Social Media has indisputably served as a platform to establish connections, content sharing, and social interactions for the users in the past decade. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, was commonly associated with financial technology and has, in recent times, spawned its presence in a variety of verticals that includes media and specifically social media. This technology has also emerged as a solution for many issues like privacy and data security, fake news, and censorship.
Jenna Pilgrim, the 26-year old CEO of Streambed Media, has redefined content collaboration in the social sharing world. Mentored by the ace in blockchain world, Don Tapscott, Jenna discovered her passion for blockchain technology in fourth year of her university. An award-winning Trent university alumna, she has subject matter expertise on blockchain and has done over 70 projects in consulting multinationals for blockchain technology. While doing her research she and co-founder Michael Cassey discovered that there was a huge gap in research for blockchain technology in media and there was a scope to further streamline and commercialize this opportunity. Jenna states that this idea has gone through different phases of development which finally led to the beginning of Streambed Media.
Streambed is a publishing suite and analytics engine that links content across the internet. It connects social media accounts, content creators, and publishers alike. It also assists in gaining control over user’s own content and create a transparent and secure platform for them. Jenna mentions “blockchain can help maintain a ledger of what happened online by the user and correlate all of the accounts. Based on that online presence we can create a reputation score of the user which will help in the dynamics of data analytics.” Streambed Media creates a blockchain based indexing for the user which clusters together all the activities at one place. This invariably attests to the identity of the person who created the content, at what time, and at which place. The verified collaborators are shown publicly on index pages, creating transparency, tackling misinformation, and giving due credit to creators. The pages can also link original video pieces to trace the content’s provenance. The platform delegates the analytics to collaborators and brands in real time.
The company released the beta version of the app in July this year. The app allows users to publish content on the social media from a single dashboard and helps them to view advanced analytics and share traffic details with collaborators, funders, and brands. The other revenue model that the company is currently working on is the interaction of the companies with people. Jenna states “the company is also actively setting up a marketplace for various consumer goods’ brands wherein they can pay people directly for the analytics about how the video about their brand perform on somebody’s personal feed.” They are keen to bring about those brands who wish to test this new model for “organic engagement” with their customers. She adds “we have a huge potential to scale within the agency community as well as within the large brands who are looking to engage directly with the customers.”
Blockchain technology is aiming to resolve some of the most fundamental problems that exist within the social media which primarily includes securing the user’s content online. Streambed Media has received great response from the blockchain and online community alike. And there have been numerous positive instances where the users have wished to add reputation layer to the content they are creating. Jenna is confident that they have the right team and the potential to execute this vision in the times to come.
About the Founders: Michael Casey, Joseph Fiscella, and Jenna Pilgrim are on a mission to utilize the advantages of blockchain technology in social media to its full potential. The platform will help to aggregate different versions of the same content and “put the power back in the hands of the creators” which is necessary and crucial in today’s times.
Website: streambedmedia.com
