TipStampers: The BSV powered interactive platform allowing content creators to earn

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I interviewed the creator of TipStampers.com, an earning platform for content creators built atop Bitcoin SV. Creators earn 100% of revenue from their following (tips, comments, likes, etc.). The platform earns via posting and membership fees.

What was the motivation for creating the TipStampers platform?

“There’s quite a few motivations and reasons, but let’s start at the root.

At the root, I love Bitcoin as a form of money. In the long term, I think it has the potential to be the best and fairest form of money to ever exist. Thus, my desire is to see it in the hands of the masses and used widely throughout our world.

That’s my strongest motivator, and going backwards from there, the question was what would best help accomplish this? What would help achieve “virality” in adoption and transacting of Bitcoin?

Well, virality is born over social media, so my answer is a network that actually appeals to a mainstream audience, and that actually makes sense to intertwine Bitcoin with. Hence, an interactive platform for people to earn, with categories that facilitate the creation of content people should be able to earn from.

After all, monetization of content over the internet is certainly ripe for disruption. Overall, creators (and consumers) are getting the short end of the stick there. Relying on ads, not getting a fair percentage of the cut, not getting paid quickly, and so forth.

With cheap Bitcoin micropayments, people can set the price for their content and be paid instantly and on demand, directly from their audience. And in the case of TipStampers, receive 100% of the cut, 100% of the time. (Not to mention it also helps filter spam too.)

So, a wide variety of factors contributed to my motivation, and hopefully that explanation paints a clear enough picture there.”

Yours was popular on Bitcoin Cash (at the time) because upvoters could earn without posting. How can curators (non-content creators) earn on TipStampers?

“I think its popularity was for a variety of reasons, including its unique curating model, but no, I have not incorporated that into TipStampers. At least not yet, as I’m not 100% certain it totally fits for us.

I say that because I’m not sure if we want people to upvote content just because they think other people will after them, and because they’ll earn money if they do. I would prefer that people voluntarily tip the poster because they appreciate their efforts and work, and actually took something from it. I’ve tailored the categories to induce creation of content that people find useful or fun, and would appreciate enough to hopefully send a tiny $.05 tip as a thank you to the creator.

In addition, the Upvotes (Thumbs) and amounts earned are meant to give a representation of value to the piece of content, and to rank it on the leaderboard. It’s for historical and comparison purposes as well. So even a week or month or year from creation, I would want people willing to still give a paid thumbs-up if they like the content. I worry they wouldn’t if the motivating factor to do it was to earn from it. I think it could possibly skew the system.

So that’s why I have hesitancy in incorporating the Yours.org curation model. But if I could have it both ways, I would, and would be more than willing to hear how it would work. So let me know if you have any ideas.”

How (if at all) were you influenced by Yours.org?

“I was heavily influenced by Yours.org. If I hadn’t been a part of that, who knows if I would even know how to code right now. I actually enrolled in a full-stack coding bootcamp because I wanted to build my visions that spawned from Yours. I truly enjoyed being a part of that community and participating within it, and I hope to replicate that enjoyable experience for others on TipStampers.com.”

The cost to post seems prohibitive in terms of gaining adoption. How do you plan to gain users with an initial cost?

“True enough. Although I will say that I think the incentives to pay the measly 10 or 20 cents to post content are great enough to break through that barrier. Receiving 100% of the cut on everything thereafter is a pretty good deal.

With that said, I do agree, and since the goal is to onboard new users who won’t have funds in their HandCash wallet already, there’s an introductory category meant just for them.

It’s called Meet the Stampers, and it costs nothing to post within it. It’s totally FREE, and that’s where we and the community can deliver a positive first experience to newly onboarded users, by showering them with Bitcoin tips to start them on their tipstamping journey.

From there, they’ll have the funds to post, and it’s on them to fill their wallet after that. With their content, or via HandCash credit card purchasing.”

Share and follow fees are interesting if lots of people use the platform but are not useful without lots of activity. How do you plan to incentivize more usage of the platform?

“That’s very true, shares and follows needed to be built in from the start, but they only have merit once the platform has ample activity. To generate that, we need to expand the userbase. Which means a combination of marketing, promotion, engagement, community building, and audience interaction. Games, prompts, promotion of content, exclusive events, and so forth. Constant activity is a must. There’s no slacking there.”

We have seen other similar blogging platforms created on BSV like Yours, Bitpost.app and Bit.sv which have either failed or had very little activity. How do you learn from their mistakes and make TipStampers a success?

“If your goal is to adopt a mainstream audience outside of crypto, you need to appeal to them. The platform can’t revolve around the interests of the crypto-enthusiast, it needs to revolve around the interests of the average person. The blockchain can’t be the highlight of the application, it needs to lurk in the shadows.

But when people do use the blockchain, it needs to be a smooth experience that the average person is comfortable with—which HandCash has achieved. You send money from handles, and you reset your password through email and cell phone. Not through intimidating seed phrases. Their UI/UX is also great, and that needs to be replicated on the platform too. Easy to use and understand, but also looking good at the same.

None of that matters though if you can’t get people on it, or they don’t keep coming back. You need to have a plan for that. You need to create an environment that people want to continually be a part of, and you do that by positively engaging with your community on a frequent basis. Keeping a low profile is out of the question.

What is also needed on a frequent basis is getting your name and product “out there.” You need a promotional plan, and you need to execute it with persistent effort—with some grit and grind. That’s where I think TipStampers can be a success, where the others may not have been. I didn’t just code a social media network, I built a business with a plan to promote it and gain users after the code was ready. And I plan on being the one that carries it out, with some grit and grind. That’s where I think the main difference lies.”

What are the current issues you see with social media applications using blockchain and digital currency technology?

“If you mean existing ones, or ones that have experimented with it in the past, the answer would be pretty similar to my response from the last question. Basically, not appealing to a mainstream audience and keeping crypto as its focal point. I really believe that is a huge hindrance to adoption. Crypto is scary and a turn-off to the average person.

For existing social media apps that don’t already use the blockchain but are thinking about it, that’s a trickier question as it could be used differently for each app. Maybe data storage in some way would be useful for any of them. But for payments from one to another, it depends on the content.

For example, I’m not sure paid Likes on Facebook would be a great use-case, based upon what’s posted there. Pictures of friends and family and whatnot. There’s no point in enabling payments for that type of content. The type of content produced really needs to make sense, in order for it to make cents. If you catch my drift…”

Many categories are accessible from the home page of the site; how do you get users leveraging and re-visiting those?

“Hopefully people just find a particular category either useful or enjoyable enough that they bookmark it on Windbell, and that reminder keeps them coming back. But promoting particular pieces of content over social media would be one way to go about that. Or conducting a challenge to post a particular type of content within a category—say in “How-To Tutorials”—would be another way to promote an overall category and entice users into revisiting it.”

Could you elaborate on how the “TipStampers Official” concept works?

“A good magician never shares his secrets, but I’m not pulling any bunnies from hats, so I guess I’ll share. But keep in mind I’m still fleshing out this concept, so it might not be exactly as I describe it now.

But basically it works like this. We prompt people with a question, or a list they can add to, or a poll they can vote on, over a variety of Social Media outlets (this will help build up our followings over them as well).

People can then share their responses there, but if they want to be a part of the actual “TipStampers Official” public results, they have to come do it on our platform. Because only those results are stamped to the Blockchain, for the world to forever read, between 24-48 hours after conception. Once the clock strikes midnight, the results are in, and their chance to be a part of the action, is out.

And that’s the game I intend on playing. We’ll see what happens with it in the future. Got some work to do before I get there. Wish me luck and thanks for your support.”

Thank you TipStampers for taking time to answer my questions. I hope the readers learned more about the platform and try it out. Get your HandCash wallet and check out the site today at TipStampers.com!

Watch: BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Better Payments with BSV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCn07kTMKMU