144 - Get paid with likes... the Like Coin with Kin Ko

Interview - Get paid with likes… the Like Coin

So we've all heard of the Block Chain I guess by now? It's a technology which has received a great deal of interest over the last few years, well, that's what this episode is about - sort of!

Although my understanding is not all that clear, a Block Chain is a distributed ledger which holds data about something... anything. A few years ago when the idea came about, it was all about crypto currencies like Bitcoin and Etherium. That's changing now as people are figuring out that this system can be repurposed to store data about anything.

The reason that it's so innovative is that Block Chains can be used as proof that something happened. The ecosystem has to agree that an event happened before it's added to the chain of other blocks. Thus you can prove that you did in fact earn that Bitcoin. Everyone has a copy of the data, not just one person in the way that we usually store data (backups excluded).

Today we speak with Kin Ko who has come up with the most interesting of ideas... The Like Coin.

Think of it like this. You are a browser of the internet and you consume other people's content all the time. A few decades ago you'd have had to pay for all that content one piece at a time. They book, that magazine, that newspaper. Then along came the internet and changed that for good. Now most of us expect it all for free.

However, it cannot be free - no all of it. Some people will gladly give away their content for nothing, they just post it and expect nothing in return. Others really wish to get paid for their work and so the industry has tried all sorts of ways to create financial value from content. Ads, paywalls, donations, subscriptions. They all work to a great (or more likely) lesser extent, but they're not perfect.

Like coin is aiming to change that. You see the idea here is that you get hold of some like coins and then you give them away. Just like real money!

If Like Coin is successful, website owners will start to put Like Coin 'Like' buttons on their websites... like this one...

This is not the proper one, rather just a link, but it does the same job. If you see my content and you think that it's worth something, you just click the button wherever you think the content is worthy.

So let's say that you sign up to Like Coin to the order of $10 per month. You $10 will become Like Coins and each time you click a Like button, the owner of that website will get a proportion of that $10. If you make one click during that month, that person gets $10 value. If you click twice, they both get $5 value. You get the idea.

So this enables you to donate and not have to think too much about the value you put on it. You just merrily click away know that the system will distribute your donations equally! It's so clever.

Now, clearly, there is more to it than that, but you get the idea. Listen to the podcast to find out all the details and perhaps start a revolution at the same time!

Mentioned in this episode:

What is Like Coin
How to enable LikeButton on WordPress Website
email Kin: [email protected]