the forefront of disrupting the current social media ecosystem. How? Since Sphere prioritizes the users and advertisers, they want a win-win scenario on both parties without any intermediaries.

Benefits of Users

Since Sphere will be built above a blockchain technology, all users are in control of their own information. They will be fully aware and in control of their info, when and where to share it. As a matter of fact, they can even monetize from it. Sphere will be launching their Social Activity Tokens (SATs) and it will be the way how the users can earn from the platform.

Benefits of Advertisers

Advertisers will don’t need the centralized data gathering of the current social media platforms anymore because they can launch their own campaigns while consuming and awarding SATs to participating users. Users can share their reactions and even share their info to the advertisers depending on the type of program to be launched let’s say if it’s for research purposes. On current social media platforms, only these platforms are earning from the users and advertisers. On Sphere, users and advertisers will have benefit mutually.

Aside from the focus on users and advertisers, Sphere plans to create a decentralized marketplace. There, users can buy and sell their products while using SATs. Also, Sphere plans to create an advertising portal where advertisers can promote their products and services using SATs.

Initial Coin Offering

To be part of the digital revolution Sphere is spearheading, they’re holding an Initial Coin Offering on their website https://sphere.social/ on February 12. As a matter of fact, they’re on their pre-sale period now. Their SATs will be offered on an introductory price before it hits the public token sale. Again, the SATs will be the fuel for the activities of the users and the advertisers in Sphere, the first social media platform with blockchain technology to challenge the dominance of Facebook.

The details of the pre-sale is as follows (all prices are in USD):

Total Supply: 1,000,000,000 Price per SAT: $0.05 Minimum Investment: $100.00

Pre-Sale Bonuses: $100 – $249.99 – Choose no. of Tokens + 20% Bonus $250 – 5,000 Tokens + 20% bonus = 6,000 Tokens

$500 – 10,000 Tokens + 25% bonus = 12,500 Tokens

$1,000 – 20,000 Tokens + 30% bonus = 26,000 Tokens

$2,000 – 40,000 Tokens + 35% bonus = 54,000 Tokens

$4,000 – 80,000 Tokens + 40% bonus = 112,000 Tokens

$8,000 – 160,000 Tokens + 45% bonus = 232,000 Tokens

$32,000 – 640,000 Tokens + 60% bonus = 1,024,000 Tokens

$64,000 – 1,280,000 Tokens + 65% bonus = 2,112,000 Tokens

$128,000 – 2,560,000 Tokens + 70% bonus = 4,352,000 Tokens

To register to Sphere and be part of the next big thing, you can visit the following link: https://sphere.social/?ref_code=ivlhzzhj0kt4