How have you been holding up over the past few years? If you’re like me the answer is probably not that great. It’s been a hard few years with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. If it feels like it’s taken a real toll, you should know that science says you’re right.
The reality is that we as humans do not do well without social interaction. Even the most introverted among us have a basic social need that requires fulfillment (1). The last few years have demonstrated the importance of community and connection. The unfortunate reality is that in an age of continuous health scares, flexible and remote working opportunities, and increased digitization we have fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with one another(2). This reduction in human interaction has an increasingly negative impact on our ability to meet, generate, and maintain social relationships, particularly with people outside of our social in-group (3).
While the world was sheltering in-place, and many of us lost social and actual connection to the outside world, a team of friends sought to end this pervasive loneliness with our greatest invention yet: the internet. From their brainstorming arose GloballyUnited, a project which seeks to bring the world closer by uniting cultural spaces through Web3. The next question was how they would create this increased cultural and financial accessibility when so many projects are already doing the same. The team rose to the challenge and created an innovative Post-To-Earn mechanism intended to jumpstart an open-economy social media platform, bringing cultural connections and financial accessibility to all corners of the world.
The Post-to-Earn mechanism, built on the Ethereum blockchain, follows a similar method employed in other digital asset products by encouraging customers to engage with the platform and its products: the greater the interaction, the greater the reward. But GloballyUnited’s engagement is measured not in products purchased or viewed, but in original content creation and interactions with other users. Critically, the platform differs from traditional social networks in that, unlike centralized social networks with unfair monetization policies that keep changing with time, GloballyUnited is building a network that creates value for cultures where content producers get paid transparently and securely.
This payment feature is possible through the platform’s offering of the GloballyUnited non-fungible token (NFT), or “GU Coin.” This combination of NFTs and social media will create opportunities for explorers, creatives, and locals to economically benefit from the ever-growing GloballyUnited ecosystem. The project further promises that all revenues generated through the GU Coin will be reinvested in the project to create greater value for users and protect the community from future volatility.
GloballyUnited began Beta testing the platform in 2023 and is seeking additional testers. Anyone interested in joining the platform can sign up here. GloballyUnited plans to launch the completed program in Spring 2023.
1. Lin, J., Zajdel, M., Keller, K.R. et al. Life under stay-at-home orders: a panel study of change in social interaction and emotional wellbeing among older Americans during COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Public Health 22, 1777 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14103-x
2. Bzdok, D., Dunbar, R.I.M. Social isolation and the brain in the pandemic era. Nat Hum Behav 6, 1333–1343 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01453-0
3. Ayers JD, Guevara Beltrán D, Van Horn A, Cronk L, Todd PM, Aktipis A. Younger people and people with higher subjective SES experienced more negative effects of the pandemic on their friendships. Pers Individ Dif. 2022 Feb;185:111246. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111246. Epub 2021 Sep 14. PMID: 34538996; PMCID: PMC8438507.
