Exclusive: Blockchain-Based Social Network Overhauls Platform, Partners With Matic

Ethereum-based social network Sapien has unveiled updates to its platform, as well as a partnership with the initial exchange offering project, Matic Network. 

“After several months of development, we’re launching the next release of our platform, called Alpha Persei,” Sapien Network co-founder and CEOAnkit Bhatia told Cointelegraph in an interview.

“This is a revamped platform across the board,” he said, highlighting new aspects such as Portis wallet integration and rewards engine reconstruction. Sapien also secured placement on KyberWidget, allowing trading between Sapien (SPN) tokens and Ether (ETH), according to a statement.

Sapien partnered with Matic Network for future developments 

Sapien also announced a collaboration with Coinbase-backed Matic Network, a blockchain scalability platform that garnered over $5 million in capital during its April 2019 initial exchange offering.

“We want to use their technology to build a scalable decentralized Web 3 social network, and their technology will help us do that,” Bhatia said of Matic, adding:  

“We’re using Matic sidechains — they’re a plasma-based proof-of-stake (PoS) chain — to basically power our charging and internal promotions on the platform. So, it will be used instead of the mainnet to send transactions, to send tips, to promote high quality posts and comments.”

“It will be the infrastructure that we want to build on that’s far more scalable than the mainnet,” he added referring to the platform’s current Ethereum-based network. 

Sapien positions itself as a blockchain-based social media alternative

Sapien’s social media platform is comparable to a blockchain-based version of Reddit — with several added features, functionalities and capabilities, Bhatia explained. The platform is focused on user’s privacy, while involving aspects of incentivization. Bhatia added:

“In one sense, we’re a Web 3 social network. In another sense, we’re trying to sort of correct some of the wrongs of prior social networks by building a tokenized blockchain-based social network that’s far more transparent than the mainstream competitors.”

If big players such as Facebook continue to leak private data, people may begin to question the implications of their current social media usage. This in turn could increase the market share of blockchain-based alternatives.