We're still at the very beginning of a new type of social media platform, one that will completely change the way revenue is distributed in attention-based economies. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and, lately, Steem and HyperSpace, are all attention-based economies. The major difference between the former group and the latter is decentralization, or how value is distributed.

In centralized platforms, money is used to buy in bulk the attention of the participants in the sharing process, whereas in decentralized platforms, money - or the underlying token "printed" by the platform - is used to determine the value of the shared content and rewards the participants directly.

A more thorough discussion about these differences is obviously extremely interesting, but Im not going to focus on it, for the moment. If you think it will be a topic that you would want me to write about it, please leave a comment at the end of this article, and let me know.

For now, I want to focus on two different value distribution models in decentralized crypto-based social media platforms.

Steemit - STEEM

In the Steemit ecosystem, the base token is STEEM. The token inflation is distributed each day like this:

• 25% goes to a infrastructure pool, from where it is distributed to witnesses and as interest to token holders
• 75% goes to a content creators pool, from where it is distributed by the process of voting to content creators and curators

By voting on an article, one literally allocates a certain part from the creators pool, directly proportional to the platform investment of the voter (how much Steem Power, or staked, unmovable, STEEM he has). A part of this goes back to the voter, in the form of curation rewards.

HyperSpace - AMP

In the HyperSpace ecosystem, the base token is AMP. It is still unclear to me how big the inflation of this platform is, and what are the numbers, but, overall, the token inflation seems to be distributed only to content providers. There are 3 types of content providers in HyperSpace (as opposed to only two in Steemit): content creators, amplifiers (curators) and group admins.

This inflation is allocated equally to all participants, in a payment called UBI (from Universal Basic Income) which gets paid only if the participant keeps its holdings under a certain amount. In other words, if you're not spending your UBI, you're not getting more of it, after a certain threshold. Also, a certain part of this inflation is allocated to spaces admins (think of spaces like moderated groups or communities), based on their "performance": how many articles are posted in that space, how much they are amplified by other users, etc.

The Main Points

The definitions above are highly simplified, there is a lot more to talk about the fine details, but they are enough to pinpoint some fundamental differences between the two platforms:

risk-related differences and biases

• in STEEM, there is no direct distribution of funds, appreciation is risk-free, as the appreciator doesn't spend "from his own pocket", but from a formless rewards pool
• in HyperSpace, the funds are directly distributed by the appreciator, which actually spends "from his own pocket" - which in turn is filled back by UBI

This type of distribution encourages bias towards the appreciator, in STEEM, and bias towards the content creator, in HyperSpace.

Let me explain.

In STEEM, the one that distributes the rewards has no ownership over those funds. Hence, he is more likely to arbitrarily spread them towards a diffuse spectrum of players.

In HyperSpace, the one that distributes rewards has actual ownership over those funds, but he is "forced" to spend them, if he wants to keep his player status and benefits. Hence, he is more likely to focus on specific, not diffuse, content creators, that he will consider "valuable" (and also worthy of a mutual partnership).

weak / strong collusion differences

• in STEEM, the collusion is weak, meaning it is not enforced or incentivized by any means, which makes it less likely to occur, and more fragile when it does occur
• in HyperSpace, the collusion is strong, meaning it is incentivized by the rewards towards space admins, which makes them more likely to create affinity towards their spaces

This type of collusion creates a difference in the speed of content creation, as well as in the affinity towards a specific platform.

Let me explain, once again.

In STEEM, because the collusion is weak, the affinity is also weak. Creating and maintaining a community (or a colluded type of activity) is not enforced at the model level, which means it is less likely to occur, and more fragile when it does occur. In other words, STEEM has a smaller affinity score. Content rewards are arbitrary, which impends the speed (there's no incentive to write if you don't have at least the guarantee of a minimum reward because you post in a "rich" group).

In HyperSpace, the collusion is strong, the affinity is also strong. That favors medium-term alliances and a bigger affinity score towards the platform. Since you know you're getting something because you stick with bigger or richer groups, you tend to create content in a more predictable way.

Which Is Which?

So, by now, you tend to wonder: which of these platforms is better for me, as a content creator? Which one can provide a bigger ROI?

The answer is extremely difficult, because behind the theoretical models there are always humans - which, like it or not, tend to be rather flawed and biased. On top of that, the underlying markets are still extremely fragile and they can have huge swings that can hurt / improve each platform a lot.

But from a purely theoretic perspective, I would say HyperSpace can provide a more stable experience, with the prospects of a medium to long term predictable income, whereas STEEM may offer the opportunity of faster, bigger, yet riskier, rewards.

Thoughts?

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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