Socia Lite Paper V1

Socia aims to solve the accuracy of informational search queries by leveraging social networks.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Problem: Information Overload

2.1 Answer problem

2.2 Information Problem

2.3 Infrastructure problem

3. The solution

3.1 Answer solution

3.2 Information solution

3.2.1 How it works

3.3 Infrastructure solution

3.4 Misinformation Solution

3.5 Bot mitigation

4. Tokennomics

4.1 Socia profit sharing and governance shares (fungible tokens)

4.2 Socia badges (NFTs)

4.2.1 How NFTs will work

4.3 Preliminary Tokenomics

4.4 Example user rewards structure

4.5 Token Use

4.5.1 Governance

4.5.2 Application ecosystem

4.5.3 Trading

4. 6 Token Value

4.6.1 Supply

4.6.2 Demand

5. Market Outlook

5.1 Competitive Analysis

5.1.1 Quora

5.1.2 Reddit

5.1.3 LinkedIn

6. Roadmap

7. The Team and Vision

8. Future

9. Conclusion

1. Introduction

Problem Summary

There is currently 1 million exabytes of data on the internet and existing methods to connect the correct data to a search query (specifically information search queries) is both inefficient and not effective.

• 80% of all search queries are informational. The results of these search queries are 30% accurate. Socia aims to improve the accuracy of informational search queries to 90%.
• Target audience includes early professionals (recent graduates) who need guidance as well as experts who would like to receive more value for their knowledge.
• Existing solutions include LinkedIn (focused on networking), Reddit (anonymous information) and Quora (no effective reward system).

Solution Summary

Socia is a decentralized social platform that connects one’s search queries to people within their network that have relevant experience to the query who can then provide a resource that will answer their search. Our monetization plan is a token-based business model. This native token (SOCIA) works similar to karma on reddit however this token can be sold on decentralized exchanges.

• Relevant people to answer queries
• Native reward system
• Access to one’s networks knowledge base

Market Analysis

The market size, measured by revenue, of the Social Networking Sites industry is $72.2bn in 2022. We are focused on the professional social networking market. We plan to position ourselves as a professional social networking site focused around accessing one’s networks knowledge base.

Key Points:

We are awarding 70% of the equity to community members of the platform. The remaining 30% will be for the team.

• Socia is owned and managed by the users. As a community SOCIA tokens will allow people to vote on proposals and decide the future of the project, similar to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
• In contrast to traditional social media, where companies hold all of the data on a central server, Socia spreads the data throughout a web of nodes, and everyone who helps maintain functionality is financially rewarded. Thus, overall security is improved as data breaches are minimized and single points of failure are eliminated.
• Users and content creators can derive direct monetary benefits for publishing and sharing content. Social influence is tokenized, meaning users are given valuable incentives to post quality content that will generate traction.

Our mission is to connect people through information. A platform built for and by the people.

2. The Problem

2.1 Answer problem

The average influencer/expert receives numerous questions daily from their following. There is no organized and efficient way to respond to these questions. More importantly there is no way for them to effectively monetize their answers.

2.2 Information Problem

70% of search results on informational data are inaccurate because relevance is subjective, natural languages differ and spam is abundant . Therefor the average person using google goes through 7 different links to find what they are looking for. And typically they only find half of the information they need. This equated to billions of wasted hours browsing.

2.3 Infrastructure problem

Current social media platforms are controlled by one central organization. This means that these organizations own your data, control what you see and share, and reap the benefits of your work. They are presented as “free” to sign up, but you are paying with your freedom. Additionally, they are prone to cyber-attacks and have lost millions of people’s data to unknown entities. The consequences of single organization controlling what is said and heard on a platform has major effects on our perception of reality.

3. The solution:

3.1 Answer solution

We enable experts and or influencers to monetize their knowledge. By answering a question experts will be awarded SOCIA tokens from the community. An answer can continue to receive tokens throughout its entire lifetime so long as the community deems it valuable. Thus, enabling passive income generation from their knowledge.

3.2 Information solution

The tools to find the information are there. But if you do not know how to find what you are looking for, you will be lost in the sea of information. Socia is a platform that allows you to find a captain to sail this sea and guide you to the right destination or in other words, information source.

How it works (General overview): You have a question. You then input that question into Socia and the following returns: People who are established experts in the field. As well as Information from past expert responses.

Who are these experts?

• Experts will be returned based on the relevance to the search query and their relevance to you. If you have someone within your LinkedIn network that is an expert and related to the query they will appear in the results.
• If there is no existing people within your network that have experience in the field specific to your search query it will then return 2nd, 3rd and so on connections.
• For example: I search “how to use google adwords” people who are within or connected to my network of LinkedIn with the specific skill set of “Google Ads” will be returned.

What information will appear?

• Information will be sorted from best to worst voted on by other experts and users. The most upvoted posts will be ranked highest and so on. Depending on the query and that person’s expertise will determine the weight of each upvote.
• For example: If I have expertise in coding and I upvote a post associated with JavaScript, my upvote will have more weight as appose to someone who has no relevant skill set.
• There will be additional filters as well including but not limited to, source type, connection relevance, date, etc.

Once on the results page you can request the expert to answer your query or look at previous post that were provided by other experts. There are other features that enable to you have an open dialogue with experts, see who upvoted a post, connect with new experts and more that will be released in more detail at a later point.

3.3 Infrastructure solution

It is being built as a decentralized platform powered by blockchain. This will enable enhanced security, transparency as well as voting power for the users. For every action and reaction will be recorded on the blockchain.

You will have enhanced security, be able to monetize your work freely and most importantly control your data. This project is built for and by the people. Therefore, the people should own what they have contributed and be rewarded for it. We are implementing the systems to make this happen.

3.4 Misinformation Solution

Our plan to control misinformation is to let people control what is censored. We will do this by having a button on each post named “report.” Once clicked they will select a reason. If a post has been reported enough times by a variety of people, we will blur that post. We will not delete it, but the public will not be able to view it and it will rank lower on search results. If you would like to view the post, you will have to reach out to the person who posted it and have them send it to you directly.

The specifics on what ratio to report vs views will always be public. There will be an option to view the statistics for the reason the post is censored. As of right now, once a post has been censored over 50% of the time after threshold of 1000 views, we will censor that post. But these numbers are subject to change as we are constantly refining the process. An important thing to remember is you still have the option to view that censored post.

Once a post is censored, we will allow the post to be reposted, but it will be blurred and will rank lower on search results. However, if that post has a very high rate of censorship (over 75%) it will be deleted and will not be allowed to be posted. We will also consider the people selecting censor and display that data.

For example, let’s say the post “bananas,” has been censored by 501 people and it has been viewed 1000 times (50.1% vote to censor). The post will then be censored. However, it will still be displayed but you cannot view it unless you reach out directly to the poster. You can select the post and view the following statistics of why that post was censored. These statistics will include demographics of the people who censored it, the political affiliation (if any), essentially any and all data to demonstrate why its been censored. There will be an option once selected if you believe its unfair ruling to uncensor which once selected enough by users will uncensor the post.

3.5 Bot mitigation

To ensure that there are no bots or spam accounts we developed a multi-level verification process. First, to create an account you must go through a multi-step verification process that ensures your credentials. These includes confirming your cell phone number, email address and LinkedIn account. Once an account is created we will monitor the activity based off its engagement with the community. This includes the number of “reports” it receives, the volume of content, the time between content and more. Once an account has been identified as questionable, we will pause the account and have the user confirm their identity. Eventually once we hit a critical mass, we will transition to a more rigorous vetting system that will require users to provide identification such as a government ID, passport, driver license, etc.

We are going through such lengths to prevent bots and spam accounts for two main reasons. To ensure SOCIA token is distributed fairly and to maintain a flow of quality content and users.

*We will never infringe on your privacy.

4. Tokennomics

4.1 Socia profit sharing and governance shares (fungible tokens):

We will utilize blockchain to distribute Socia’s value efficiently, securely, and in an innovative manner. The platform will reward users with ownership of the Socia platform via distributing the Socia token to individual user accounts when users contribute content and interact with content and other members, especially if such contribution and interaction is deemed valuable by other users.

4.2 Socia badges (NFTs):

The platform will reward users with badges representing accomplishments and credibility and so on, in the form of NFTs. These NFTs will grant access to certain features and can be sold on the open marketplace.

4.2.1 How NFTs will work:

Each user will have the option to create their own NFT’s which they can award to other users. The creator can set this NFT to have the following awards.

• Access to certain post
• Access to communicate directly to creator
• Access to certain discussions
• And more

*There will be numerous other awards that a creator can enable as our feature list grows

4.3 Preliminary Tokenomics

Total capped supply: 2,000,000,000

Team 30% — 600,000,000

Public 55% — 1,100,000,000

Exchanges, partnerships, etc. 15% — 300,000,000

*All public tokens can be sold to the open market (the public) to raise money for r&d. These Tokens are utility tokens and only provide ownership over the platform not the business.

4.4 Example user rewards structure

All FT and NFT rewards will be automatically sent to users desired wallet address or to users Socia-connected wallet. All FT and NFT can be used to spend across the Socia application ecosystem. Also, they can be traded on 3rd party DEX’s.

Actions that will earn users tokens include:

• For creating an account, the user will receive SOCIA Tokens
• For every like a post receives, the poster earns SOCIA Tokens
• For every like a comment receives, the comment poster earns 0.1 SOCIA
• When a user gains 1000 followers they will be sent a “1000 Followers” NFT (any NFT may give special privileges to post places or enter chat rooms etc., there are endless possibilities)
• When a user has had an active Socia account for a year they will be sent a “1 Year Veteran” NFT
• When a user proves their knowledge on a certain skill (received enough upvotes or “this helped me” votes on their posts in that topic), they will be rewarded an NFT titled “Verified (skill tag) Expert”
• On a user’s profile, in the section that displays the user’s skill tags, each skill tag may have a section reserved for a “NFT verified” check mark. when that user has gotten (enough upvotes in that topic etc.) to receive an NFT
• When sending an invite to somebody, you and the person you invite receive SOCIA Tokens each when the person you invite makes a profile
• When a user provides feedback on the product, they will be rewarded SOCIA Tokens
• Ability to award experts who provide value to you.

*Token allocation is not finalized. These rates will always be public knowledge and easily accessible on the platform.

4.5 Token Use

4.5.1 Governance

Tokens can be used to vote upon features, platform strategy, reward amounts and more. Thus, enabling the community of users to determine the direction of the platform.

4.5.2 Application ecosystem

There will be many uses within the ecosystem. As features are added to the application, more and more ways to utilize the token will be added. Below are some use case examples:

• Rewarding other users for their content
• Access to certain experts
• Access to certain communities
• Incentives another user to respond to request
• Access to lotteries
• Expert one on one communication

4.5.3 Trading

Tokens will be transferable to the open market. They can be traded on decentralized exchanges as well as centralized exchanges.

4.6 Token Value

The token value is determined by two main factors. Supply and demand. To abstract value from the tokens you can either receive value through price appreciation (driven by demand), token buybacks and dividends.

4.6.1 Supply

Supply is fixed and will never change. Therefore, as demand increases so does the value of the token.

4.6.2 Demand

Demand is determined by many factors. These factors include but are not limited to: Volume of users, rate of engagement, trading volume and public perception. As the platform grows in users, so will the demand for the token.

*Absolute cost to perform activities on the site will not change, as token value changes.

5. Market Outlook

Currently there are over 5.6 billion searches on google alone. Quora receives around 67,000 questions and around 200,000 answers per day with 300 million monthly active users. Reddit receives 46.7 million searches and around 800,000 posts per day with 430 million monthly active users. LinkedIn has over 830 million users.

Each of these platforms has been growing at a consistent rate since their creation. As people are working more and more online the trend is growing in speed.

5.1 Competitive Analysis

5.1.1 Quora

Quora focuses on questions and answers. We differ in a fundamental way. As appose to encouraging the experts to answer through tediously writing a response which takes on average 10 minutes to respond. We encourage experts to direct the questioners to sources with existing answers.

For example, if a user asks “How does bitcoin work,” instead of that expert writing a response that may take up to hours to fully respond they instead find a source with the answer and direct that questioner to the source.

Fundamental Belief #1: Most every question has been answered and is somewhere on the internet. The only difficult part is finding the right information to answer your question. That’s where we come in. We connect the people who have the question to the people who know where to find the answers.

5.1.2 Reddit

Reddit has many of the same attributes as our platform. What makes SOCIA different is that instead of random, sometimes anonymous people answering your question thus hurting the questions legitimacy and trustfulness. We enable you to leverage your network by asking known and relevant professional that have a connection to you.

For example, if you ask “What is the best blockchain?” there are an infinite number of responses to this query. But if you ask that on Socia you will be given answers from people who know you and have a better understanding of your context thus enabling a better response.

Fundamental Belief #2: Many questions and answers are subjective. To be able to fully understand a question you must know the context and the person answering that question. We enable a connection between people who have an existing relationship which enables higher quality answers.

5.1.3 LinkedIn

LinkedIn is useful for managing your professional network. However, to get value out of this network is tedious and time consuming. To ask for knowledge from someone you must first identify the correct person then reach out via direct message. This is time consuming on both ends. The person reaching out must identify and draft a question. The responder must take their time to write a sufficient response. However, many of those responders do not have time because many people are reaching out to them. We differ because we drastically cut this time down. All the questioners must do is type in the question and we will automatically determine the best people to request from your network. The responder only has to provide an answer (Direct to a source) one time which will be public, so they never have to repeat an answer again. On top of that they receive rewards for answering a question.

Fundamental Belief #3: People are not getting the most value out of their network. There is no efficient way to leverage the knowledge your network has and there is no efficient way to help your existing network.

6. Roadmap

Stage 1: Q3 2022 July 1 — September 30

• Release lite paper
• Open Website to public
• Open project on social platforms (Twitter, discord, reddit, telegram)
• Release private beta:
• Socia version 5.0.6 is built using web 2.0 technology as it is much faster and inexpensive to build. We are testing both the UI/UX, Tokenomics and overall concept.
• Research best methods for developing Socia for web 3.0
• Research most effective blockchain to back SOCIA tokens

Stage 2: Q4 2022 October 1 — December 31

• Update platform to version 5.1.0 with feedback gathered from test results
• Release findings from testing to community (Tokenomics, UI/UX, Cardano)
• Mint SOCIA token using blockchain technology
• Source pre-seed round of funding
• Implement crypto wallet and award tokens to users for past and present usage
• Grow community to 1000 users

Stage 3: Q1 2023 January 1 — March 31

• Begin development on web 3.0
• Update to version 5.2.0
• Release Token to public and trading platforms
• Scale community to 10,000+
• Expand to different market categories

Stage 4: Q2 2023 April 1 — June 30

• Official launch
• Seed Funding
• Scale platform to 100,000+ users
• Finalize token system

7. The Team and Vision

The SOCIA team is a global alliance of individuals brought together through a shared vison of a better world for all, made possible by blockchain. The SOCIA team come from all different backgrounds, Including the United States, Turkey, Romania, Canada and Mexico. Members of the SOCIA team have ample experience developing new technologies and businesses. We are fully remote team with our main office located in Rye, NH. We believe in creating a work environment that aligns with our overall mission of bringing the world together in a positive way.

Team Info:

• Ben Barba (CEO): www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-barba
• Ozgur Sallanci (CTO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozgur-sallanci-2b052122/
• Arda Coskun (Full Stack Engineer): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardacoskun/
• Matt Rudzinski (CMO): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattrudzinski/
• Volkan Karayel(full Stack Engineer): https://www.linkedin.com/in/volkan-karayel-88519833/

8. Future

Our application can be used for numerous topics, including health, technology, entertainment and much more. We plan on targeting the crypto community as our first users. Once the application works smoothly for this community, we will expand to other similar communities thus increasing our user volume and over all quality of the product. We will target adjacent markets to crypto such as the financial sector, technology sector and social media. This way we can grow in a methodical way that allows the platform to organically produce valuable content for all its users. As we grow so will the value of SOCIA and the tokens that are given.

9. Conclusion

The social media industry has a massive influence on our everyday lives. Socia is here to turn that influence into a positive part of everyone's life. Our goal is to connect people through information, to encourage learning through others and to enable the development of positive relationships. We are here to help you get better.