Offering a deeper understanding of a true Web3 social experience.
Introduction
Today, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the latest innovative Pi app by the Core Team: Fireside Forum, a true Web3 social platform that fosters authenticity, constructive conversations, and healthier online social interactions by integrating tokenomics into the core of social interactions.
With Fireside Forum, millions of Pioneers worldwide can connect and interact in a responsive and human-led environment with novel tokenomics designed to both reward positive interactions and curb negative actions. This mechanism, powered by Pi cryptocurrency, allows Pioneers to organically curate content and moderate behavior, providing our community the tools to manage the environment in a decentralized way.
Pi’s vision behind Fireside Forum
Pi Network envisions a Web3 social network where blockchain technology not only serves as the layer of the ownership, digital assets storage and distribution, but also provides solutions through incentives and disincentives and enables designs via cryptocurrency to create new quality internet experiences with better content, authenticity, constructive conversations, accountability, healthier online social interactions, and more.
Fireside Forum is just one of the early instantiations of Pi Network’s innovations based on blockchain technology and our hypotheses about what the next generation of online social interactions can be. Fireside Forum integrates cryptocurrency and tokens into the core of its social mechanism to help moderate online behavior automatically and thereby support members to create better content, social interactions and improve user experience in the context of public forums.
How is Fireside Forum different?
Fireside Forum intends to solve issues of the current popular Web2 social networks using blockchain-powered technology to design the future of Web3 social experience.
Pi Network believes that a true Web3 social network should not be a mere imitation of Web2 social network products by storing something onto the blockchain. Instead, it should make advancements and improvements on the flaws of many Web2 social networks, such as propagating misinformation and disinformation, trolling, internet violence, information overload, low signal-to-noise ratio, information silos due to overuse of machine learning algorithms, etc.
In Pi Network’s view, there are three major facets where Web3 tries to improve on and differentiate itself from Web2 social networks: 1) ownership and self-sovereignty 2) distribution and decentralization and 3) improved social interactions and experience. While most Web3 projects differentiate themselves from Web2 on the first facet (e.g. allowing ownership, storage, and non-custodial access to digital assets on the blockchain) and some differentiate themselves on the second facet (decentralizing the distribution of network resources, such as users being able to monetize the online resources they own), rarely has there been much innovation within the Web3 space on the third facet where blockchain and cryptocurrency technology are integrated to proximately solve flaws of the current mainstream social networks and online experiences.
Pi Network has been creating innovative designs and products to differentiate from Web2 in all three facets. Pi Network addresses the first two facets, ownership and distribution, through its blockchain, non-custodial wallets, very wide global distribution of Pi to over 45 million engaged members, its meritocratic mining mechanism, and its continued development in these regards. At the same time, Pi Network is also innovating in blockchain-based solutions to attempt to address the third facet, improving social interactions and experiences. Fireside Forum was built based on Pi’s vision of how Web3 should work, prior academic research on issues of social networks and online behavior, and our own hypotheses about how blockchain and cryptocurrencies can mitigate such issues in the old web.
Significance of innovating the next generation of social experience
The importance of our social interactions online cannot be overstated, as the digital realm has become an integral part of our everyday lives. With more than half of the world’s population using social media, the way we communicate, share ideas, and build relationships has been significantly transformed. As our reliance on these platforms grows, it becomes crucial to address the challenges and drawbacks that hinder our online experiences.
In recent years, we have witnessed the negative consequences of unbounded online behavior, such as the proliferation of misinformation, cyberbullying, and the erosion of civil discourse. These issues not only affect individual well-being but also pose a threat to our societies. By revolutionizing social interactions online, Pi Network aims to foster a healthier and more responsible digital environment where people can engage in meaningful exchanges, be well-informed, and have a positive impact on the global community. Moreover, creating a more inclusive and constructive online experience also has the potential to drive innovation and collaboration. Reinventing our social interactions online is not only a matter of improving user experience but also of addressing broader societal issues and unlocking the full potential of the digital world.
With Fireside Forum as its first attempt, Pi Network strives to lay the foundation for a more responsible, collaborative, and prosperous online landscape, where users can thrive and make a meaningful impact on the world around them.
The design of Fireside Forum
We are excited for Pioneers to explore the Fireside Forum in-depth by experiencing it in the app, but first, we’d like to share a glimpse of its high-level design. One innovative component of the tokenomics in Fireside Forum is the design of its cost mechanism. Fireside Forum uses cost as the vehicle to enforce accountability and improve authenticity in a decentralized social network; which is usually counterintuitive as most social networks want social content generation or interactions as frictionless as possible. While such a mechanism is difficult to implement in existing Web2 social applications, it is easy to do so at Pi Network with millions of crypto-enabled individuals. In-app tokens, which can be purchased with Pi cryptocurrency on Pi Mainnet, are necessary to do almost everything in Fireside Forum such as, post, reply, interact with, and promote content. Thus, a Pi integration has been built into the app to facilitate the cost mechanism that fuels the activity on Fireside Forum.
A challenge in such a design also lies in the extent to which such a cost mechanism impacts social behavior – namely, the cost mechanism being meant to hold people accountable and be more authentic, while not inhibiting communications, constructive exchanges of ideas and good content creation. This challenge is mitigated by the decentralized voices and crowd actions in its design which reward the good content or behavior through a combination of tips and costs. The design of Fireside Forum makes use of costs and rewards, disincentives and incentives, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and strikes a balance among all of them to achieve its goals towards improving online social interactions.
There is much more to explore in Fireside Forum, which can be accessed on Pi Browser. For actions that require in-app tokens, you need to purchase the tokens using your Pi cryptocurrency on the Pi Mainnet.
What’s next?
The path to innovation is rarely a straight line. It requires iterations, improvements, and sometimes rejecting and redefining our hypotheses. Fireside Forum is just one of the early instantiations of Pi Network’s innovations on the new web, uniting theory and practice, and it will continue to evolve as we learn more from its use by millions of Pioneers.
The Fireside Forum is another testament to Pi Network’s commitment to developing utility-focused applications, where blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is used to solve real human needs, create innovations addressing larger social problems and facilitate meaningful human connections across the world. We invite you to join us in shaping the future of our online social life, leveraging the power of blockchain and Pi cryptocurrency.