The Cross-chain NFT Social Place
Introduction
Slate is a next-gen, cross-chain NFT social platform designed to connect all your digital assets onto an easy-to-use mobile application. Slate simplifies storing and managing digital goods, provides a platform to share collectibles, and enables users to connect and collaborate with collectors and enthusiasts. We verify all NFTs for ownership through wallet integrations to ensure only owners can post their assets. Slate widens the NFT scope beyond buying & selling. Our goal is to give digital assets a social purpose outside the marketplace.
Our userbase consists of Curators–enthusiasts who mint, own, and share NFTs on our platform. Slate aims to reinvent user identification and usernames with “Curator Name NFTs” called Curator Cards. Rather than having your username be text stored in a database, as is commonly the case in modern social media apps, Slate encourages Curators to mint their username into an NFT. Your Curator Name acts as your profile identifier within the Slate platform. Once a Curator Card is minted, it is a tradable asset that can be bought and sold within the Slate Curator Marketplace. Curators can change their name at any point, and all content will carry over. Curator Name minting is first-come, first-served.
Slate Galleries provides a new and intimate way to experience NFT content. Curators can host galleries and invite other Curators to feature their NFTs, creating unique, community-led experiences. Content posted to Slate remains fluid, existing in your social feed and within Galleries. Unlike current social media platforms — where content is posted once and forgotten about — content on Slate can be featured in new Galleries even after it is posted, continuously attracting new audiences and potentially increasing its value.
Social Tipping will transform how Curators in the Slate community interact and support each other. It is a user-to-user microtransaction that provides Curators with a quick and easy way to reward high-quality content and community involvement. Tipping is simple; Curators tip content by liking posts. Curators have the freedom to choose when and how much to tip. The Slate Token, built on the Solana blockchain, will facilitate all tipping microtransactions. Social Tipping empowers Curators to create a system that rewards high-quality content while disincentivizing low-effort content.
Slate has a fundamentally different approach to data collection and privacy, content ownership, and content diversity. We will anonymize all user-collected data, and we will never sell targeted ads against our users. Anonymized data will only be used to progress and optimize the Slate platform. In addition, all NFTs are verified for ownership through integrated wallets to ensure that only content owners can post their assets; Curators cannot screenshot content and post it as their own. Curators can explore and interact with NFTs from different blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Tezos, Near, and more. We plan on integrating additional wallets as APIs become mobile-friendly.
Currently, NFT assets are primarily artistic, but we believe that the rapid progression of NFT technology will shift the way social content is shared, enabling everyday content to be quickly & cheaply minted into NFTs. Slate will continue to grow alongside the NFT community as tech becomes more accessible and the casualization of NFT content increases.
Social Features
Slate’s user experience will feel clean and familiar. We have adapted the best components from current social media apps while removing the revenue-first features that flood these platforms. Our minimalist approach appeals to both new and seasoned members of the NFT community by including only the essential social features that provide the best possible end-user experience.
Curators can like (social tip), share, and save content within their social feed and through Galleries. In addition, they can follow and unfollow individual Curators and Galleries. Comment threads will facilitate social interactions within individual posts, and Curators can discover trending NFT content through our explore page.
All Curators maintain a public-facing profile with multiple customization options, starting with Curator Name NFTs. Each Curator profile will be unique. We plan on releasing additional NFT assets, such as profile colors, formatting templates, and more. Our goal is to give Curators the ability to differentiate their profiles through customizable assets found in our Curator Marketplace.
Curator Cards + Marketplace
Slate Curator Cards will replace the outdated username structures of current social platforms. A Curator Card is a customizable aspect of your profile that acts as your unique identifier within the Slate platform. All Curators are encouraged (but not required) to mint their name into a Slate deployed NFT. Names are minted on a first-come, first-served basis. Curator Cards are deployed on the Solana blockchain and traded through the Slate Curator Marketplace. Curators can mint their names when signing up for an account or through their existing profile page.
Curators have the freedom to change their name at any point by minting or purchasing a new card. All prior posts and social interactions will carry over to your new Curator Card. If a Curator chooses not to mint their name, it can be taken if someone else decides to mint it. Curator Cards marks the first of many customizable aspects of your Slate profile.
Curator Cards are not a barrier to entry. It is our way of solving the fundamental issues regarding privacy and ownership caused by current social media giants. Size and traffic have grown to massive levels on social media platforms and have introduced many moderation issues. In pursuit of making their platforms a safer place, these companies continue to pull levers that have, in turn, blurred what it means to have free speech and ownership over digital content. They continue to hold your digital profile and content hostage and can easily yank access to either of those.
Curator Cards are our effort to inch closer to the true ownership of content and individual “domains.” Slate provides the tools for our Curators to put out content and ideas that they truly own and can’t have revoked. Minting your Curator Name into an NFT allows more decentralized content to form and thus a clearer idea of what freedom on the internet means.
Social Tipping
Social Tipping is a Curator-to-Curator financial tip that rewards and incentivizes high-quality content. Our goal with Social Tipping is to add more intention and thought behind “likes”, which means only top-level content will generate traction, and thus a reduction in random/mass-liking & bots.
Although tipping will initially start through Solana, our Sol-based Slate Token ($SLT) will facilitate all tipping transactions in the future. The Slate Token functions as a “tipping token,” enabling Curators to give and receive tips quickly and securely. All Curators, big or small, can tip and receive tips. Slate aims to provide a new liking structure that benefits both content creators and viewers.
Social Tipping reduces the content creator’s need to rely on sponsored posts and pay-walls by providing an alternative source of income, resulting in better content for the end-user. Instead of posting content influenced by a 3rd party, Curators will create and share authentic content true to their creative goals in order to earn tips. In addition, there is no need to hide content behind a paywall. Social tipping will generate revenue while exposing high-quality content to a broader audience. The whole Slate ecosystem will benefit by establishing a reward cycle where only progressively higher quality is rewarded.
Content creators are not the only ones that benefit; everyday Curators gain power and influence. By giving likes monetary value, Curators will take the time to think about which posts to like, providing a more genuine picture of what content is high-quality versus not. Social tipping will significantly reduce mass-liking and force content creators to earn your like–a task that is unnecessary on current social media platforms. Now Curators can influence the type and quality of content they consume with the power of their likes.
Curators socially tip by “liking” a post. Curators can choose the amount of Slate Tokens to tip. Tips are peer-to-peer microtransactions occurring on the Solana Blockchain. Social tipping can be public or anonymous.
Next-gen Social Platform
Data Anonymization
All data collected by Slate will be anonymized to ensure the privacy and safety of our users. Slate will only use anonymized data to develop the Slate platform further. We will never sell targeted ads on our platform.
Content Ownership
Ownership of all NFT content posted to Slate remains with the curator. Slate does NOT claim any intellectual property rights over your content. Slate only serves your content to other users.
Social Tipping
Social tipping is a key feature of the Slate ecosystem and business model. It is a user-to-user financial tip to reward high-quality content. The goal is to ensure content creators release the highest quality content to earn “likes.”
Road to Web 3.0 dApp
Slate maintains a decentralization-forward approach gearing towards the inevitable adoption of Web 3.0. Initially, we must manage Slate as a centralized system to release on current app stores, especially the Apple App Store. However, we are taking steps now to prepare our platform for the eventual shift towards decentralization.
Apple’s App Store’s Review Guidelines prevent decentralized iOS applications from being listed, preventing DApps from mass adoption. Without a viable Web 3.0 DApp store alternative, Slate will stay primarily centralized. Our approach will focus on bringing the best NFT social app possible while working alongside the community to develop a viable plan to decentralize into the future.
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