Nikolas Sargeant
TL;DR
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Social Network rewards crypto users for leaving the house and getting in touch with nature.
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The project seeks to make the Bitcoin network more energy-efficient.
‘Touch Grass’ and Earn Rewards
Social Network, a new Bitcoin-layer 2 staking network is looking to make the Bitcoin network a more energy-efficient one. Social Network will leverage Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and an NFT-based mobile scavenger hunt tied to its mainnet launch to achieve this goal.
The network’s primary goal is to encourage crypto users to leave the house and get in touch with nature. In an interview with Decrypt, Earth Wallet founder, CEO and Core Contributor to Social Network Sukhveer Sanghera said,
“Social Network is one of the projects we're contributing to the most right now, which is trying to create a new decentralized social network incentive system that essentially makes social networks a public good again—and less about making private companies a lot of money.”
Social Network is set to launch on April 22nd and is developed in collaboration with Bitcoin and Ethereum self-custody platform Earth Wallet. The network aims to enhance Bitcoin transactions, lower costs, make the network more energy efficient, and get crypto users out of the house and into nature. Sanghera likened the project to the Pokémon Go game and stated that,
“Essentially, the way you can become a part of Social Network and this movement that we're hoping to create is by going and touching grass. So, you can download Earth Wallet today, and it will route you to your closest park where you can catch a Regens character and you can become a part of this fair launch.”
According to Sanghera, when players visit a park, players will see a "touch grass" button once they launch the Earth Wallet app. The button switches the app to an augmented reality (AR) mode, revealing region-specific NFT characters that users can attempt to capture by pressing and holding on them.
He further explained that the distribution of the NFTs depends on the population density and energy consumption in different countries or areas. Sanghera highlighted his excitement for this project, adding that he saw the need for an environmentally friendly cryptocurrency option after discovering how much energy it took to be a profitable Dogecoin miner in 2014. He added that
“It's still a problem today that we're still using a ton of energy for things that could be used elsewhere.”
The eBTC token will power the Social Network and will be used for staking rewards within the ecosystem. Sanghera revealed that the project recently completed the launch of 369 Regens on Bitcoin block 9.
This is a great feat because Block 9 was mined by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. This would enable the Social Network to remain a decentralized and leaderless movement, Sanghera added.
The project opened early access to its global fair launch to 10,000 testnet contributors and 369 Bitcoin Regen holders on April 1. The team revealed that they will open it to the public on April 14.
Regens Spark Controversy in the Bitcoin Community
There has been controversy within the Bitcoin community regarding the use of Regens since they utilize the Ordinal inscription protocol. Many believe that Regens are not the best use of the Bitcoin blockchain while others claim that the inscriptions spam on the network. Sanghera commented that,
“They have valid concerns about Bitcoin Ordinals; I think the software is poorly architected. I agree bringing media on Bitcoin is good; it adds more utility and use cases, but the architecture of Ordinals is spamming Bitcoin nodes. There's better ways to do it, and that's what we're solving with Social Network."
He explained that the Social Network plans to promote a fair global distribution and admitted that convincing Bitcoin maximalists to agree to use an Ethereum-based solution will be tough.
“I think maximalists are a little bit toxic to society in general. If they want to see Bitcoin become a global monetary system, then they need to open their eyes and look at the world and the problems that the world has—and try to solve some of the societal issues that are going on. Because money is just a tool that we use to build a better society," he added.
He believes that despite the controversy, Bitcoiners will see the value in what the Social Network and Earth Wallet are attempting to do and adopt the project. Sanghera concluded that while Bitcoin is supposed to be the future of money, it needs to be beneficial to all of society instead of a small subset of finance people.
