Have you ever wanted to call BS on something you’ve seen online? For most of us the answer is a resounding yes. That’s why Errol Hula is building a system that allows users to mark whether information on social media is accurate or not.
His application, called NOBL, includes a BS button which users can click on if they see something online that they know is not true. They can also add external links to posts to prove that material is false.
Errol says that by aggregating all this information the system can display which posts can be trusted and whether a user is trustworthy or not. He believes that this will solve the problem of identifying misinformation online, while still allowing people the freedom to speak their minds.
“We won’t get rid of loud voices but what we’ll hopefully do is be able to, rather than just shouting at one another, hopefully have more reasoned discussions.”
Errol tells CoinGeek's Charles Miller that the other issue he aims to tackle is the lack of privacy in social media. Instead of making money from harvesting user data and selling it on to third parties, as so many leading technology companies do currently, NOBL will use a micropayment system.
This will allow users to monetise content where they see fit and allow readers to tip writers or posts that they find interesting. “The goal is to generate enough revenue from the subscriptions and the tipping and that micro economy that it can actually fund the free use for others.”
Due to the Bitcoin SV blockchain’s high scaling capacity and low fees, micropayments are possible in a way that they are not on other blockchains.
Users will also be able to control their newsfeeds by adjusting a slider, which Errol calls ‘the BS filter’, meaning people can choose what they see online rather than being at the mercy of whatever algorithm is put in place by social media companies.
Errol explains that he was motivated to build NOBL to solve real world problems, such as the proliferation of fake news online and the concentration of power that big tech currently enjoys.
The impact that these issues are having on democratic society became increasingly evident in the Donald Trump era, with the former President banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about the 2020 US presidential election and the part his tweets played in the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Errol hopes to transform the future of social media by harnessing the power of Bitcoin SV, but he stresses that the digital asset will be just the ‘plumbing’ that underpins the product and not the main attraction.
“The fact that it uses Bitcoin SV is not going to influence whether someone is interested or not. If it’s a product that’s going to succeed because it solves a problem, investment will follow.”