Rethinking social media

Peepeth is a social network for those who value mindful, responsible engagement:

• Features encourage thoughtful content, altruism, and self-awareness, while discouraging reactive and hateful posts.
• No ads. Peepeth is accountable to users, not advertisers.
• Peepeth gives you true ownership of your online legacy because data is saved to the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain data is open, decentralized, and immutable.

The Problem

Social media is broken.

Advertising-driven social networks are taking a toll on our wellbeing. They:

• Invade our privacy and sell our data
• Have control and custody of our online identities
• Are filled with trolling, harrassment, and flame wars
• Manipulate our feeds to increase engagement at almost any cost

Peepeth is Different

Peepeth promotes mindful, responsible, self-aware speech.

• Features encourage mindful engagement & positive contribution. Peepeth encourages you to think before you post or "like", support charity, and learn more about yourself.
• No ads: Peepeth doesn't optimize for ad impressions (which introduces perverse incentives for platforms who do).
• Data is saved to an open, public, and permanent database (the Ethereum blockchain). Anyone can make an interface for Peepeth's public data.

Why Blockchain?

The blockchain puts you in control

On Peepeth, accounts and posts (“peeps”) are stored on the blockchain. That gives you exclusive control over your account and content. No intermediary is required for you to post or access data.

No edit or delete

Peeps are publicly accessible, potentially forever. This creates accountability and gives your words more weight. The result is more considered peeps.

Peepeth's open datastore is strongly censorship resistant because the blockchain is immutable. What gets written to the blockchain cannot be edited or removed. Note, however, that Peepeth.com is moderated, and will not display content that violates the terms of use. Read more.

Transparency

All data is openly stored on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone can monitor the blockchain data.

Spam resistant

Peepeth is spam-resistant because it costs money to write to the blockchain. Don’t worry— Peepeth foots the bill for you— but spammers lose their free-peeping privilege, making spamming a relatively expensive prospect.

Alternate apps

Anyone can start their own front-end interface that reads and writes Peepeth data (yourPeepeth.com), because the blockchain protocol is open.

Monetize with tips

Accept tips in cryptocurrency (Peepeth charges a 10% fee).

Verifications

Verify your identity by linking your other social media accounts through the blockchain. Twitter and GitHub currently supported; more coming soon. Peepeth charges a fee in cryptocurrency for verifications.

Other blockchain services

There are many other possibilities for blockchain-based services in the future. Peepeth can interact with other smart contracts (self-executing computer programs on the Ethereum blockchain) to provide decentralized services.

Opinionated Features

Peepeth's mission is to encourage mindful engagement and positive contribution, both online and in the world.

The blockchain is only part of the story. Peepeth's features encourage thoughtful, responsible engagement, and discourage hate, spam, and reactive posts.

Charity badge

How can we do good most effectively? Buy a charity badge to support and raise awareness for an important, neglected, and tractable problem: malaria.

Your charity badge is shown on your avatar, bumps you to the top of follower suggestions, and gives you serious Peepeth-cred (among other on-site benefits).

Together, we’ve purchases over 1390 long-lasting insecticidal bed nets from the Against Malaria Foundation, the top-ranked charity by several top Effective Altruism charity evaluators. Learn more here.

One "like" per day

Instead of a Like button, Peepeth has the once-per-day Ensō. Its rarity makes it more special to receive, and it encourages the creation of dignified, beautiful, and timeless content. An Ensō is forever; there is no undo.

Ensō (円相 , "circle") is a circle that is hand-drawn in one uninhibited brushstroke. It represents creativity, freedom of expression, and unity.

Insight badge (in development)

The words you use reliably predict your Big Five personality traits. Learn more about yourself by having powerful artificial intelligence derive your personality traits from your public peeps, and compare your results on Peepeth to your other social media accounts. Keep your results private, delete them forever, or display them on your profile.

This feature is a fun way to learn more about yourself, and to find others you might be interested in following. It's an optional paid service.

Insight credits can also be gifted. One credit entitles you to perform this analysis on your peeps or on your content on another public social media account. Learn more here (under development).

Are you sure?

Peepeth periodically reminds you to review your post before committing it to the blockchain, resulting in fewer typos and greater reflection before posting.

#Politics

(In development) Many people find online political discussion frustrating and stressful. On Peepeth, users are urged to include the #politics hashtag in political peeps. This hides the content (but not the peep) by default (users must click "reveal"), giving users the freedom to ignore potentially toxic discussions. This is an evolving solution to a tough problem.

Less "me", more "we"

You can pin a peep to your profile. Unlike Twitter, however, you must pin someone else’s post (not your own).

Code of conduct

Peepeth’s 130-word terms of use is adapted from a discourse on the Buddhist doctrine of Right Speech by Thich Nhat Hanh (in secular form). Peepeth.com's enforcement of the code is transparent.

See the code here.

More on the way

Peepeth is just getting started. There are other novel features in the pipeline.

Progress so far

Peepeth’s invite-only web beta is live, and is leading the way for decentralized app (dapp) usability.

Peepeth is one of the few non-game and non-trading blockchain apps in use. It has pioneered novel techniques that make it very user-friendly. It has received 10000+ invite requests, and tens of thousands of peeps have been immortalized on the blockchain.

It is currently featured on every major mobile dapp browser (Trust, Toshi, Status, Cipher), and by dapp portals such as App.co, EveryDapp.com, and other portals.

Next Steps

Peepeth is one of the most usable decentralized, blockchain-powered apps. However, it isn’t usable enough for mainstream users:

• Users need cryptocurrency to use Peepeth. Getting it is hard.
• Users need special software (a browser extension or dapp browser) to use Peepeth.
• No mobile app yet.

Funding will help make Peepeth accessible to everyone

Reaching the funding goal will help Peepeth become one of the first mainstream blockchain-based apps:

• Peepeth will be free to use (currently, cryptocurrency is required)
• Peepeth will work without special software
• An iOS app will be developed
• Improved design
• More features critical to usability will be added
• Fulfillment of backer's rewards

Stretch Goals

Reaching the stretch goals will give Peepeth a much better chance of becoming a self-sustaining mainstream platform.

1300 ETH

• Mobile apps on iOS and Android
• Greatly improved design, branding, and messaging
• Robust and scalable back-end application
• Better user support

4000 ETH

• A top team
• World-class web and mobile apps
• Better support and user education
• Outreach and partnership opportunities (integrations and widget)

Peepeth will do the best it can regardless of the amount raised.

Sustainability

How can an advertising-free platform sustain itself?

Peepeth sells features and takes 10% of tips. For example, it sells social media verifications, Insight credits (in development), and feature badges (such as the rewards here).

The success of verifications alone is showing that this model can be a viable alternative to advertising. Kickstarter funding will help build Peepeth into a product that can sustain itself without ad revenue.

Rewards

Peepeth’s rewards enable special functionality on Peepeth.com. Most rewards consist of at least one blockchain badge (enabling special abilities), and Insight credits that can be gifted or used to gain personality insights from your peeps or other social media accounts.

Inscription on the blockchain

Supporters at all levels will have their name immortalized on IPFS and the blockchain (including their link and message at some levels). This info will be shown on a special backers page on Peepeth.com.

Blockchain badges

If your blockchain address owns a blockchain badge, Peepeth will detect it and grant your account special powers. Badges will be displayed on your peeps (except Authenticity badge).

Some badges have unique names, images, or other unique inscriptions. If you are rewarded a unique badge, you can name / inscribe your badge on a first come first serve basis (or it can be done later, or not at all). Badge details will be displayed on your profile page.

Blockchain badges are transferrable, but you'll need a small amount of cryptocurrency to send them (to cover the blockchain transaction fee). Insight credits are not transferred with the badge; you have to transfer them separately.

Some badge privileges (automatic #nsfw flagging of peeps) can be deactivated if abused.

Extra badges

Some support levels include extra badges in addition to the main one.

The extra badges do not come with the Insight credits, tshirts, nested badges, or inner-circle privileges that normally accompany badge purchases. For example, the Penguin badge comes with two Honor badges. Honor badges, purchased by themselves, usually include Insight credits, tshirts, and lower-tier badges. However, the Honor badge that comes with the Penguin badge will not include those extras, just the core functionality of the Honor badge.

Insight credits

Insight credits are non-blockchain credits that can be used on Peepeth.com. Each credit can be redeemed for a personality assessment of your public peeps, done by advanced artificial intelligence developed by IBM Watson (substantiated by research). You'll receive a graph showing your personality traits and other characteristics, which you can display publicly on your profile, keep private on Peepeth.com, or delete completely.

You can re-test at a later time, and also compare your Peepeth results with your other social media accounts.

Insight credits are giftable (you can bestow them on peeps you like).

Behind the scenes

At some support levels, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, in the form of emails / video updates from the founder. Supporters will be kept in the loop in a way not commonly seen with other software development projects.

These updates will be more impromptu than formal; and give you a personal perspective on the process of building Peepeth.

Your logo on Peepeth.com

At higher levels, backers will have their logo displayed on the front page of Peepeth.com for one year.

The more your company contributes above 10k, the higher and larger its logo will appear.

1st Mainstream Dapp

With funding, Peepeth will have a good chance of becoming the first mainstream dapp (decentralized application) and could introduce cryptocurrency and Ethereum to a mass audience.

In addition to being a social media platform, Peepeth will be an easy introduction to cryptocurrency. It will teach users the basics, while not requiring them to buy cryptocurrency or install special software. Peepeth will also incentivize new users to acquire ether, because of the optional services offered on Peepeth and the opportunity to interact with other dapps.

Frequently Asked Q's

Is Peepeth scalable? Will it clog the Ethereum network?

Peepeth has pioneered innovative techniques to batch content in a small number of blockchain transactions. No matter how many users it has, the core functionality will execute a constant number of transactions (not including other optional blockchain features).

What does Peepeth mean?

Check this for more (including pronunciation)!

Is Peepeth “Twitter on the blockchain”?

Peepeth is fundamentally different because of its focus on encouraging mindful engagement & positive contribution, its use of the blockchain, and its lack of reliance on ads.

• Peepeth optimizes for thoughtfulness, self-awareness, and charity, not ad impressions.
• Peepeth's back-end is open and immutable. Peeps are forever; which encourages more thoughtful posts.
• You control your blockchain account and content.
• No ads. They're not only unpleasant to see, but introduce perverse incentives to keep you engaged at any cost.

Can Peepeth be censored?

Peepeth.com is not a neutral “anything goes” platform, despite the immutability of its datastore. The emphasis here is on cultivating mindful engagement, positive contribution, and self-awareness. Peeps that are not in accord with the terms of service will be removed, by default, from the main feed.

Moderation is transparent on Peepeth.com, because of the open nature of the blockchain. That keeps Peepeth.com accountable to users, who are free to build and use another front-end for Peepeth data.

Can Peepeth be used for criminal purposes?

Peepeth’s criminal appeal is limited. Pairing payments and communications on the same channel reveals more info about criminals and their networks than non-crypto communication channels used with crypto payments. Pairing communication and money removes a level of anonymity because of the traceable nature of blockchain transactions. Peeping is not a smart way to conduct illegal activity.

Will Peepeth be usable by people not versed in crypto?

Yes. The blockchain will be largely invisible when using Peepeth. Peepeth will, however, educate users about blockchain, and offer optional blockchain-based services.

What if the goal amount isn't reached?

Peepeth will achieve as much as possible with the amount raised, regardless of whether the goal is reached.

Can I get a refund?

No refunds will be issued. Although there are rewards associated with each tier, supporting Peepeth should be considered a donation rather than a product purchase. See the next section for a discussion of the risks involved.

What will happen to the ether or tokens I send?

Ether will be used to fund Peepeth's development (and will likely be sold at some point to do so). Tokens are immediately converted into ether.

When will I receive my reward?

See the estimated due date for each reward.

Read more FAQs about Peepeth here.

Risks and Challenges

There are many challenges ahead for Peepeth. Building decentralized applications is hard; making them usable and scalable is harder; and bootstrapping a community is the hardest.

Nonetheless, Peepeth has made headway on all three fronts with limited resources. A lot of technical and design heavy lifting is done, and there’s a small but strong community in this invite-only stage.

The next steps will be challenging, but with funding, I’m confident they’ll be completed.

Read more about the risks and challenges facing Peepeth.

Thank You!

Thanks to the thousands of people who’ve shown support for Peepeth by requesting an invite, joining and peeping, or offering advice and suggestions. I appreciate everyone’s contributions; Peepeth would not be possible without your help!

Cheers!

-Bevan, Peepeth founder

Support

To support Peepeth with ether, tokens, or credit card, first select a reward below.