Brains of Crypto: Redefine Social Networking with Thinkin

Today, we have a guest from Thinkin, a new platform that looks to reward users who interact with Web3-based forums. It sounds like a great way to build a strong community and make sure everyone profits. 

Thinkin’s CEO Johnny has been actively involved with the crypto market since the early days in 2016. His crypto career has covered crypto exchanges such as Bithumb and other marketing companies. We’re super excited to have this opportunity to discuss their revolutionary Social-Fi platform, the future of decentralized social networks and more! So shell we start?

Please, tell us about your journey and how AlgoLaunch became Thinkin.

Throughout the past few years, we have worked on various projects on marketing initiatives in the web3 space. During that time we understood the drawbacks of several existing fundraising platforms and felt like we could bring something new into the game by combining our expertise with launchpads and marketing in the web3 space. That’s how the idea for Algolaunch came about - we felt that the Algorand ecosystem is a good place to launch a new product as it is not as crowded as other established ecosystems. 

At the same time, we wanted to meet customer demands and understood that fragmenting ourselves to one ecosystem could become an issue at some point in the future, therefore we changed our name and rebranded to Thinkin to better align with our future strategy of being across several chains and ecosystems.

What inspired you to create a SocialFi platform?

We were inspired to create Thinkin because we saw an opportunity to bring the benefits of decentralization and blockchain technology in the world of social networking. Traditional social media platforms are often owned and controlled by a single company, which can lead to issues like censorship and data privacy violations. By building a decentralized platform, we aim to give users more control over their own data and provide a more transparent and open social networking experience.

At the same time, this technology enables us to create new business models where we reward organic communities through tokenized incentives and gamification on our platform. This allows our users to leverage their activity for their own benefit - interact directly with projects and get hired as an influencer, community moderator or tester.

How does Social-Fi differ from more traditional social media platforms?

Social-Fi utilizes blockchain technology to give users more control over their data and privacy. Users can choose who can see their content and have the ability to monetize their content through the use of tokens.

It is a combination of a finance platform and a social media platform where users can discuss and discover new opportunities, learn about the latest trends in the industry and engage with like-minded people for their own benefit. 

What are the benefits for the user?

There are several benefits for users on such platforms. The use of tokens and blockchain technology allows users to monetize their content, which can be a significant advantage for creators and marketers. We provide a unique approach to engaging with your community with various ways the blockchain can offer.

On the other hand, users can earn rewards and leverage their reputation within the community to get allocation for interesting early stage investing opportunities which currently are available only to certain token holders on other platforms. At Thinkin, users can earn this allocation by interacting rather than making financial commitments.

What challenges have you faced in building a Decentralized Social Network?

One of the main challenges we faced in building a decentralized social network was finding a way to balance the need for decentralization with the need for a user-friendly experience. Decentralized networks can be complex and difficult for non-technical users to understand, so finding a way to make the platform accessible and easy to use was a key challenge. Additionally, building a decentralized network requires a significant amount of resources and expertise, which can be a challenge for any startup.

How do you protect users’ privacy?

We take user privacy very seriously on Thinkin. Because we are a decentralized platform, users have more control over their data and can choose who can see their content. Additionally, we use industry-standard encryption techniques to protect user data and have implemented strict policies to ensure that user data is not shared or sold to third parties.

At the same time we have implemented and will be implementing various AML/KYC solutions to ensure our platform is compliant with regulations as well as to ensure product quality and quality of the interactions on the platform, eg. no bots or bad actors.

What impact do you think decentralized social networks will have on current corporate-owned platforms?
Decentralized social networks have the potential to disrupt current corporate-owned platforms by offering users a more decentralized and user-controlled alternative. These platforms may offer users more control over their data and the ability to earn rewards for their contributions to the network. This could lead to a shift in power dynamics and potentially reduce the influence of large, centralized corporations in the social media space.

How do you envision Social-Fi transforming the way people interact online?

These platforms may offer users more control over their data and the ability to earn rewards for their contributions to the network, which could encourage more meaningful and engaging interactions.

Instead of fragmenting the social media landscape into influencers, followers and projects, we are creating a homogenous environment where everyone has aligned incentives and works together towards a common goal.

What do you think must change about decentralized Social Networks to attract more mainstream users?

Web3 technologies offer the potential to develop new business models and ways to reward users that are not possible on traditional web2 platforms. These new models could include things like tokenized reward systems, NFT integrations, or models that allow users to earn a share of the platform's revenue.

One potential advantage of these models is that they could provide a more equitable and transparent way of rewarding users for their contributions, rather than relying on algorithms or other opaque processes that are often used on traditional social media platforms. This should help to increase user trust and engagement on web3 social networks.

In order to attract more mainstream adoption, web3 social networks should focus on developing and promoting these new business models, and explaining to users how they can benefit from them. They should also work to make these models as user-friendly and accessible as possible, so that they are easy for mainstream users to understand and participate in.

What are some other web3 apps which you think might revolutionize the world?

I think the best is yet to come - throughout the crypto cycles in 2017 or even right now we saw an emergence of new models - initially it was ERC20 tokens and ICOs now we had an NFT boom and projects are exploring how these new possibilities can be implemented into a sustainable business model. At the same time we have created one of the biggest ponzi schemes while pretending we are altruistic or something.

However putting jpegs on a blockchain or printing tokens out of thin air and making a select few incredibly rich is not gonna change the world. Everybody talks about the massive potential of the blockchain technology for a decentralized monetary system and we can see central banks considering issuing CBDCs. 

At first, these were far-fetched ideas but now we can slowly but surely see them come to a fruition even though it has to involve celebrities spending ridiculous money for jpegs in the meantime. We are exploring something new with a mindset from the past. If these technologies are to be successful, we will have to shift our mindset first. That’s what excites me the most - instead of focusing on profit and value for shareholders we can connect humanity through this new technology and make sure we don’t centralize wealth but distribute it equally for everyone. And when we are able to do this we will be able to create truly revolutionary web3 solutions. 

So despite the current state of the market, I’m very optimistic about the future and what new ways to interact with each other will web3 bring to us.