What Is DeSo (DESO)?

DeSo, or the Decentralised Social Network (DESO), is a custom-built layer-1 blockchain (solutions that improve the base protocol itself) platform to scale and power a new category of decentralized social applications to users worldwide. The platform paves the way for social media to become an open utility rather than a privately held monopoly. 

According to DeSo documents, social media is centralized, and many private companies control the public discourse. These companies further earn monopoly profits on content created by users. Meanwhile, content creators are underpaid, underengaged, and undermonetized. In addition, the ads-driven business model prevents external developers from innovating or building apps on top of it. It also gives users and creators no choice but to continue using apps that private companies solely control. Because of limited access, only these companies can curate competitive feeds, build competitive new features and apps, and monetize the content. Moreover, social applications generate much data, and existing blockchains are not equipped to store and index them. 

Interestingly, DeSo aims to solve these problems by introducing a content distribution model by decentralizing social media. The platform is 100% open-source, and the entire content is stored directly on-chain. The network stores its entire data on a public blockchain, which implies that anybody in the world can run a node that shows their curated feed.

Further, the DeSo platform pioneers three categories of products that change how creators monetize on the internet. 

1. Social tokens: On DeSo, every profile gets its coin that anybody can buy and sell. These coins are called creator coins, and the user can own these coins by simply creating a profile. When people buy, the price of each coin goes up and vice versa. Creator coins are an asset class type related to an individual's reputation rather than a commodity or a company. The creator coin holders enjoy the following benefits:

• Premium Messages

• Sponsored Posts

• Premium Content

• Distributions and Engagement

• Money Likes

• Emergent Phenomena

Social tokens on the platform earn cash flows from NFT sales and all forms of creator monetization.

2. Social tipping: DeSo is money-native and works on tipping with content. The core mechanic introduced on the platform is called "diamonds." The platform allows users to give variable amounts of money to content. Diamond is one of the main applications built on the DeSo platform and filters the blockchain content to prevent showing harmful or illegal content. Tips can be directly integrated with content. For example, rather than just "likes," users are allowed to give "diamonds" to posts.

3. Social NFTs: DeSo NFTs allow users to engage around their NFTs via comments, likes, diamonds, and more. This has brought a shift in the act of buying NFTs from a purely personal or economic motive to an inherently social one. NFTs minted on the platform are associated with the artist's profile and shown on the buyer's profile. This enhances the provenance while making the NFTs inherently social and valuable. 

DeSo has been designed from the ground up so that the system's incentives keep it decentralized, even in the long run. Because of the incentive, creators can post their content directly to the blockchain platform rather than to a centralized app that withholds the content from the blockchain. Since the data is publicly available on the blockchain, the platform ensures developers cannot lose APIs or access to data.

The DeSo blockchain has its native cryptocurrency, called DESO. DESO token can be used on the platform for buying creator coins along with other uses.

History of DeSo (DESO)

Nader Al-Naji created DeSo blockchain in early 2019. He studied computer science at Princeton. He worked in high-frequency trading at D. E. Shaw and is the creator of BitClout, a high-profile social app built on the DeSo blockchain.

The DeSo platform is supported by the DeSo Foundation, a non-profit organization. The mission of the DeSo Foundation is to support the decentralization of social media.

How Are New DESO Tokens Created? 

DeSo runs on a hybrid proof-of-work consensus mechanism that lets it use far less energy. The platform aims to develop a proof-of-stake proposal that will be well-suited to supporting the unique constraints of social applications.

How Many DESO Tokens Are There?

The total max supply of DeSo is approximately 10.8 million.

How to Buy DESO Tokens?

The DeSo coin can be purchased through exchanges like Coinbase.