Minds Whitepaper
Minds Whitepaper
Minds Whitepaper
THE CRYPTO SOCIAL NETWORK
minds.com | minds.org
W H I T E P A P E R
V0.3 | Subject to change
Authors
Bill Ottman, Founder and CEO
Mark Harding, Co-founder and CTO
John Ottman, Co-founder and Chairman
Jack Ottman, Chief Operating Officer
A B S T R A C T
We are an open source and decentralized social networking platform where users
are rewarded with Minds tokens for contributions to the community. Our goal is to
build a new model for content creators to take back their Internet freedom,
revenue and social reach.
There is a crisis occurring in the social networking world. S
urveillance, algorithm manipulation and
censorship are infecting the web at unprecedented levels. For the first time in history, millions of users
are abandoning traditional, centralized social apps in favor of freedom-based alternatives.
Alongside this mass migration, blockchain technology and other decentralized solutions are rapidly
entering the mainstream. The fusion of crypto and social applications is both inevitable and essential to
the continued healthy evolution of social media and the Internet itself.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of Minds, a leader in this mass Internet migration
and free software movement, and to introduce the Minds token, an ERC-20 utility token that will be
issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
In the Minds contribution economy, users and developers will be rewarded for a variety of contributions
to the network including generating high quality content, account setup and verification, referring new
users, maintaining an active channel, finding bugs, successfully submitting code and more. Tokenized
rewards provide the key incentive to help foster a richer and more rewarding user experience, and the
growth and long-term sustainability of the network.
Minds tokens will be immediately usable upon receipt on day one. They will be required for use of the
application through immediate integration into Boost, a transparent and blockchain-based ad network,
and Wire, the Minds peer-to-peer payment system. Both Boost and Wire will leverage smart contracts
to enable the autonomous exchange of digital media and services for crypto-tokens, creating a radical
shift in how social networking ecosystems and marketplaces operate in the 21st century.
2
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Abstract 2
Table of Contents 3
1. Introduction 4
a. Overview 4
b. Minds Beta 5
c. The Minds Token 8
6. Technology 23
7. Team 24
a. Management 24
b. Team 25
c. Advisors 26
Addendum 27
3
1. I N T R O D U C T I O N
a. Overview
During the Minds Beta launch in 2015, hundreds of thousands of users rushed to the network for
greater organic reach, privacy and monetization opportunities.
Today, Minds is the leading open source social network in the world with approximately 1 million
registered users. In July of 2017 we closed a record-breaking SEC Regulation Crowdfunding campaign,
raising $1.03 million from 1,541 investors worldwide in just 19 days, proving the demand for a more
open and cooperative business model in social media.1
As Minds evolves, the goal of putting users first remains at the forefront of every business decision. A
crypto-contribution economy running on the blockchain is a direct response to feedback and demands
from the community and will have a positive impact on the network by incentivizing contributions,
increasing revenue opportunity and providing an additional layer of transparency and autonomous
operations.
1
https://wefunder.com/minds
4
b. Minds Beta
The Minds network has steadily grown since launching Beta in 2015. The application has quickly
gained 73 million unique visitors, 223 million+ pageviews, 1 million registered users and 105,000+
logged-in monthly active users. The growth of the network has helped Minds strengthen its position as
a viable alternative to the mainstream social networks that have recently come under public scrutiny.2
2
http://observer.com/2017/05/minds-open-sourced-social-media-facebook-competitor/
5
Minds Beta introduced P oints which are earned by interacting with the site (checking-in, referring new
users, receiving votes, comments, shares, posting, etc.) or purchased in exchange for views, shares and
other rewards across the network. The reward system quickly gained traction and has since become
integral to the platform as the most popular feature.
To date, users have earned over 1 billion Points through the Minds reward system and over 100 million
Points have been purchased directly.
Points provide users with value in two ways:
1. Users may exchange Points to Boost their content and receive guaranteed views from the
network (1 point = 1 view).
2. Users may Wire points directly to other channels as a tip or to pay for a premium subscription to
exclusive content and unlock rewards.
The Boost system has grown significantly (1271.79%) since its introduction. We assert that our growth
is essentially validation that the surrender of personal privacy to digital surveillance is not required for
successful content exposure in the attention economy.
Boost has already served users with over 500 million views and is currently serving over 40 million
views per month and over 1 million views per day. The system has gained popularity quickly because
users are able to extend their reach beyond their existing subscribers. Minds makes it easier for
influencers, publishers, and the like to increase exposure on their content and grow a following, even
when compared to top mainstream networks.
6
Minds Wire i s the peer-to-peer payment system that enables users to exchange their Points and USD
for digital media views (impressions), exclusive content, premium subscriptions and rewards. Since its
introduction in July of 2017, the Wire system has already executed over 150,000 transactions for a total
volume of over 150 million Points and thousands of dollars in payments to top content creators.
The goal of Minds Beta was to build out the software and infrastructure to scale as an open source
social network powered by a digital reward system. Points, Wire and Boost have proven successful and
establish the foundation for the Minds contribution economy. Minds Beta has demonstrated that a
sustainable reward system leveraged by an online community is not only successful, but a preferred
model for social media interaction over mainstream alternatives.
7
Minds tokens will be used to deliver services on Minds, including Boost and Wire, with smart contracts
that are cryptographically secure and transparent, as the contract terms may be verified and audited by
anyone. This provides the community with a true peer-to-peer, decentralized token that enables
autonomous and independent relationships between creators, supporters and advertisers.
The added dimension of incentives and rewards encourages users to share their content and be active
on the network. Minds tokens may be used to subscribe to exclusive content, tip other users for their
quality content, or purchase advertising views from the network or a specific channel’s audience.
Minds will offer users the choice between OnChain and OffChain transactions. OnChain transactions
benefit from being published and secured on the public blockchain, while OffChain transactions benefit
from speed and no transaction fees.
OffChain tokens will be referenced and stored on a non-public database maintained by Minds. These
tokens will be stored in Minds’ reserve wallet and will directly represent a 1:1 reservation of OnChain
tokens. Users will only be able to Boost OffChain for up to 5,000 views and Wire 100 tokens/day. These
8
thresholds are subject to change in accordance with development requirements and community
feedback.
The Minds Points system proved the massive demand for a social network built around user rewards.
The platform has been fully developed and is functional. In order to provide a smooth transition from
Points to a token-based economy, we tested the Minds token on the Rinkeby Ethereum test network,
which included a full integration with the rewards system, Wire and Boost.
This testing period is critical because it allows time to audit the smart contracts, uncover potential
security vulnerabilities or bugs, fine tune the reward system and finalize the token economics and
distribution schedule prior to moving into full production. The token economics can be found in the
Addendum attached to the end of this whitepaper.
9
2. A B U S E O F P O W E R
Mainstream social networks have demonstrated limited transparency and little willingness to share
information or revenue with their creators. The bare minimum of what is requested by the media and
users is disclosed. These extractive business models are driven by Big Brother practices of
surveillance, secrecy and censorship. It is unfortunate that such innovative projects which have
accomplished so much in terms of human interconnectivity and communication are unwilling to share
source code and revenue. These are the ethical actions necessary to compel the global community to
maintain the trust required for their continued growth.
a. Algorithm Manipulation
Algorithm manipulation and organic reach restriction3 have become pervasive in mainstream social
networks. This practice has caused outrage among content creators for silencing voices,4 shattering
income5 and transforming user experiences into psychological experiments.6 Entire industries7 and
small businesses have been impacted, and livelihoods have disappeared overnight with no regard for
the immense contribution and energy these users invested to build their followings. Facebook
engagement for brands and publishers fell 20% in 2017 alone, bringing organic reach down as low as
2%.8
3
https://www.forbes.com/sites/federicoguerrini/2015/06/15/struggling-with-facebook-organic-reach-decline-try-this-new-open-source-social-networking-app/
4
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-hey-nice-media-you-got-there-shame-if-some-1819791648 https://minds.com/boost
5
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/14/16648348/youtube-demonetizing-iphone-x-videos
6
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/everything-we-know-about-facebooks-secret-mood-manipulation-experiment/373648/
7
http://fortune.com/2012/07/12/the-facebook-tweak-that-killed-a-billion-dollar-industry/
8
http://buzzsumo.com/blog/facebook-engagement-brands-publishers-falls-20-2017/
10
Depending on the acceptability of certain content, Facebook Pages have seen their ranking and
discoverability significantly impacted. Unaccountable forces are at work behind the scenes dictating
policy and technology decisions with regards to content reach and whether or not certain content may
be monetized.
Facebook just recently began experimenting with new types of feeds in certain countries, where all
content posted by Pages goes into a separate feed. The results were staggering, with some brands
reporting a 67% reduction in organic reach and a 50% reduction in engagement.9 A system has been
created where people and brands are no longer able to reach even their own friends and followers.
Algorithms are not inherently negative. There are many strong arguments for providing users with
supplementary options for alternative newsfeeds and tailored search results based on past behavior
and tendencies. The problem arises when these decisions are made without the consent of the user.
9
https://medium.com/@filip_struharik/biggest-drop-in-organic-reach-weve-ever-seen-b2239323413
10
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/03/20/silence-from-zuckerberg-sandberg-on-facebook-scandal-like-putting-gasoline-on-fire.html
11
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/10/31/its-time-to-end-the-secrecy-and-opacity-of-social-media/?utm_term=.8fab5e5c28fb
12
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5738232786001/
13
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-disclosure-about-russian-political-ads-sparks-debate-on-transparency-1504878093
14
http://adage.com/article/digital/pewdiepie-declares-adpocalypse-youtube-makes-rules/308591/
11
revealed that their earnings had declined anywhere from 30% to 99% since the platforms began
demonetizing videos that were not deemed advertiser friendly.15 Just recently, YouTube went as far as
changing their monetization policy to require 1,000 followers and 4,000 hours of views in the past year,
which effectively demonetized thousands of small content creators.16 This trend has forced many
creators to find other ways to earn revenue, a transition that resulted in the rapid emergence of new
crowdfunding and revenue-sharing options.
In addition, mainstream networks have started showing a double standard and are not treating all users
equally under their policies.17 There is a glaring hole in the existing business model for social media
advertising because the platforms are acting as gatekeepers to advertisers. YouTube could, at any
time, decide to demonetize a video because it is not advertiser friendly, but in reality, there may be
hundreds or thousands of brands and advertisers who may not object to running their promotion on
the video in question because of the audience and level of engagement. Rather than having a
corporation make these judgments, Minds solves this problem by allowing content creators, publishers
and advertisers to handle their relationships independent of any centralized authority and directly
between each other.
Blockchain technology and other tools for decentralized architectures are still young. Many centralized
services remain beneficial for user experience and scalability, among other things. Minds has adopted
a hybridized approach that incorporates both centralized and decentralized architectures to capture the
benefits of each. Our criticism of mainstream networks revolves mostly around lack of transparency
and commitment to decentralizing power. For this reason, Minds has taken the initial step towards
decentralization with its monetization system.
Minds is one of the few social networking platforms that truly embodies the transparency movement
by keeping the entire software stack free and open source (and not just the added blockchain or token
layer). We hope that more companies will follow suit, allowing tech innovation to exponentially increase
in speed and efficiency in the coming years.
15
http://www.tubefilter.com/2017/05/04/how-youtube-adpocalypse-affected-top-creators/
16
https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/17/16900474/youtube-monetization-small-creators-adsense
17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOa6PA8XQtQ
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3. T H E C O N T R I B U T I O N E C O N O M Y
Centralized social networks have become outdated. Rather than rewarding those who are contributing
the content that drives traffic and attention to the networks, they exploit them to increase their own
advertising revenue and bottom line growth.
Minds operates under a new business model that fairly rewards users for their contributions to the
network with revenue and expanded reach. Additionally, Minds provides content creators with the tools
they need to successfully monetize their content independently with their peers. These tools include
crowdfunding, paid subscriptions, ad revenue-sharing, tipping, peer-to-peer advertising and a proven
contribution-driven reward system.
The implementation of crypto-tokens with the reward system allows users and developers to translate
their time and energy into tokens that hold real, lasting value on the Minds platform. By coupling
peer-to-peer monetization tools with a properly structured, incentive-based reward system, Minds has
built a sustainable digital economy that effectively rewards the users who contribute the most to the
network.
Minds will issue tokens for ongoing user and developer rewards. A predetermined number of tokens,
based on the number of daily participants, will be rewarded at the end of each day as a Daily Reward
Pool. An individual’s daily contribution will be determined by how much they contributed to the network
that day relative to the entire community. This percentage will then be applied to the Daily Reward Pool
to determine each individual’s daily token grants.
13
All contribution rewards will be deposited into a recipient’s OffChain address, located in their Minds
wallet. Users will maintain the ability to withdraw these tokens from their OffChain address into their
OnChain address. Users wishing to transfer their tokens to their OnChain address will be required to
pay a small ETH transaction fee to cover the gas usage of the payout.
The specific weighted scores for each contribution can be found in the addendum attached at the end
of the whitepaper. Minds maintains the right to alter these scores, as it is essential to maintain
flexibility with the scoring system in order to ensure that the system is fair and can evolve with the
network as it grows.
a. User Rewards
Quality content is essential in order for a social network to grow and thrive -- it is the driving force
behind attracting new users and making sure they stick around. It is one of the major reasons tech
giants like Facebook and Google have accrued so much power. However, the creators of this content
are, objectively, not being fairly rewarded for their efforts. They do the heavy lifting yet reap none of the
benefits.18
Minds is changing this dynamic with its contribution economy. Creators earn tokens for producing
quality content that drives traffic and receives votes, comments, subscribers and Reminds (the Minds
sharing function). Additionally, creators earn Minds tokens by referring new users to the site. This
equals an added benefit of an accelerated network effect.
Another contribution that is equally valuable to the growth of a social network is user attention. From a
content creator’s perspective, a network is only worth the engagement it provides. For this reason, it is
important to also measure user attention from a ‘time spent’ perspective when determining a user’s
contribution to the network in a given day. An activity-based crypto-reward mechanism is valuable to
both active users and the network itself considering that monthly active users (MAU), daily active users
(DAU) and hourly active users (HAU) are essential metrics to quantifying growth and stickiness of
modern social applications.
18
https://digiday.com/media/publishers-seek-to-apply-pressure-on-facebook-to-improve-ad-monetization-issues/
14
b. Development Rewards
Another area of contribution that Minds will provide crypto rewards for is enhancement of the software.
Minds is 100% free and open source, so the code is free to the public for peer review and contribution.19
Free and open source software (FOSS) is becoming more widely adopted than ever before. Today,
there are over one million open source projects in development20 and roughly 95% of applications are
leveraging open source technology to some extent.21 The transparent nature of open source software
sparks innovation at a much more rapid rate than with proprietary technology because it opens it up to
rigorous peer-review and new use cases. Open source has the benefit of increasing security due to its
publicly auditable nature.22 Combined with the Developer Rewards program, there is also an incentive
for users to disclose such vulnerability and exploits.
Minds will reward developers for finding bugs, identifying security vulnerabilities and making
contributions to the code or open source documentation. Since the level of contribution can vary
significantly, all development rewards will first need to be reviewed by Minds to determine the amount
rewarded. Minds will evaluate reward sizes for bugs according to severity calculated by the OWASP risk
rating model which is dependent on Impact and Likelihood. Contributed software for new features and
the final reward amount will be approved or rejected at the sole discretion of Minds.
New features will also be considered, but Minds will only issue rewards for new features that are first
approved and then implemented on the network. All submissions for new features must be in line with
our philosophies of Internet freedom, exponential reach and improved monetization and user rights.
c. Beta Rewards
In addition to the ongoing contribution reward system, Minds will reserve tokens for a one-time reward
to all members of the Beta community. Rewarding early adopters is important as the network would
not be anywhere close to where it is today without the energy and dedication of the Beta community.
A snapshot of all existing Point balances was taken on January 29th at 5:00 pm EST. The snapshot
method was chosen because it was the most fair way to get data for every user’s Points balance
without giving anyone the chance for abuse or manipulation. More details regarding the specific
conversion process for this reward can be found in the Addendum attached to the end of this
whitepaper.
19
https://minds.org
20
https://opensourcestrategyforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Open-Source-Sparks-Innovation-_-BGracely-_-2017.11.08-1.pdf
21
http://vmblog.com/archive/2017/11/30/black-duck-software-2018-predictions-what-s-in-store-for-open-source-in-2018.aspx#.Wigx6ktrzUJ
22
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/06/open-source_sof.html
15
e. OffChain Balances
To secure a user’s OffChain balance and prevent a balance from being spent more than once by
multiple transactions, Minds uses a two-phased locking system. Once a user initiates a transaction,
their balance is immediately locked with a Lightweight transaction (this ensures that all nodes in the
cluster receive the write).23 Should a user attempt to initiate another transaction during the lock period,
the request will be denied until the lock is released.
All OffChain transactions are stored on the Minds databases for reference with application level
immutability. The database uses a replication factor of three which ensures that the data is maintained
on at least three active nodes at any given time. We will monitor and review all user balances daily to
check for anomalies and will continue to follow and implement cyber security best practices, such as
continuous threat monitoring and frequent software audits.
23
https://docs.datastax.com/en/cassandra/2.1/cassandra/dml/dml_ltwt_transaction_c.html
16
4. B O O S T : A D N E T W O R K
Traditional social networks have come under public scrutiny over the past few years with regards to
advertising fraud, algorithm manipulation and disinformation. As issues with fake news continue to
make global headlines, it has become abundantly clear that the current centralized social networking
system is broken due to a host of reasons - most importantly, a lack of transparency.
Minds takes numerous actions to make the network as transparent as possible while maintaining user
privacy. First and foremost, the code is 100% free and open source and available to the public. Second,
Minds publishes an annual financial report with the SEC.24 Finally, Minds is moving all of its advertising
business onto the blockchain with the implementation of smart contracts to key products such as
Boost and Wire.
Social networking communities are starting to demand more transparency from their proprietary
service providers as issues with demonetization, restricted reach, censorship and fraud continue to
emerge. Community oversight is essential to security, efficiency, innovation and cooperative corporate
infrastructure in general. By licensing the platform as AGPLv3, Minds is able to protect itself from
proprietary modifications and provide a foundational dedication to transparency.
Minds is taking transparency to the next level by leveraging smart contracts for all OnChain Boost
advertising transactions. Amidst the fog recently surrounding digital advertising fraud and
disinformation, this provides accountability to the public regarding the source of all paid advertising, as
there will be a publicly auditable ledger of advertising transactions.
24
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1703996/000167025417000102/0001670254-17-000102-index.htm
17
The smart contracts for the Boost system will contain specific data disclosures to all advertising on the
platform. This data will include the Boost GUID (global unique identifier), the wallet address of both the
sender and receiver, the amount that was transacted and a MD5 checksum to verify the integrity of the
data.
Minds also provides content creators with the ability to manage relationships with advertisers directly
through the peer-to-peer Boost feature. Peer-to-peer Boost is a paid promotion tool, where users can
send offers of Minds tokens to other users in exchange for a guaranteed placement of content to their
audience that can never be deleted.
Every Minds token transaction will establish a direct, peer-to-peer relationship between advertisers and
content creators with a smart contract. This enables creators to autonomously own the relationship
with their advertisers and eliminates any risk of third party interference or demonetization. The Boost
protocol is platform agnostic and may be implemented not just on Minds.com, but anywhere on the
web including your own website.
All parties benefit from the security of a negotiated contract. The advertiser can revoke their offer up
until the creator decides to accept or reject. The creator will immediately receive their funds upon
accepting an offer. If the offer is rejected, the advertiser will not be charged.
Leveraging Minds tokens and their associated smart contracts transforms digital advertising. Fraud
and abuse are prevented by the distributed blockchain and smart contracts are effectively unbreakable
18
agreements because the terms are transparent and auditable to any party with access to the chain.
The integrity of Boosts can be ensured by the validation of a checksum of the content on the
blockchain and on the local ad network.
For the checksum, Minds will use a simple, yet effective MD5 hash of the following attributes
(boost_guid, boost type (newsfeed, offer, sidebar), owner_guid, perma_url, message, title, time_created).
Should any of these variables change in the future, it will generate a new MD5 checksum, indicating
that the integrity of the Boost has been modified. Whilst MD5 has been widely deprecated from use as
a password hashing algorithm due to its chances of possible collisions, it provides a quick and
inexpensive 32-byte hash for simple change validation.
EXAMPLE:
//Hash to be stored on the blockchain at time of boost creation:
md5('10001' . 'newsfeed' . '20002' . 'https://minds.com/token' . 'This is a message' . '' . '1519753264');
0475e37f931634df0afa78139a08f991
//Example of a modified message that will not match what was stored on the blockchain:
md5('10001' . 'newsfeed' . '20002' . 'https://minds.com/token' . 'This is a different message that changed' . '' .
'1519753264');
3ee910ec8d9966b8ee3ef658ef581fd9 <--- different than hash above due to modification of message
19
5. W I R E : D E C E N T R A L I Z E D P A Y M E N T S
The recent outbreak of demonetization and censorship on mainstream social media has exposed
major flaws with a centralized system, as it allows a central authority to possess too much control over
the livelihood and revenue opportunity of the users. This becomes an issue with social networks in
particular, as all content is user-generated and ranges from all across the political spectrum. Content
that does not fit the agendas of the tech giants appears to be unfairly punished, without any regard to
how popular the content may be with a community.25
These issues have caused a resurgence in grass-roots monetization strategies such as crowdfunding,
tipping, direct advertising and donations. Content creators are reaching back out to their loyal
supporters to help recover the lost revenue from sharing content that is not politically correct enough
for mainstream advertisers. Many new companies have emerged to capitalize on this movement, but
almost all of them are built on a similar centralized philosophy and thus carry the same problems. The
centralized company owns the contract between the creator and their supporter, and therefore also
owns the ability to demonetize and implement high fee structures.
By leveraging smart contracts for peer-to-peer payments, Minds is enabling content creators to
autonomously own the relationships with their supporters and advertisers without any risk of
interference from a centralized authority or service provider. Because Minds tokens and the associated
protocols are open source and platform agnostic, the risk of demonetization is effectively eliminated.
25
https://www.wired.com/story/facebooks-hate-speech-policies-censor-marginalized-users/
20
Offering tools for peer-to-peer monetization coupled alongside a contribution-driven reward system
provides content creators with an end-to-end revenue model and incentive to help grow the network
with their influence. The result is an ecosystem where the users who are creating the highest quality
content, as determined by the community, will be rewarded with the most revenue and reach.
b. Recurring Payments
One of the most essential aspects of the peer-to-peer revenue model is recurring subscription
payments. For recurring subscriptions to be possible on the blockchain, pre-approvals must be made to
the Wire smart contract so that funds are able to be claimed at later dates. However, the pre-approved
21
amount is not reserved by the Wire smart contract, so the sender will still maintain full autonomy and
ownership of their funds.
For example, if Mark wishes to make a recurring payment of 10 Minds tokens per month to Bill for one
year, Mark would need to pre-approve the Wire Smart Contract for 120 Minds tokens (12 months). This
would allow the contract to keep the subscription recurring for a year even though Mark still has the
ability to spend the full pre-approved amount of 120 tokens. If Mark does not have a sufficient amount
of tokens when the recurring payment is due, the transaction will fail.
22
6. T E C H N O L O G Y
Minds is an open source social media platform hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is built
using the most efficient and scalable modern technologies available. The full stack includes MongoDB,
Cassandra, Redis, ElasticSearch, Docker, Angular, Ethereum, OpenZeppelin, Truffle, GPLV3, PHP,
NativeScript, NodeJS, Socket, MetaMask, TypeScript, DroneCI, RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ, OpenSSL, NGINX,
React Native, GNU/Linux and Ubuntu.
The cross-platform app maintains a fully functional web application at https://minds.com.
Minds native mobile apps are built on top of React Native, allowing us to easily develop and release
dual platform.
Minds.com is running in production today and the Testnet is in a private Beta. More information on how
to access the Testnet can be found at https://minds.com/token. 100% of the Minds code will be open
sourced prior to the first distribution of tokens.
23
7. T E A M
a. Management
Bill Ottman - Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Bill founded Minds in 2011 with the goal of bringing a free, open source and sustainable social network
to the world. He co-founded multiple viral media organizations, holds a fellowship at Boston Global
Forum and serves on the Advisory Board of Code To Inspire, a non-profit building coding schools for
women in Afghanistan. He graduated from University of Vermont with a BA in English.
John Ottman - Chairman and Cofounder
In addition to his role as Minds chairman and co-founder, John is Executive Chairman of Solix
Technologies, Inc. and brings over 30 years of software industry experience. Previously, he
was President and CEO of Application Security, Inc. (Trustwave), President of Princeton
Softech, Inc. (IBM), and Executive Vice President, Worldwide Markets at Corio, Inc. (IBM).
He also has held key executive roles at Oracle, IBM and Wang Labs and is author of the
book Save the Database, Save the World!
24
b. Team
25
c. Advisors
26
ADDENDUM
minds.com | minds.org
V0.3 | Subject to change
Authors
Bill Ottman, Co-founder and CEO
Mark Harding, Co-founder and CTO
John Ottman, Co-founder and Chairman
Jack Ottman, Co-founder and COO
27
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1. Introduction 29
a. Testnet Results 30
b. Tokenizing Global Consciousness 30
2. Token Economics 31
a. Definitions 31
b. Token Allocation 31
c. Token Sales 31
d. Token Rewards 32
e. Transparency and Fairness 33
28
1. I N T R O D U C T I O N
Minds is a crypto social network where users earn token rewards for their contributions and take back
their Internet freedom. The Minds token is a utility token built with the Ethereum ERC-20 standard. The
token distribution process is uniquely designed to scale autonomously with the growth and activity on
the Minds network which ensures that the ecosystem is fair and based entirely on user contribution.
Minds tokens are not a currency or a security, but are a utility token used to fuel services on the Minds
social network, including:
Product Description
Boost An advertising network where users exchange tokens for views on their content or channel.
Wire A peer-to-peer payment system where users exchange tokens for tips and content subscriptions.
Plus A recurring monthly service that provides premium channel features, such as no ads.
Hosting Build your own white-labeled social network using Minds source code.
Affiliate Rewards Third party affiliate program to enable distributed rewards for your business and customers.
a. Testnet Results
The Minds token has been running on the Rinkeby Testnet26 since March 2018 and the experience has
provided valuable insight into the architecture to ensure that the distribution is fair and scalable. The
test results provided valuable insights into token usage both OnChain (stored on the distributed
26
https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/tokentxns?a=0x499e5a8a3e363d6279a670a9b3f6849a1fc06250&p=8
29
blockchain) and OffChain (stored on Minds servers). At the completion of the Testnet period, Minds
tokens have been distributed to approximately 900,000 users.
During the Testnet phase, we conducted several code audits to ensure that Minds’ infrastructure and
smart contracts are secure and ready for production. These audits were performed by Coinspect27, a
prominent blockchain and cyber-security firm. All issues that were identified during these tests have
been resolved and approved.
Below is a table summarizing the results from our Testnet phase:
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2. T O K E N E C O N O M I C S
a. Definitions
Term Definition
Tokens Reclaimed Total tokens reclaimed for Minds services (ie. Boost, Wire, Plus)
b. Token Allocation
Minds will designate a capped supply of tokens for both sales and contribution rewards. Tokens will
only be minted as needed on an ongoing basis, determined by the demand and activity from the
network. The following table describes the allocation of the token supply cap of one billion tokens:
Allocation Percent Tokens
c. Token Sales
Minds will sell tokens at https://minds.com/token to ensure that the tokens are widely distributed and
that users always have the ability to purchase them for utilization on the platform. Tokens will be
available for purchase for registered Minds users in exchange for Ether. Please read our Frequently
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Asked Questions for more information about purchasing tokens. All proceeds resulting from the sale of
tokens will be used to fund Minds operating expenses.
Orders for tokens in an amount less than 60 ETH are automatically approved. Purchases of tokens for
60 ETH or more are subject to review by Minds staff, and purchasers may be asked to confirm that
they are purchasing the tokens for use on the platform, and not as an investment.
The following table outlines the key elements regarding the sale of Minds tokens:
Minds Token Sale
Launch Date August 13, 2018, 12PM UTC
d. Token Rewards
i. Beta Rewards
Minds will distribute an initial token reward to its Beta community28 for their participation in Minds’
development and testing processes. The goal of the initial event is to reward users for their efforts thus
far and to jump-start the Minds token economy with enough immediate distribution to sustain network
activity during the transition phase.
28
Beta community is defined as all users with Testnet token balances prior to MainNet launch
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To claim your Beta Reward, visit y our wallet and follow the prompt to join the rewards program by
providing a mobile number (if you have not already done so). This enables us to create a unique
identifier for your channel and prevent users from abusing the system with fake channels. Once you
have completed this step, your wallet will be credited with your Beta Reward tokens. All users who
claim their Beta Reward will receive a token reward equal in value to their existing token balance from
the Testnet phase. If you need further assistance, you can visit our Frequently Asked Questions or the
Help & Support group.
ii. Ongoing Rewards
Minds will mint tokens on an ongoing basis to reward the community for their contributions to the
network. The token supply is engineered to scale autonomously with the growth of the network. Tokens
that are reclaimed for Minds services will be recycled into the reward pool or sold in order to help
replenish the token supply. We will also occasionally run promotional airdrops of tokens to reward
users and incentivize certain activity on the network.
The following table outlines the scoring system used to determine user contribution:
Contribution Weighted Score
Vote 1
Comment 2
Check-in 2
Subscriber 4
Remind 4
Referral 10
OnChain Transactions 10
Development Manually Reviewed
Each day, Minds takes the sum of all user contribution scores to determine the Total Network Score.
The Total Network Score is used to determine the number of tokens rewarded in the Daily Reward Pool.
Term Definition
Daily Reward Pool Total Network Score * Multiplier
Multiplier (π/100) = 0
.0314159265359
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build a fair and democratic system by tying the token distribution directly to the demand and activity of
the network and by giving all users equal opportunity to contribute and earn.
Founders, advisors and employees of Minds are not allocated any additional supply of tokens and will
be subject to the same distribution rules as the rest of the community. Every user’s vote counts for the
same amount, and every voice has equal ability to be heard. The key for any fair economy is for
everyone to have an equal chance at making it to the top. Success on Minds is measured by unique
daily interaction for maximum fairness and reward integrity as opposed to other models that give the
users with a higher token balance more voting power.
The Ethereum blockchain is governed by the Ethereum governance compendium29 for all
improvements, project management and technical decisions regarding the blockchain and its
infrastructure.
The proven philosophy that Minds has always acted upon is one of community-driven code evolution
and putting users first. This model maximizes network effect because it benefits the most users and
inspires an ethos of contributionism and meritocracy. Network activity will always be the main
determinant of the distribution, but Minds will likely evolve the code on occasion. All changes will be
published publicly for full transparency and all users are encouraged to make software submissions.30
29
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Governance-compendium
30
https://github.com/minds
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