The Bitcoin Bridge: Relica devs discuss social networks and influencers

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How do you build a slick Bitcoin-based social media app? Relica co-founders (and brothers) Daniel and Jeremy Street join The Bitcoin Bridge this week to talk about the challenges and rewards of developing a platform that’s familiar enough to use, but interesting enough to entice popular “influencers” away from more established networks.

It’s impossible to talk about Relica without mentioning Instagram, the photo-sharing social network Relica most closely resembles. The fact is, people generally like Instagram thanks to its simplicity and the satisfaction of being able to quickly share (and get attention from) their images.

The interview discusses what it is people want from social networks… and what they’re actually getting. Photo-sharing networks in particular are popular with women and “influencers” who use their lifestyles and image in an attempt to find a side or main source of income.

A warm welcome to all our new #Relica users 🥰 #BSV #Bitcoin #Photos
📸🌏🌸 pic.twitter.com/YY2mHWWNHL

— Relica (@Relicaworld) February 3, 2021

As the Streets point out, most would-be influencers don’t make all that much money from their efforts, given the work involved in posting regular content and maintaining a drive for sponsors/advertising. Doing all that work for free can be (sort-of) satisfying for a while for the attention it brings, but ultimately most users burn out.

By adding Bitcoin micropayments to interactions, Relica adds extra monetary incentives to the mix. Content makes money proportionate to its popularity without any extra side-work, and you don’t have to toil to get millions of followers before making a cent. All types of content creation work can earn money, too—creators don’t have to limit their work to something with corporate commercial appeal, they can put out anything they like and find an audience.

Since it uses Bitcoin transactions, Relica also lets users own their own content and the blockchain provides a record of proof that the creator posted the work first.

There’s also a discussion on off-chain versus on-chain data storage and why Relica chose the model it did, as well as an explanation of the pricing structure. And if you’re interested in how the name “Relica” came about (the app was once known as Memento) there’s an explanation for that too.

Like similar networks (such as Twetch), Relica is only possible on Bitcoin SV, thanks to its ability to process large volumes of microtransactions at fractions of a cent each time. This was part of Bitcoin’s original promise—which, along with many of the great ideas from years ago, has been forgotten as BTC became “digital gold” with little real-world utility. Find out how Relica and others like it are taking back that promise, and showing how Bitcoin can be used to create interesting and engaging services that actually work.

Check out previous episodes of The Bitcoin Bridge on Streamanity.