Curation Markets

1. Curation Markets
Past, Present & Future
@simondlr -> 28/11/2018

2. What?
• Current Framing: Usage of novel crypto-economic games
for the purpose of information curation.
• From dank meme markets to pricing data.
• Bonding curves, Token-Curated Registries, (&) Prediction
Markets.

3. Past?
• How did we get here?

4. 2013/2014

5. 2013/2014
• “This scheme works by looking at Bitcoin (the currency) as
a proxy for hashing power. By donating to Bitcoin to
miners, you are contributing hashing power as a proxy for
a new colored alt. For each block, depending on how
many people donated to a specific colored alt (say
Simoncoin), you are rewarded proportionally at a pre-
determined rate.” -
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/bitcoinx/mUb86IO
eXdU/7pvmbFSPU3UJ [6 Jan 2014]

6. 2015
• “Automated Novelty Control.
Having a small fee to interact can both have positive and negative consequences. It makes the barrier to entry higher to kickstart the
novelty processes, but once the community is at critical mass it can keep the novelty flowing, because the cost to communicate is
higher. Only the content shared by people that really feel that it needs to be seen will be willing to pay the costs.”
[Oct 2015: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o61nG-iWGd2TzMd6SudWrm8YN27ktjdcYnmZSA4PS8E/edit]

7. 2015

8. 2016
• “A simple model on Ethereum would be as follows: investors
can continuously join the organisation from the outside by
allowing them to invest Ether in exchange for new shares. This
issuance model follows an exponential decay. Each new
transaction to invest, reduces the amount of shares you get in
exchange.” -
• https://medium.com/@simondlr/organisation-that-create-
themselves-through-ethereum-700922bdbcca [March 2016]

9. 2016
• Hashtag Markets
• “There could be several people around the world thinking: “We should
solve problem x”. But in order to get a network/organisation off the
ground to move towards solving “x”, would require using the common
tools of organisational structures to do so. There’s an immediate barrier
to entry.”
• “Anything that gathers interest and attention can have a network of
value: From people to things to ideas. From Simon de la Rouviere to
Apple to Doge.”
• https://media.consensys.net/hashtag-markets-mashing-together-reddit-
schelling-points-tokenisation-autonomous-organisations-ceec3cd3baf0
[Sept 2016]

10. 2016
• Meme Markets
• “Meme markets allow decentralized monetization of *ALL* memes (in the Dawkins
sense of the word). One can tokenise interest in memes such as #ethereum,
#simondlr, #vitalikbuterin, #harambe, #trump, #globalwarming, #football, #capetown,
#USA, #twitter, #tcpip, #apple, #freemyvunk, etc without the requirement of a
centralised intermediary.”
• “ By following a coded protocol in a smart contract that aims to express natural
interest in a meme, it allows the tokenisation of said meme. Users dispense money
for action coupons in a meme according to a cost set by this coded/unchangeable
algorithm, upon which they can then dispense the action coupons for services in the
network of that meme.”
• Oct 2016 -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jm300CyrrAIbXtAopNhkYGqdmMd
vUjdVDKcZU9VUdoQ/edit

11. 2016

12. 2017
• ICOs. :( [inefficient, not friendly to investors, prone to
speculation]
• “The idea is that instead of pre-selling tokens during a launch
phase, the tokens are minted as needed through various
means. The tokens are then dispensed for services rendered
in the network.”
• Continuous Token Models: Feb 2017.
https://media.consensys.net/exploring-continuous-token-
models-towards-a-million-networks-of-value-fff153175776

13. 2017
• “ Each topic/meme/idea/goal has an associated token of value
that is used to curate information inside it.”
• “ We will be able to mint tokens for things like sub-reddits,
hashtags, people, memes and new organisations.”
• Curation Markets:
https://medium.com/@simondlr/introducing-curation-markets-
trade-popularity-of-memes-information-with-code-
70bf6fed9881 [May 2017]

14. 2017
• Zap Store: “ “Zap is introducing the economic mechanism of
bonding curves for the first time into the smart contract
ecosystem. No economic device like them have been released
into the marketplace so far, though they have been inspired in
part by Simon de la Rouviere’s writings on curation markets.”
• https://media.zapproject.org/introducing-the-synapse-market-
fd1462eae611

15. 2017
• Token-Curated Registries!
• “ With Curation Markets, one of the core goals has been for
people to use tokenized signalling to curate information and
reduce information asymmetry. What I love about TCR is that
it is exactly that: using tokens and a crypto-economic game
to reduce information asymmetry and incentivize a group
of token holders to curate information (in this case: a list).
It makes markets smarter.”
• https://medium.com/@simondlr/city-walls-bo-taoshi-exploring-
the-power-of-token-curated-registries-588f208c17d5 [Oct
2017]

16. 2017
• Token Bonding Curves:
https://medium.com/@simondlr/tokens-2-0-curved-token-
bonding-in-curation-markets-1764a2e0bee5
• “Within the projects announced the past few months, the most
important facet from Curation Markets that these projects are
adopting is the continuous token bonding curve. They are
adopting it a level much more granular than I expected.”

17. 2018
• Adoption!
• Much more writing.
• Arcade Bazaar: https://medium.com/@simondlr/the-arcade-bazaar-continuous-multi-
party-tokenized-funding-without-central-issuance-2cbac86ab5c
• Saving The Planet: https://medium.com/@simondlr/saving-the-planet-making-it-
profitable-to-protect-the-commons-50393906fe22
• Price Discovery of Non-Rivalrous Goods: https://medium.com/@simondlr/solving-
price-discovery-of-non-rivalrous-goods-with-curved-bonding-27b2186d55d5

18. 2018
• Multiple projects launched/announced/implemented/funded.
• Ocean Protocol, Nexus Mutual, Convergent, Relevant, FOAM,
AdChain, Continuous Organizations, Giveth, Memelordz,
Crypto Vs Humanity, Artonomous, Cr8bid, Ixo, SingularityNet,
Zipper, District0x, Status.im, Way.Network, Civil, Dirt, powh3d,
SmartX, Protea.

19. Now?
• Meme Markets?
• memelordz.com.

20. Now?
• Data Sharing?
• Ocean Protocol
• Raised > +$22m
• Largest Curation Markets Project

21. Now?
• Pricing Oracles?
• Zap Store

22. Now?
• Insurance?
• https://www.nexusmutual.io

23. Now?
• Continuous Organizations?
• https://c-org.co

24. Now?
• Incentivize Community Attendance?
• https://www.protea.io

25. Now?
• Futarchy?
• https://ethresear.ch/t/futarchy-with-bonding-curve-tokens/3449

26. Now?
• 4+ Curation Market meetups. 1000+ members.
• 435 ppl in the Curation Markets Gitter.
• Several winners/finalists amongst EthGlobal Hackathons.
• Multi-million dollars staked: powh3d still biggest.

27. Now?

28. Now?
• Token Engineering as spin-out from Ocean Protocol. 13
Meetup groups. 1800+ members.

29. Future?
• LOTS of writing/thinking/research.
• Going live. UX and economics needs testing (a lot).

30. Future?
• Recommendations vs Reality.
• Traditional Curation + Recommendations-as-Markets.
• eg, Playlists 2.0.
• Continue to iterate.

31. Far Future?
• If you can price data directly [at all scales], will it produce a
singularity of novelty?

32. Question?