1  ## The Status Network
 2  
 3  <big>A strategy towards mass adoption of Ethereum</big>
 4  
 5  <small>Draft for open community review. Subject to change.</small>
 6  
 7  ### Executive Summary
 8  
 9  Status is an open source messaging platform and mobile interface to
10  interact with decentralized applications that run on the Ethereum
11  Network.
12  
13  This document presents a utility network token for Status, the first
14  ever mobile Ethereum client built entirely on peer-to-peer technologies.
15  
16  The messenger form-factor is chosen to make Ethereum feel as familiar as
17  possible to the average smartphone user, while providing a flexible
18  platform for DApp developers, aimed to maximise the amount of daily use
19  of Ethereum’s public blockchain.
20  
21  The Status Network token is a modular utility token that fuels the
22  Status network. This includes a Decentralized Push Notification Market,
23  Governance of the Status client, Community Curation of content, along
24  with social communication tools such as Tribute to Talk. We also propose
25  a fiat-to-crypto 'Teller Network', DApp Directory, Sticker Market, and
26  demonstrate our research on a User Acquisition Engine to grow the
27  Network.
28  
29  The Status Network Token (‘SNT’) will be distributed at a rate of 10,000
30  SNT per 1 ETH to participants in the Contribution Period, and is
31  expected to begin on June 20th. The Contribution Period will run for 14
32  days, or within 24 hours of the first ceiling of 12M CHF (Swiss Francs)
33  having been reached (outlined on Page 27).
34  
35  ### Background
36  
37  Prevalent on the internet today are social bots, a type of automated
38  software that controls a social media account, designed to advocate
39  certain ideas, support campaigns, and sway public relations. These bots
40  pollute online discussion by lending false credibility to their messages
41  and influence of real users ([Ferrara et
42  al. 2016a](https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2016/7/204021-the-rise-of-social-bots/fulltext),
43  [Aiello et
44  al. 2012](https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM12/paper/download/4523/4961)).
45  Recent studies quantify the extent to which automated systems can
46  dominate discussions on Twitter about topics ranging from electronic
47  cigarettes ([Clark et
48  al. 2015](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157304))
49  to elections ([Bessi and
50  Ferrara 2016](http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/7090/5653)).
51  Recent conservative estimates claim 15% of all Twitter users are said to
52  be bots ([Varol and Ferrara 2017](https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03107)).
53  Twitter has 319 million monthly active users as of 2016, suggesting that
54  47.8 million users are bots. This poses a threat to the legitimacy of
55  the media we consume.
56  
57  The problem of social bots and media manipulation serves as a catalyst
58  in re-evaluating how we design our social networks and is just one
59  symptom that is systemic in the user-as- product business model. In this
60  paper we will present our ideas for the next generation social network,
61  the **socio-economic network**.
62  
63  Carl and Jarrad, the co-founders of Status, have had a working
64  relationship for 6 years on various projects, and 3 of those years were
65  spent operating a software distribution network, driving over 20 million
66  installs to various software o erings, the profits of which were used to
67  fund Status and our team of 10 until this point. During the operation of
68  this business we were uniquely positioned to see firsthand how personal
69  data on the internet is bought and sold and how users are acquired and
70  retained.