Decentralized App Peepeth Forgoes ICO, Opts for Kickstarter

Peepeth, a decentralized social media platform, began its crowdfunding campaign on August 20. Unlike most startups of its kind, the project is skipping an ICO and has instead decided to use a Kickstarter to gain initial funding. It reached 13% of its goal within the first day of the campaign.

The initial crowdfunding campaign is just one part of Peepeth’s revenue model. The remainder of the business plan is fairly unique: Peepeth is a dApp, which means you must have Ethereum to peep. However, for most regular users, this serves as a returnable deposit as only spammers are charged.

“Peepeth foots the bill for you— but spammers lose their free-peeping privilege, making spamming a relatively expensive prospect,” reads a description on the Kickstarter page.

Peepeth also charges for verified accounts and takes a small cut of tipped cryptocurrencies.

Unlike most blockchain projects, Peepeth doesn’t use any native tokens and only has a valueless points system. Peepeth has not said why it has chosen not to issue tokens, but securities regulations have made ICOs a legal minefield, and many ICOs that try simply fail. Additionally, many perfectly viable cryptocurrencies already exist: on Peepeth, you can issue tips in other cryptos.

One of Many Social Networks

Decentralized social networks have become trendy in recent weeks. Steemit was an early platform that continues to dominate this area, but Minds and Everipedia have joined in more recently.

These platforms almost always have anti-censorship measures and user-based curation. Although Peepeth has a terms of service that can lead to content being hidden, posts are usually published permanently on the blockchain.

“Peepeth gives you true ownership of your online legacy because data is saved to the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain data is open, decentralized, and immutable.”

Right now, Peepeth is in its invite-only phase. However, requests for invitations are open, and it can be freely browsed. Peepeth is only a few months old, and its elaborate revenue model may help it gain prominence over other blockchain-based Twitter clones, such as Mastodon and the now-defunct Leeroy.io.

Peepeth expects to deliver a final product in early 2019.