Neatly hidden in Teneriffe, Connect Holdings is creating a mobile social media application called Connect Social, that rewards users for their content. CEO of Connect Holdings Scott Richards says that blockchain is basically a public ledger.
Scott explains that Blockchain is a technology that is unregulated, transparent and publicly recorded, for everyone to see. Blockchain technology popularised Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and popular investment commodity that was worth upwards of $19,000 USD in December 2017.
“The Connect Social ecosystem is on the blockchain and therefore, decentralised, which means that everything you post won’t be held and sold for profit,” said Scott.
At least 82 per cent of Australians are concerned with personal data being stolen through apps, as reported by Statista, an online statistics company.
According to Facebook’s terms and conditions, the social media giant can “use any… content you post on or in connection with Facebook”.
Scott says that Connect’s job will be to maintain the functionality of the app because “what you do with your content is your business. We truly believe in empowering the social media user by rewarding quality content that is not subject to corporate curation.”
Fortitude Valley based TravelByBit, has a different vision. As stated on the website, the company designs “tourist routes and deliver selected providers our own digital currency platform.”
Already, TravelByBit has enabled merchants to sell goods and services in cryptocurrency. Indeed, you can buy a hot dog from 5 Dogs or explore nature with Cairns-based travel company Travstar.
But for CEO of TravelByBit, Caleb Yeoh, it is more than just digitised travel.
“Cryptocurrency is more than an investment vehicle, at its heart, it is a social movement,” said Caleb.
“There are those who believe in it and will use and support it. And there are those who would like to see it fail.”
Blockchain’s ability to commodotise trust means that it could disrupt any system that coordinates valuable information.
Scott concludes that “blockchain technology is becoming extremely competitive against mature and sometimes intrusive centralised technologies.”
“Connect’s ethic, writ large, is a humanist collective, therefore we believe in empowering the user with a decentralised application.”
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