Over the past period, the Matters team has been intensively working on the first version of the white paper. In this version of the white paper, we elaborate on Matters' philosophy, ecosystem, operating mechanism, how to use blockchain technology, and the project route.

In the design of Matters, a very important part is the design of rules, and rules need to come from consensus. Gaining community consensus is also one of the important spirits of blockchain technology. This first draft contains our initial vision, vision, and inspiration for Matters as the product evolves. The first version of the white paper (Ver 1.0) will be officially released at the end of May. The version you see now is the first draft (ver 0.8.6), which is a text-only version. There will be several iterations in between. The white paper is in progress, and I look forward to seeing everyone's comments or criticisms, and we can all discuss and revise it further.

(This version of the white paper is only open to the matter community for the time being, please don't spread it out, thank you!)

Hope the final release version can get your support!

You can leave a message directly below this post and we will respond as soon as possible.

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Matters White Paper: Redefining the Content Value Chain

(Draft Call for Comments Ver 0.8.6)

5/2018

Summary:

Matters Project seeks to build a content ecosystem that enables content creators to be rewarded directly on a decentralized publishing and social platform. This system generates a community-based content evaluation model, hoping to achieve the following cycle: good content creators become important evaluators, important evaluators will also lead to more good content, and good content will get the best content. The reward, the generous reward encourages good content creators. The establishment of this cycle is to get rid of traditional content agents and centralized algorithms driven by advertising interests, and return all the chain terminals and economic returns of content value to the creators.

This model itself is abstract, but blockchain technology (especially the smart contract mechanism) and distributed data storage and distribution technology make all data including content, community and community rules out of the control of institutions when they are generated. Hard to be censored, tampered with, black-boxed, or monopolized. Cryptocurrencies also facilitate this economic cycle with respect for content creators as the core rule.

today's question

The media in the traditional definition is a content agency. Through the professional reporting ability of reporters and the screening and curation ability of editors, it produces and delivers the latest content to the audience and builds brands. In the old media era, audiences obtained content by purchasing bundled media (such as newspapers/magazines, etc.), and media organizations received income from this; this part of the income was usually not enough to cover the cost, so the media would also resell the audience's "attention" For advertisers, by publishing large advertisements, they can obtain additional income and profits, and then distribute them to creators in the form of salary or royalties.

However, the Internet era has first completely subverted the form of media, taking away most of the "attention", so the advertising economy cannot be sustained on a single traditional media. Over the past 15 years, for example, newspaper advertising revenue in the U.S. has fallen from about $60 billion to $20 billion, nearly wiping out gains from the previous 50 years. The rise of online platforms has sucked content, traffic, and most of the advertising profits, making it difficult for traditional media to survive. In 2016, new online giants Google and Facebook accounted for 20% of total global media ad spending. But at the same time, the benefits of the platform are not correspondingly fed back to content creators.

In order to stick to the audience's attention to a greater extent, the network platforms mainly based on social networks use algorithm filtering to push personalized content to different audiences, and at the same time obtain more accurate audience data and exchange them with advertisers. This makes popular content further blessed, and serious, high-quality, public content is difficult to gain equal attention on the platform. In this order of information, it is especially difficult for creators of serious content to be rewarded accordingly. In public areas, bad money drives out good money, and the social agenda is torn apart.

Matters' Vision

Many people are worried about the structure of the content industry. Existing large media brands have promoted a lot of experiments, but also face the problem of heavy burdens of the traditional system and difficulties in realizing the existing structure. On the other hand, although the ability of social networks to attract attention and generate income has killed traditional media, its quality and pattern are unsustainable and even collapsed.

The Matters team believes that high-quality content remains what humanity needs to keep progressing, and will play an important role in any society that aspires to progress. "[We can imagine the future] If you need the truth, the internet isn't giving you a bunch of weird, paranoid conspiracy theories." Although the production efficiency of traditional media lags behind that of social networks, the professional ability to create content and the credibility of quality monitoring still have important value. If the mechanisms for exerting these values can be recombined and optimized, it is possible to create a positive cycle of operation, which can not only resume public responsibility, but also be self-sustaining.

At Matters, we hope to promote the realization of an open content ecosystem that is not only economically dependent on advertising, interactively not subject to censorship, but can more effectively promote the large-scale production and emergence of valuable content.

Components of the Matters Ecosystem

Audience (readers ): No need to pay, to see the content of the Matters platform

MAT: Tokens issued by Matters based on blockchain technology and circulated on the Matters platform.

Users (content creators ): Enter the Matters platform by purchasing MAT. Create content (text, pictures, videos, etc.) on the Matters platform, get MAT appreciation and accumulate community reviews.

• High-quality social interaction
• Enjoy all intellectual property rights, customize copyright rules
• Content is permanently stored
• Receive ongoing MAT appreciation and instant financial rewards
• Verified users have authority and can rate other creators' content

User (Interactive Participant) : Enter the Matters community by purchasing MAT, participate in high-quality discussions and interact with the community through comments, appreciation, etc.

• Participate in high-quality discussions on the Matters platform
• Like the content you like, so that creators can benefit instantly
• Interaction can also be appreciated by MAT

User (institution & community participation ): Access the Matters system through Matters' API (Application Programming Interface), and use the Matters economic system and infrastructure.

• Create an exclusive publishing platform
• Easy to buy article copyright
• Distribute quality content quickly

Data: Content (text, pictures, videos, etc.) produced on the Matters platform will be stored on the Matters blockchain. The initial information, modification, editing and usage of the content will be recorded through the blockchain.

MAT Merchant : Support MAT for other commodity transactions (such as coffee/BnB), or cross-platform use (such as media and publishers).

The mechanics of the CDAR model

Matters is built on a philosophy of Sharism. In the Internet era, sharing is more convenient than ever, but whether sharing can generate follow-up returns will determine whether a person's sharing behavior can continue, and social media has not solved this problem. Sharism is based on a model of group selection, which goes beyond simple individual selection or Darwinism, and attempts to solve a large-scale positive screening mechanism for content value.

We devised a new content creation/evaluation cycle. This model starts from personal creation, and after interactive discussions in high-quality communities, it is expected to form an atmosphere of filtering and evaluation.

The so-called evaluation is reflected in the way of giving appreciation to the content. This appreciation is usually a "Like" or "Upvote" design on social media, which is designed to give content creators a psychological boost. But social media stops there. People don’t get direct rewards beyond psychological satisfaction by sharing, so there’s no way to ensure continued sharing. We believe that ultimately people still need a substantial incentive, that is, earning a financial return that matches the appreciation, and only when this process is fully realized can it truly motivate people to keep sharing.

Under this vision, Matters' core model forms an accelerated cycle: Creation → Discussion → Appreciation → Remuneration, which we call the "CDAR" model.

The first three steps of this model (that is, C, D, and A) have been widely used in social media, but the resulting ecology is a chaotic content space, and it is easy to fall into an infinite loop. So Matters added R at the end: Since you really appreciate it, give him a currency that can be used!

The biggest uniqueness of CDAR is that it directly connects the reward (R) part in the ecology of social media, which will make the appreciated content generate financial returns with real monetary value. In the CDAR model, the creator's revenue is 100% unfiltered by intermediaries, so it can form a self-centered continuous feedback mechanism. As long as someone is willing to continuously produce content, it can motivate the entire community, so that the CDAR model can promote the parallel development and interconnection of more people and content, and finally form a large-area content fabric (Content Fabric). We expect the productivity of the CDAR model to be more automated and more efficient than traditional media models for producing content.

Content Evaluation System

CDAR is the basic model of Matters, which ensures the continuity of creation. But Matters also needs to have a set of evaluation mechanisms to allow good content to emerge, so as to ensure that good content continues to grow and spread more widely in the CDAR chain. This mechanism is realized through "people". Matters is designed with unique weights that differentiate raters in the system. When different users act on the content with their Gravity, they will bring about different evaluation results, and users with higher weights are more powerful in recommending the content. This is very different from social media. Matters places the onus on discovering good content to high-powered reviewers.

Weight is the social contract in the Matters ecosystem, which stipulates the rules for people's value accumulation in this system. The weight of each user will continue to act on the evaluation and appreciation of the content, and will also change the weight of other users in the system. Here is a hypothetical scenario for this system:

1. Alice (A) has entered the system for a period of time and has received enough community appreciation, and the weight has accumulated to 3; Bob (B) has just entered the system, and the weight is 1; Kylo (C) has entered the system for a while, and the weight is 2 .
2. Bob publishes the first article, and Alice finds it valuable, so she gives Bob some compliments. Because of the design of the weighting system, the amount of praise that Bob really gets is equivalent to Alice's weighting value. This amplified spending comes from public funds in the system.
3. Bob's articles will be more accessible to Kylo because of the likes of Alice's admiration. So she also gave Bob a compliment. At this time, the number of praises Bob gets is also equivalent to the weight value of Kylo.
4. After Bob gets praise from Alice, Kylo, and other users, Bob will be more willing to share more good content, and eventually he can cash these rewards for his own daily expenses.
5. As Bob's articles continue to receive praise, when the number of praise exceeds a level, Bob's weight will also increase.

Gravity is a number from 0 to 10. Users who are invited early will be given some higher weights, so their influence in evaluating content will be different from that of ordinary users who have just entered the system in the future. A high-weight user (for example, Gravity=6) will instantly increase the author's appreciation by 6 times, which is a wonderful lever to mobilize public funds in the entire system to reward content creators. The Public Fund mainly comes from the contribution brought by the continuous participation of community members, which is used to reduce the cost of admirers and reduce their psychological barriers when interacting. Their contributions can also eventually produce a "Tit for Tat" effect, allowing the entire system to enter a state of benign cooperation.

In addition to the early settings, the weight growth of users in the future depends entirely on the benefits they get in the system. So although the weight of users who join later starts from 1, there is no need to be discouraged, because they can get praise and increase their weight in the CDAR system through their efforts. The formula for calculating the weight is:

Gravity(P) = Log(MAT(P))- b

With the comprehensive design of the CDAR model and weighting rules, the appreciation of content is no longer just altruistic, but becomes a mutually beneficial collaborative behavior. Appreciation behavior based on weight is obviously not only altruistic, or beneficial to "acquaintances", but also beneficial to the entire content. Ecology, especially when the rules are clear and consistent, will form a virtuous circle. In particular, the early invited users have obvious social responsibilities and are more suitable for promoting the shaping of future rule systems.

Once the public participation is activated and more users who are already waiting outside enter, they will also naturally integrate into the mechanism instead of trying the law of the jungle. Because this mechanism encourages user creation, interaction and learning with high-quality communities, and realistic rewards, people will be willing to pay an entry fee to enter the system. We will open this registration process in batches to ensure sufficient scarcity effects. In the end, Matters will be fully open to the public to purchase tickets, and the system of content and cash flow will be able to achieve a positive cycle.

The role of blockchain

The traditional news media model, which relies on trust in individuals (eg, authors), also relies on trust in institutions/brands (eg, The New York Times), but stops there. The system we hope to build is not only the trust of individuals in the community, the trust in the brand, but also the trust in the rules. Such rules must come from the consensus of the community (Consensus), and then the consensus must be encoded into the system and become the Constitution (Code is Law). To date, only blockchain technology has demonstrated this promise. If used wisely, the CDAR model can be fully integrated with the blockchain, realizing its vision.

Regardless of whether the existing blockchain is adopted or not, according to the CDAR model, Matters will create an independent blockchain system, which includes a basic currency of content economy (we call it MAT) to support high-frequency, large-scale Scale and value transfer across regions. The traditional bank currency system simply cannot support cross-regional micro-payments, and PayPal, credit cards, and even the popular mobile payment are all difficult to achieve. After early experiments, MAT has been applied to the initial community construction and confirmed the incentive effect of CDAR. Combined with the realization of other parts, MAT hopes that it can finally be converted into the existing legal currency.

In addition to the basic CDAR model that will be represented on the blockchain, the relationship between content (Content) and creator (Creator) is the most important presentation, followed by evaluation rules and public funds.

Establishing stable and transparent evaluation rules that can be strictly enforced is an important reason why the blockchain is indispensable to us. We design the evaluation rules as smart contracts, which become public regulations. Using this self-executing contract, it is possible to convert between MAT and weight, that is, creators can exchange their income for more socially influential weights, thus having more effect on the content value of the entire system.

But more importantly, Matters needs the blockchain to record the content trajectory on the timeline. Because of the creators at the center, their works will be clearly inscribed on the timeline and become an indelible mark of history. So we can see the evolution process between works and the transaction process in which the content is reused from the blockchain. Therefore, the blockchain will be an important basis for the content value to be redistributed and to play more layers of utility. We really need this kind of open infrastructure because traditional closed databases are not transparent enough to gain public trust, and they will destroy good content.

In addition to being tightly integrated with the CDAR model, we will design the blockchain considering the following factors:

1. PoSh (Proof of Sharing) ability: It is no longer based on wasteful computing power competition, because it is related to the content, so the future confirmation mechanism will be directly related to the sharer and weight of the content.
2. High-speed transaction capability: Based on reliable verification nodes to speed up the verification process and avoid unnecessary delays.
3. Free or extremely low transaction fees: Because of the large number of small transactions required, both on-chain and off-chain transactions need to be low-cost and not borne by the user.
4. Support smart contracts: Similar to Ethereum (Casper), we need simple and clear contract applets to realize the automatic distribution of copyrights and the complete model of CDAR. The consensus mechanism of smart contracts and the blockchain itself determines how these rules are to the public. Transparency and how to ensure consistent execution.

PoSh and PoV

How to ensure that various types of content are permanently stored on the blockchain and are also immune (Immunity, which refers to the ability to resist attacks and tampering, and avoid centralized manipulation)? Our proposed design is that on Matters' blockchain, there are three separate layers: transaction chain, contract chain and content chain. The three levels reference each other and share peer nodes, but each has a different role:

• Transaction Chain: It mainly completes the basic super ledger function, and allows all peer nodes to do common verification. Similar to Bitcoin's transaction confirmation, the consensus of nodes eventually forms an ever-growing chain of transactions.
• Smart Contract Chain: It is a collection of small programs based on the transaction chain. It does not necessarily exist in every block, and there may be many in a certain block. These small programs complete important contract functions, allowing content metadata, creator metadata, and calculation of income and evaluation rules to be calculated in accordance with the rules.
• Content Chain: It is a distributed file system. Peer nodes do not have to synchronize all content, but select their own useful content to update synchronously, so that a certain content may exist on multiple nodes, and it will not be The failure of a single node disappears.

For mining nodes, these three levels are all necessary, because Matters' blockchain is unique in that it supports Proof of sharing (PoSh), and we also consider the user's weight as the basis for verification, saying It is Proof of Value (PoV), so pure machine nodes cannot gain advantages only by computing power. The biggest difference between this algorithm and PoW (Proof of Work) is that miners who dig a block need to provide data verification that there is a certain piece of content locally, and they also need to have enough weighted nodes to confirm that they can really get mining rewards. . This algorithm actually affirms both computing power and storage power (or more accurately sharing power) as well as the human value factor.

For a full node A (with a weight of 0), it has enough storage space to hold all (or most) of the content, and if it mines a block, it may have a better chance of being further authenticated on the content. But because its weight is 0, it must get the consensus of other nodes with higher weight (such as B or C) to be accepted by the system. For B (with a weight of 1), it may only store the content that the corresponding user is interested in, and other content is simply stored as a digest hash, so although it also has the computing power to mine mines, it may be confirmed occasionally during content verification. , which reduces the chances of getting a reward. Similarly, C (with a weight of 5) is also partially stored, but has a higher hit rate than B, so it is possible to mine more blocks than B (if the computing power is sufficient).

Immunity of the blockchain is a natural advantage of this structure, because all nodes contribute to the consensus of the entire data structure. As the number of nodes increases, the possibility of this consensus being tampered will become lower and lower And the cost of tampering will get higher and higher. This mechanism also gives Matters' blockchain a great guarantee. On this basis, because we also consider the PoSh and PoV agreements, it is not purely based on computing power to determine the generation of blocks. Although the potential "attack node" may have the opportunity to calculate the hash of the transaction chain or contract chain, there may not be enough content sharing verification (that is, it cannot pass PoSh). An "attack node" that tries to attack or replace the calculation result of a normal node may still be abandoned by the entire network, thus defeating the purpose.

MAT Economics

MAT is the most fundamental element that underpins Matters' entire economic model, as well as the microscopic lubricant that encourages content generation and creator participation. In addition to the initial issuance, MAT will continue to be mined with the help of the growth of the blockchain. This design is also to consider the interests of "miners", and at the same time, it can attract more people to participate in the system and jointly maintain the stability of the platform.

Like all blockchain projects, the initial MAT economy still needs to be started manually. Because the MAT blockchain is a unique chain that can be mined, we set the parameters as follows:

• Total amount of coins initially reserved: 1 billion
• There are two uses:
• 1. Public funds : 100 million. The subsidy for valuable content in the evaluation system came from this public fund. Of course, the amount reserved is limited. The future gap of public funds comes from people's exchange of weights.
• 2. Currency reserves : 900 million. It is used to expand the money supply to the market when the currency fluctuates rapidly (especially in the case of excessive appreciation), and is used to balance the price
• Currency generated per block: 100 (calculated in 15 seconds/block, 210,240,000 per year)
• Initial price: 0.01 USD/piece (Matters will gradually adjust the comparable price according to the development of the real economy in the future)

The circulation of MAT is obviously the most direct manifestation of the economy of this system. We will design the distribution price and circulation quantity in the early stage, but once the circulation of content and creators enters a positive state, the interference to this system will be lifted and it will enter into self-evolution model. Although the early team had some intervention in the consideration between MAT and fiat currency, gradually, this intervention process will depend on the setting of the rules. Because the output of the currency increases at the same time according to the growth of the content, the economic scale of MAT will be stable and positive growth. The purpose of this design is to maintain the relatively stable price of MAT, and to gradually increase the return to creators as the community expands. As the entire CDAR model matures and scales on the blockchain, intervention in currency prices will gradually decrease.

Before going on the chain, the Matters system has begun to try to apply CDAR to the content creation and community participation process. Once the blockchain (Genesis) is launched, the CDAR model will start to drive the MAT economy on the entire blockchain, and further combine with legal currency to encourage more people to participate in the content creation and evaluation system, and generate income effectively . Gradually, MAT will be extended to more application scenarios, no longer simply applied in the field of content, and can even be used for consideration in other physical objects. At this time, MAT will become a more useful currency to exist independently, and it will be able to support living needs without having to be exchanged.

System Architecture and Industry Symbiosis

Matters strives to inspire original content that is perpetual and open to licensing once shared. In this way, like Github is for software, Matters will gradually become a source of content. Based on the blockchain, content can be linked and referenced to each other in Matters. Such infrastructure is critical to the media industry and has never existed. Therefore, with the help of Matters' infrastructure, the future media can quickly build a lightweight public window, provide high-quality content to specific communities, and profit with an efficient cost structure.

Therefore, Matters will also follow the spirit of open source and provide several levels of API (Application Programming Interface) to help media and institutions build value-added services more easily, so that they can become the beneficiaries of open content and open technology as soon as possible.

Road signs at the beginning of the project

Incubation period

Q4, 2017 Confirm mission and vision, establish product plan

Q1, 2018 Enter the first stage: start the prototype product and start the community beta.

growth period

Q2, 2018 The initial funds are in place, and the second client is implemented based on Web and PWA technology, the content is stored in the database, and the community rules and currency logic are implemented by the centralized back-end program. The community is gradually expanding, and products are rapidly iterated as needed.

Q3, 2018 The product logic is beginning to be completed, and the third stage is entered: the client is free from the API restrictions of the browser and migrates to the APP based on mobile and desktop operating systems, preparing for connecting to the decentralized infrastructure and bringing better benefits to the community user experience.
The infrastructure of the blockchain system is built, and the back-end database remains centralized.

Q4, 2018 The client has been built and entered the fourth stage: when the community rules are recognized by the community and the currency logic is running smoothly, the two are migrated to the blockchain. The content is then migrated to a distributed storage system. The decentralization of the Matters community was completed, and the beta community was officially launched.

development period
Q1, 2019 The decentralization of the community is completed, and the fifth stage is entered: the MAT economic system is beginning to form. Community users and content have grown steadily. At the same time, the client continues to iterate, and the underlying technology continues to deepen.

Q2-Q3, 2019 The MAT system has been completed and entered the sixth stage: Platform API is released, institutional cooperation including small and medium media and advertisers is introduced, and more sub-scenario applications are established in the Matters ecosystem, such as copyright transactions, electronic publishing , community economy, etc., and introduce more external revenue back to creators.
Q4, 2019 The product logic verification is feasible, entering the seventh stage: developing the Matters English community and internationalization.