Pi Network Launches Fireside Forum: A Tokenomically Moderated Web3 Social Platform That Aims to Address the Problems of Web2 Online Behavior

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May 31, 2023, 10:00 ET

This latest product offering from the Pi Core Team envisions what a true Web3 social network can be by integrating tokenomics to increase accountability and encourage better content, while tackling spam and online harassment

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Pi Network, a community and Web3 app ecosystem with tens of millions of humans mining Pi cryptocurrency, today announced the launch of Fireside Forum: a Web3 social platform offering a new internet experience that emphasizes authenticity, constructive conversations and healthier online social interactions. Fireside Forum allows Pioneers (Pi Network members) to connect and interact with millions of peers while rewarding positive interactions – and penalizing negative ones – through a novel token model powered by Pi cryptocurrency.

Unlike traditional social media platforms, Fireside Forum integrates cryptocurrency and tokens into the core of its social mechanism to help moderate online behavior, resulting in a better and healthier user experience. Counterintuitively, it explores the idea of creating posts at a cost, whereby authors can only recover this cost – via tips from an approving decentralized audience – by providing great content. It propagates meaningful interactions through the posts, replies, and channels users create. Content that the community considers valuable will receive greater visibility based on the level of engagement it receives. This gives the community decentralized authority on how content will trend, encouraging not only more authentic interactions but greater accountability.

"Traditional social networks are struggling with misinformation, trolling and internet violence. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies can facilitate the much-needed change that people are hoping for," said Nicolas Kokkalis, one of the two Founders and Head of Technology. "Fireside Forum is a materialization of what Pi Network envisioned as the new Web3 social network and intends to solve issues of popular Web2 social networks by emphasizing authenticity, decentralization, and quality online experience."

Fake accounts are a problem on all Web2 social platforms. In 2021, Facebook removed 1.3 billion fake accounts, Instagram found 95 million and Twitter dealt with 20 million. Although Facebook's parent company, Meta, has regulations in place that outline what is and is not permitted on the network, spam content is an ongoing issue that the platform faces, with 1.4 million pieces of spam content being removed in the third quarter of 2022 alone.

Fireside Forum's unique tokenomics power the in-app token utilities and operate the system that incentivizes positive contributions and disincentivizes negative behavior. Pioneers who have passed the network's native KYC program and migrated their mined balance to Pi Mainnet can purchase in-app tokens with their Pi cryptocurrency. Tokens are necessary to post, reply, interact with, and promote and demote content while receiving in-app token tips based on community engagement with the content they've authored. Through this token model, the self-moderating platform institutes a cost mechanism to increase accountability of online behavior, encourages positive interactions, and discourages negative content, helping address the issues of spam and online harassment. By utilizing incentive-disincentive-based designs through tokenomics, Fireside Forum aims to create a safe and healthier environment for the next generation of online social interactions.

In yet another example of Pi Network's mission to develop utility-focused apps, Fireside Forum offers a decentralized platform where transparency and self-governance reign supreme. Using the Pi cryptocurrency they mine through their meritocratic mobile mining contributions, Pioneers can engage in accessible and meaningful interactions with other real KYC-verified humans.

"As academics and social scientists, we created this novel design for Fireside Forum based on learnings from prior research about online behavior and interactions, and our hypotheses about crypto-fueled solutions to potentially address the flaws of traditional social networks. We believe that true Web3 social solutions should be more than just moving things onto a blockchain," said Dr. Chengdiao Fan, the other Pi Founder and Head of Product. "Fireside Forum is just one of the early instantiations of Pi Network's innovations in social networking as we unite theory and practice together. Its design will continue being iterated as new learnings arise from being used by millions of Pioneers."

Fireside Forum is now available on the Pi Browser–another Pi Network mobile app which can be downloaded for free on Google Play or the Apple App Store. For more information, or to join Pi Network, please visit Minepi.com.

ABOUT PI NETWORK
Pi Network is a community of tens of millions of humans mining Pi cryptocurrency to use and build the Web3 app ecosystem. Founded in 2018 by a team of early innovators in blockchain and social computing, with PhDs from Stanford University, Pi Network is a utilities-based ecosystem for third-party apps on a mobile web platform, with widespread (rather than concentrated) token distribution. The blockchain platform offers a mobile-first mining approach, with low financial cost and a light environmental footprint within the crypto space.

SOURCE Pi Network