Since the beginning of last year, we’ve been dabbling with the idea of introducing tokens as rewards for our readers and enabling the creation of an internal attention-economy. On 25 February, we launched Sun Tokens on the Waves Blockchain with the aim to incentivise our ecosystem of readers, contributors and advertisers. Although such tokens are only being trialled and tested by publishers, we wanted to take a step in familiarising our readers with the idea from an early stage of this tech.
Most of us spend hours each day contributing to social media. We pour our creative energy into networks that give us no direct economic value in return. Facebook posts, Tweets, Instagrams, and Snaps all take time to create and provide unique value to people in the community. Yet nearly all the value we generate is directed to corporations who maintain these services.
For a growing community like ours, it’s important to sustain ethnic press and a token into the ecosystem will revitalise this niche. A viable platform for ethnic press can mediate these transactions and spread the value across its users. This will enable better content being published on our platforms and ensure an incentive for everyone taking part in the process, including contributors and readers.
For the next several months, we intend to airdrop and give away tokens to readers who set up wallets on their mobile devices. We will simultaneously talk with our clients and offer them incentives to accept these tokens. Since these tokens are always issued with a value, the end user can either save them or convert them on exchanges for fiat currencies. Having said that, we highly recommend the community to start using it as a medium of exchange for non-commercial transactions.
We believe there are many transactions that happen outside a normal transaction. Or in other words, not all transactions need to be settled in national currencies. If you want to tip your child for their help in folding laundry, you can use Sun Tokens to tip them. The process is simple—you just have to scan their QR code and send Sun Tokens into their wallet. They can then accumulate these tokens and redeem them from our partners. More significantly, you can encourage your child to contribute content to The Indian Sun for tokens. We are hoping that podcasters, writers, film makers will see new meaning in working with us once the use of tokens become more widespread in the community. It’s not always commercially viable for micro-publishers to pay contributors and this will definitely help us bring in some level of incentives.
Downloading wallets, earning rewards, converting them into cash or using them at partner outlets can all sound tough in the beginning. I’ve been experimenting with cryptocurrencies for a year now and I realise that it’s not the smoothest process and it can all be too geekish in the beginning. Millions of users that have already adapted the new tech have had similar experiences when they started off. But once you get a hang of it, things can be simpler than posting on Facebook or Tweeting from your phone.
Over time, with better tech solutions being introduced, this will become far easier. We strongly recommend our readers to start getting engaged with it and help us build a strong community asset that can be used by businesses and members of the community. If there are developers in the community who have spare time, it would be great to hear from them on how to simplify the tech for readers.
Why did we choose Waves Platform?
We chose Waves Platform because of its enhanced security, smooth interface. There’s nothing stopping us from trying out easier and cheaper platforms later. For the time being, it’s Waves because we believe it’s the easiest for the end user who is not fully clued in with this tech. Readers can simply go to the App Store or Google Play and download the app. Remember to save your key words. Waves Platform has a built-in exchange as well and we think it will be easier for readers to convert their tokens into another currency too.
In brief, Sun Tokens are purely created to build an attention-economy and to sustain ethnic press in Australia. These tokens should not be used for speculation. It’s to motivate, encourage and to make publishing fun. Store your key phrases securely after your download the wallet and enjoy using them.
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Dear Reader,The Indian Sun is an independent organisation committed to community journalism. We have, through the years, been able to reach a wide audience especially with the growth of social media, where we also have a strong presence. With platforms such as YouTube videos, we have been able to engage in different forms of storytelling. However, the past few years, like many media organisations around the world, it has not been an easy path. We have a greater challenge. We believe community journalism is very important for a multicultural country like Australia. We’re not able to do everything, but we aim for some of the most interesting stories and journalism of quality. We call upon readers like you to support us and make any contribution. Do make a DONATION NOW so we can continue with the volume and quality journalism that we are able to practice.
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Team The Indian Sun
