A Koii Fish Helped Me to Dump the Internet
How Koii is Building the Economic Engine of the Web3 Economy
Let’s be real. How do you feel about the current state of the internet? Take a second to think about it. Maybe you thought “Why even ask the question? After all isn’t “the internet” well… “the internet?” Without thinking about it we generally accept it for what it is — an indispensable part of our daily lives, the place where more than ever we interact, create, work, play, love… We accept the fact that the internet is controlled by a handful of massive corporations — we use the services they provide and we pay them with our attention and consent to the obligatory advertisements and data mining. Fine. We have to give something to get something right?
What would you tell a friend to do who was in a relationship like that? No doubt something along the lines of “you could do so much better” or “get out while you still can!”
Does that mean we should be thinking about dumping the internet? Is that even possible? Is there another internet out there that would treat us better?
“Stay positive,” you tell your friend, “there are plenty of fish in the sea”.
One of the most popular and beloved fish in the world is the koi fish. In traditional Asian culture, the koi fish represents strength, bravery and perseverance. All qualities that we need when trying to break free from our toxic internet relationship. Like the koi fish, the Koii Network is bravely positioning itself to provide the tools developers and users need to move on.
Still, we have needs. It’s not so easy to just up and quit the internet. Baby steps. Putting things into perspective, what we are really talking about here is moving away from a centralized internet towards a decentralized one. Trading in Web 2.0 for 3.0. In a recent interview on the NFP podcast, Koi founder Alex Morris explained that the Koii Network is about “making services better, more enjoyable to use and more rewarding for everyone involved”.
The Koii Network is building an ecosystem to make the internet applications and services we use every day better. How? By taking the very thing that drives the web 2.0 economy — attention — out of the hands of massive corporations and by entrusting it into the hands of users and content creators on the network.
How does Koii work?
Koii uses something called Proofs of Real Traffic or PoRT for short. PoRT is a novel method that registers traffic and attention in a reliable and consistent way and then rewards end-users and content creators directly.
Consider an example of how this might work. Imagine for a moment that you are filming yourself feeding your koi fish named Charlie, he bites your finger and it’s hilarious. You take that short video clip and upload it as an NFT on koi.rocks using the Finnie wallet. After minting the video clip NFT for less then the cost of a bottle of water ( about $0.10 USD for a 5mb file as of this writing) you are next given the option to copy a small snippet of code that will enable you to post that video wherever you would like on the web and start receiving attention rewards. Your media file is stored safely and permanently on the Arweave network and registered as an Atomic NFT. This allows you to maintain ownership of the content across any blockchain or internet platform. The original file, the NFT and the smart contract are combined and managed all through the decentralized Koii Network.
This image is an NFT minted on the Koii Network here
By combining your media file with the Arweave smart contract code it makes it so that when your file is replicated, shared, or posted elsewhere the attention generated is linked to the original file. Whoever owns the the Koii minted NFT will receive the attention rewards generated in the form of Koii tokens paid to the Finnie wallet that holds the NFT. Very soon the Koii Network will make it so that any NFT minted on Koii will also be able to be listed on other blockchain networks. With one click you will be able to upload your NFT to Ethereum and use the OpenSea platform or any other of your choosing, doing away with the need to commit your NFT to any specific ecosystem.
No matter where or how many times people watch the video of Charlie the koi biting your finger the owner of that content will be rewarded because the code contained in the image links back to the original registration on the Koii Network. This not only increases the value of the content but also makes it so that even unauthorized reproduction of the content benefits the creator, turning the tables on pirates. The more someone copies of a file someone makes the more potential you would have for receiving attention rewards.
Attention measured by PoRT is one of the key elements built into the Koii Network. New Koii tokens are mined through the attention your content receives which is verified via witness and bundler nodes that audit the Proofs of Real Traffic. Once the PoRTs are fully audited they are submitted and stored on the Arweave permaweb and the Koii tokens are distributed. This gradual confirmation makes Koii extremely scalable and energy-efficient.
Verifiable proof of attention rewards content creators and encourages increased network participation and node adoption. It’s a positive feedback loop incentivizing and rewarding a creator first economy while at the same time keeping the network safe from bad actors trying to game the system with spam or falsified traffic logs.
There are multiple elements at play in the Koii ecosystem, each has been carefully developed to provide developers the tools they need to build on the network as easily and efficiently as possible. Although there is a lot more to discuss about the Koii Network— by taking a look at some of the basics and how PoRTs incentivize content creation, we can see how Koii is positioning itself to become the engine that drives the web 3.0 economy. It’s true that we already have web 2.0 but why settle? Why let ourselves or our friends stay in an unhealthy internet relationship? Koii helps us to see that by moving on to web 3.0 we don’t have to give up anything.
Today we may not be able to completely cut the web 2.0 cord but we can rest a little easier knowing that Koii with its two i’s is watching over the internet. Right now you can try out the Koii Network by downloading and installing the Finnie wallet from the link below. The Koii team will set you up with enough Koii tokens to mint your first couple of NFT’s on the house.
What other kinds of web3 alchemy are cooking at the Koii network? Stay up to date on the Koii Blog. For a one-on-one deep dive with Koii architect and founder Alex Morris check out his recent interview with NFP podcast host DKleine below.
If you enjoyed this article please drop me a line or follow me on twitter @ty_kroh for regular updates. See you on the permaweb.
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