> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://chainedx.gitbook.io/chainedx-protocol/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://chainedx.gitbook.io/chainedx-protocol/vision.md). # Vision #### Moving from DeFi to ChainedX Protocol While substantial research has focused on scaling "decentralized finance" or "DeFi" applications, comparatively little has been invested in building blockchains capable of scaling social media applications. This is surprising given that social media holds an equally significant, if not greater, potential for value creation. Furthermore, while several general-purpose blockchains (Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, etc.) boast their ability to scale to tens of thousands of "transactions per second," scaling up "posts per second" presents a unique challenge. Current blockchains are not designed to handle the storage and indexing needs of social media applications at scale. To draw a parallel from the centralized world, the infrastructure supporting the New York Stock Exchange is vastly different from that powering platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. These systems have distinct architectures tailored to their specific large-scale applications. Similarly, our **vison** with **ChainedX Protocol** is that a blockchain designed to scale decentralized social applications to one billion users will likely differ significantly from one that scales DeFi applications to the same extent. Thus, we believe the future of crypto will feature a series of dominant, specialized blockchains, each tailored to a specific category of applications rather than a single general-purpose blockchain that dominates all. #### Centralization of Social Media Currently, social media is more centralized than the financial industry was before Bitcoin's creation. A few private companies control public discourse and profit monopolistically from content they don't create. Meanwhile, the actual content creators are underpaid, under-engaged, and under-monetized due to an outdated ads-driven business model. This ads-driven model also forces social media companies to maintain a walled garden around user-created content, preventing external developers from innovating or building apps on top of it, leaving users and creators with no choice but to use apps solely controlled by these companies. These issues arise because data and content created by users are privately owned by a few companies, rather than being publicly accessible as an open utility. As only a few companies have access to this content, they alone can curate competitive feeds, build new features and apps, and monetize the content — content not even created by them. We are caught in a loop: * Users are compelled to use these companies' apps because they monopolize the content. * This forces creators to continue giving their content to them to gain reach. * This vicious cycle perpetuates the empowerment of these companies at the expense of creators and society. These companies have created a global network effect around a private content pool that they monopolize. **Centralization seems inevitable:** Combining all content into a single pool has value as it allows for global-scale curation, but whoever controls the pool becomes a centralized gatekeeper like what we have today. A solution arises if we can shift the network effect to a public content pool that no single entity controls — but is it possible? We believe all these issues can be addressed by decentralizing social media, aka to how Bitcoin and Ethereum are decentralizing the financial system. Bitcoin created a way to store transactions on a public ledger that no single entity can monopolize, disrupting the financial industry. We believe this technology can now be extended to run a social network without relying on a centralized gatekeeper. Bitcoin and Ethereum have demonstrated that dominant platforms can be built around **open code and data,** rather than private companies that monopolize data and benefit shareholders at others' expense. Bitcoin and Ethereum do not protect data moats. In fact, the more open they are and the more people build on them, the more value accrues to Bitcoin and Ethereum holders. This open software model is already disrupting global financial institutions, from banks to exchanges. For the first time, this model can disrupt social media giants and their outdated ads-driven business models. If we can start placing social media content into a public blockchain, rather than letting a few private companies monopolize it, we believe we can create an economy of scale around that blockchain powerful enough to rival and eventually surpass what traditional social media giants have created. We can solve a collective action problem among independent publishers by making it individually rational for them to contribute their content to a new globally-shared pool that they can never be disintermediated from and that, for the first time, is not controlled by a single company. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://chainedx.gitbook.io/chainedx-protocol/vision.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.