Narrative is a blockchain startup that is running a token sale in a week’s time. This one caught my eye for two reasons. Firstly, it’s building a content network on a blockchain – similar to the already established Steemit. Secondly, Narrative just announced it has switched platforms. Previously it was planning to build on top of the Ethereum blockchain, as most ICOs do. But now it has switched to the Chinese version of Ethereum, Neo.
Let’s take a look at Narrative and see what chance its content network has to get traction.
There have been plenty of content network plays over the past decade or so, ever since Web 2.0 came onto the scene. All but a small proportion of them amounted to nothing, or else became niche products for a specific user base (hello, Ello).
But the objective of blockchain startup white papers is never to announce a niche product. Narrative’s white paper is no different, as it outlines its goal to create an entire “Content Economy.”
Narrative’s token, NRV, will be used to incentivize content creators and “all users who add value to the network.” The company says it will give “85% of all revenues generated by the network” to its participants. If we compare that to Steemit, their white paper states that “75% of the yearly inflation is distributed to users submitting, voting on, and discussing content.” So it appears that Narrative has better financial incentives.
Narrative plans to slot in an advertising system in Q1 2019, which it sees as “an important cornerstone of the network” going forward. That seems a tad too optimistic, given the state of online advertising currently. Unless you’re Facebook or Google, there isn’t a lot of ad revenue to go around. I would like to see Narrative try more innovative forms of revenue generation that use the benefits of cryptocurrencies (that old chestnut, micropayments, could lend itself well to Narrative’s platform). Still, I understand that Narrative is trying to think big here.
So what type of content network will Narrative be precisely? While Steemit has marketed itself as a kind of Reddit on the blockchain, Narrative appears to be positioning itself as a cross between LiveJournal and Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo. There is both an old-school blogging component to Narrative (it wants to be “the world’s public journal”), and a focus on topic-based collections of content.
Specifically, Narrative will have three “channels”: Personal Journals, Niches (subject-based collections), and Brands.
The content in the system will be organized by so-called “elected moderators.” This is particularly important in the topic-based Niches, each of which “must have one owner and one or more moderators.” There’s also something called a Tribunal, which is described as “like the “Supreme Court” of Narrative. The people on the Tribunal are voted in by the community and are expected to be the final arbiter of any content disputes.
There’s also an interesting ICO incentive for anyone who wants to own a Niche. In the white paper, it states that “any person that contributes 60 NEO or more in the Narrative Token Sale will be classified as a “Founder” when they register on the network.” One of the benefits of being a “founder” is that they will have a potential first mover advantage on popular topics. That’s because founders “will be allowed to reserve/purchase new niches for the first 48 hours.” I’d imagine the Cryptocurrency niche could be a nifty earner, as just one example. At time of writing, 60 NEO is around US$6,300.
I won’t go through all the features in the planned content network, but I have to say the white paper is well written and intriguing.
That said, the proof is always in the pudding in regards to content networks. The actual platform won’t be released in beta until Q4 2018, according to the current timeline. So we won’t really know until then how intriguing Narrative will be to a broader user base. Certainly the initial token buyers will be incentivized, but what about the wider audience needed to become a broad community?
Leading up to that point there will be an alpha stage, for niches only, starting in Q1 2018. So the people who buy tokens in the ICO will start experimenting with content, and doing the initial land-grab for niche topics with potential to be popular. This period will also give an indication of whether Narrative’s design and user friendliness is good enough. Right now we have no idea, although its own website is nicely designed.
As for the team behind Narrative, the two founders are Ted and Rosemary O’Neill. They have a solid, if unspectacular, track record in the social content market. The pair previously founded Social Strata, an online communities platform, back in 1998. Their primary product was called Hoop.la, which has been around since at least 2011. I know that because I had an email from one of the founders that year, who pitched it to me as a “DIY social” platform similar to Ning (Marc Andreesson’s product).
Neither Social Strata or Hoop.la have been massive successes, although they both serve their niche audiences well. The O’Neills look to be good old fashioned bootstrapping entrepreneurs. So it’ll be interesting to see how they adapt to the craziness of the current ICO world. Also whether they have the technical nous to build a blockchain network remains to be seen.
Probably their biggest challenge will be getting quality content onto the platform, particularly from the alpha token buyers. I’ve tried Steemit and although it’s a solid platform, the content falls into the common trap of being self-referential (the most popular posts by far are those that discuss Steemit and/or crypto). That’s a sign that Steemit hasn’t yet evolved into a platform that non-crypto people will be comfortable in. Also, I saw a few too many Steemit users gaming the incentives system, by posting attention-getting, low-quality content. So Narrative will need to overcome those challenges if it’s to gain any traction.
I’ll need to look further into Narrative, but as a concept it is interesting and it’s a good variation on the kind of blockchain content network that Steem pioneered. So I’ll be keenly watching how this ICO narrative unfolds.