EOS Voice KYC Review - Should You? Pt.1

Welcome back to the channel. I hope you're having a great day. So I want to talk about the Voice project by EOS, now in beta, only open to US customers at this time. Um, and so it's been a lot of controversy about Voice, specifically related to the know your customer validation. Um, and, uh, so what we're going to do today, we're going to look into that, see if this is something we should be doing. Should we be giving our data, or rather our identities, over to, uh, The Voice Project? Um, is this something in line more so with cryptocurrency? And, um, I'm gonna just get my thoughts and opinions on what I think of that and what I'm gonna do. So let's talk about Voic3 today. First, what is Voic3? So let's try to get a little understanding of Voic3 so we have a much more clear picture of what Voic3 is. And I think one of the best ways to do that is going to be to go straight from the words of Voic3 and maybe then we can have some commentary on that. So Voic3 is a transparent, rewards-based social network for creating, distributing, and discovering content. It aims to foster a new and trusted experience through identity authentication and transparent database infrastructure. Voice is built by and for its users. Most value is returned back to its community through Voice tokens, a utility token that can be earned and consumed to acquire the attention of other users on the network. So that's Voice described in their own words. So, so what exactly does that mean? So, you know, to, to kind of really get, I think, a full understanding of the Voice project, we have to look at who created this. We go back to a person by the name of Dan Larimer, and then we go to, uh, basically, uh, his first social network before that that he created was Steemit on the Steemit blockchain. And so, uh, one of the problems that occurred with Steemit was that, uh, Steemit is pretty much stake-based. So it means that people who put up the most value monetarily in, uh, basically Steemit had the loudest voice, right? They had the greatest influence. And of course, this can be problematic in that you could end up Basically with just the influence of people who have invested more money, more so than others. Of course, the problem being with something like that is that for everybody to have a voice, obviously everybody can't have a voice if I could just buy my way through your voice. So it would have to be a system that was able to consider that and make a way to get around this. And that of course would be impossible unless you had a way that it couldn't be through a market type situation manipulated or purchased. So that basically means Voice tokens cannot be traded or bought and sold in a traditional way like we've done before. Otherwise people would just buy the most Voice tokens they will buy the most voice tokens, and then it would be a repeat of, uh, similar to what happened with Steemit. So this is kind of hard for a lot of people to understand, but it's actually very quite simple when you think about it. Um, so that's a basic understanding of, uh, of the origins and why Voice started. Now, what makes Voice technologically unique? Uh, let's see what it says here. Voice leverages the open-source EOSIO protocol and the inherent characteristics of blockchain technology: security and audibility. Through Voice, we promote trusted and transparent social interactions, as well as visibility into the way the platform promotes content. Right, so this is kind of interesting when they're talking about technology because they even take us back through time Before VOICE came out, there was bits and pieces of information coming out of the EOS camp about how it would work and how it would be used. And such things were coming out like biometric readings to determine unique users, uh, that it would have some type of universal basic income program or some type of universal resource inheritance, uh, program. Basically, the distribution method to receive these EOS tokens, right? These voice tokens, right? Because as we mentioned earlier, if it worked like a traditional crypto where people could just buy them, they could just use their money to have the loudest voice on the network, and you don't want that. That's not going to accomplish what you like, right? Um, so basically what has happened, it would seem, is the biometric part of technology wasn't included in, which we just have basically a standard KYC, upload your driver's license, ID cards type verification system, right? And I guess that's the most effective at this point in time, specifically and especially in the beta testing. Now, of course, that creates a lot of issues in the cryptocurrency community. But, um, interesting enough, uh, when we really think about, um, you know, the idea that this will occur on the blockchain and it will do something we've never seen done before on social media, and that is, uh, basically, um, allow the identification of real users. You know, when you take something like Facebook, big issue with Facebook is a lot of value that's going to Facebook is being valued on the accounts. But what's not being taken into account is that Facebook is being hit by bots. There are a great deal of duplicate accounts, fake accounts, and they are by the millions. There may be, I don't know, hundreds of millions of fake Facebook accounts. So Voice would do something in social media we haven't seen before, and that is create basically a situation where businesses, entities, are able to be assured that these are real users, these are real people, that the numbers aren't inflated or something to that degree. And from a business perspective and a marketing perspective, this could be a lot more effective than what you might get with something like Facebook ads or something like that, right? So, so quite interesting to, to think about those things. So what are Voice tokens and how are they earned? Um, Voice tokens are consumable utility tokens that capture the attention of other users. You can spend them on specific content to increase visibility on the platform. Because everyone has the right to be heard, users earn the same amount of Voice tokens each day. You can earn additional tokens by creating content that other people consume and appreciate. Initially, you can use tokens to purchase space below published content, but voice tokens are conceived as the gateway to all forms of promotion and advertising on the platform. As we approach beta, we'll post more details on the Voice Blog and the voice tokens distribution mechanics and consumption models. Right, so that's kind of interesting. That's basically like saying one big question was always What's going to happen with the VOICE token? What are you going to do if it's not a standard cryptocurrency market where you're able to, um, uh, basically, uh, sell these tokens and trade them on the market, and that's how the users and earners of the tokens get a value? What else can you do? So the model that VOICE is using is that you'll be able to use it to basically push your um, your post, your content to the forefront with your voice tokens. And that's how you would use them. You will also receive them free every day that you log into the account, and you're able to then in a fair way have your voice heard and accumulate these tokens. So wouldn't be like, um, how many standard platforms work now where you're tipped or there's donations and they're all, they're all given or earned based on not necessarily merit, but it could be nepotism, it could be conclaves, it could be cliques, it could be many things. So interesting enough, The Voice Project seems to be solving many of the social dynamics in social media, specifically where you earn on a platform. And I think that's quite interesting. That's definitely a plus in The Voice, uh, camp. And as many Pluses, right? But let's talk a little bit about some of the negatives, and I think this is the one many people, uh, are going to have an issue with. So, so let's get into the meat and potatoes of what our video is about here, and that is, will all users of Voice be required to verify their identity for everything other than content consumption? Yes. Authenticity is fundamental to bringing alignment to social media, and identity verification will ensure that every account belongs to a real person. Verified identity helps to eliminate bots, fake news, and other negative experiences plaguing existing social platforms caused by male actors hiding behind anonymity and commercial interests. And enables compliant deeper level engagement with the tokenized economy. We are not oblivious to the hurdles required to achieve this, but know the transformative experience it unlocks. It is worth it, and our focus on making the process as streamlined and easy as possible. Now, this is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, right? And, you know, I was going to make this the EOS Voice review, but this isn't really a review. But I guess I could say it's a proxy review, as I was able to see through the eyes of other people who use the voice platforms, their whole walkthrough experience of it. And I was able to get a pretty full scope of voice. All right. And, uh, well, we're going to get into in a bit why I didn't join Vo1ce, but, um, and we're going to talk about should we do it or not, um, or specifically with me if I'm going to do it or not. But anyway, dealing with this verification, uh, know your customer rule situation, what we have to understand is quite clear that it talks about If people are just consuming the content, it's fine. You don't have to do anything else. But if you're earning tokens and you're trading these tokens, you're going to have to, um, basically give over your identification. We're talking driver's license here. And in beta mode, uh, through my proxy review, I was able to discover that they're going to use your actual real pictures as your avatar. You can't create, um, basically, um, your own avatars or fake avatars or, you know, caricatures or, you know, many of the things we do with avatars, symbols, none of that. It's got to be your actual picture from your driver's license. So hopefully you took a good driver's license picture. You're gonna have to upload your driver's license or some type of ID card. And, um, so you will not be anonymous, right? Not only to Voice but to the public. And your user ID, as I understand it, will be your real name. So it's not just that you're giving voice to information, uh, it's that you're giving the whole world the information, it would seem. And, uh, right, that is— that can be quite crazy, you know, to a lot of people. Um, but what is interesting is that, as we kind of discussed a little later, to have no bots, fake news, or none of these negative experiences, none of these people saying things to you they wouldn't say to you in real life, none of these people with agendas political-wise or anything like that. It would hide behind the computer screen. Now, of course, some of the problems with this is the idea of the term voice and having voice. It almost makes me feel like it's promoting freedom of speech and the idea of if you were under some type of suppression or oppression from what would perhaps be a more of a stake-driven type platform, which means if you have more value and stake and money, then your voice is gonna be heard over someone else's. In fact, there are social networks where if you don't have stake invested in a project, your voice isn't heard at all pretty much because they do not consider your voice very loud or effective or important. As you haven't taken your fiat currency and invested it. But Voic3 seems to be dealing with this, and for that I applaud them. I actually do. And the catch-22 here, the conundrum here, is that in order for them to pull this off, they're going to need your identity, and they're going to— you're going to be known to the Voic3 project, right? Uh, and it's on a level so severe it makes what's happened on Facebook look like nursery school. So there's a big trade-off here. There's a lot of pros to this, but there's also a big trade-off here. You know, also you have to keep in mind you're earning tokens in value. Um, you know, this could easily create a situation for EOS where they're breaking some type of securities law. So they got to be quite careful here. Uh, and in doing so The way things are set up, uh, the EOS Voice project has to follow know your customer rules and AML, anti-money laundering law, right? Um, and this is important for, you know, of course stopping people from using this as a terrorist network chain and, and a variety of things, right? Um, so this is the position that EOS Voice is in, right? Uh, because another thing is we don't know how these rewards are going to be converted, right? Might not be cryptocurrency, could be just a direct cash conversion, no idea. Or it may be an EOS conversion, right? I have no idea how they're going to do this exactly, but at some point, uh, people are going to earn some type of money from this right now that can be traded for other things. Um, also interesting enough is being involved with Voice. I believe Voice has a strategy, uh, in relation to something like Facebook. Can it get near Facebook? Can it catch Facebook? Can it, uh, and some very interesting dynamics here because Facebook does have bots, fake news. It does have, uh, all of these things and fake accounts and duplicate accounts, and it has substantiated their value or maybe over-substantiated it, and it's hard to detect these things. And when you can't, you have to account for what is not valuable on these social network platforms. It would seem that Voic won't have this problem. However, the onboarding of Voic, I would think, would suffer to a great degree. People who wants to take the time to upload driver's license, do all those things, Is it worth it enough for him to do all these things? And I think that's the big question, and the answer may be here in Voice. And, and what I mean by that is that, uh, there were some tweets going out and information going out about, uh, um, Voice in relation to big content influencers. Um, if memory serves me correct, it was something like a what would be $100 million, um, that's set aside in rewards targeting content creators. If we think about people like PewDiePie who could be offered a lot of money to bring their, their, their base into something like Voice, or some big content influencer, it really wouldn't be that difficult for Voice to onboard provided they offer these people enough money and they convince people to join the network. That could very well happen. Sometimes it doesn't always happen like I think they would like. Um, like with the PewDiePie situation and DLive, he had something like 90 million subscribers. Uh, I'm pretty sure that only a very small fraction of those subscribers joined him over on DLive. Um, I don't think the entire 90 million went over. So you have that issue, but you have some good potential and basically onboarding these huge content influencers, offering them a deal, offering them a great amount of value, and they pull in their base in. And that can be, could work in Voice's favor quite well. Will it be enough to get people to hand over their identity and all these things on a large scale? No idea, probably not. But it will be interesting to watch. Um, and so with that said, with us having a kind of understanding of what's happening with Voice, um, and what's going to happen when you create a Voice account, you're going to have to upload your identification. They're going to use your real picture IDs in place of your avatar. Um, they are, um, basically going to know who you are, right? They're going to have your full identity and seemingly everybody else's. So is it worth it, right? Are you going to be earning enough for all of that? And is it going to be worth it in the end? And is this the type of cryptocurrency situation you want to be in? Well, you know, considering everything, Voic3 certainly I don't think should be classified as a cryptocurrency. A voice token to me would feel very centralized, and it's pretty much admittedly so. That's going to control the voice of what people say. It's going to hold them responsible and accountable because it now knows who you are, and it's probably going to be able to act as far as removing you. So this is going to be nothing like decentralized social media. This information will be on the blockchain in that sense, but the control the project will have over that anonymity in people is going to be gone. And I don't think that's going to go over as well as maybe the Voice Project would like with people. Um, that's just my guess. With that said, uh, am I going to join the Voice Network, handle my identification, do something other than use a proxy, uh, account through others? Um, and I, you know, with a heavy heart, I have to tell you guys, as much as I like Dan Larimer, I like the EOS project, Voice Project, and as much as I'd like to be a part of it and anticipated it, uh, and followed it, you know, over the course of all this time, I'm going to have to say I will not be joining The Voice Network. Um, now what will I be doing instead? Let's talk about that. And if you're in the same position I am in maybe this as well may be an option for you. All right, so we're here on BitcoinMYK, and what I'm going to do, or what I, I think I prefer to do, is something like BitcoinMYK. It is a project that I founded that has very similar principles and ideas to what Voice Token has. Um, and the way this works is it's a little bit different but very much the same idea. And what you get is basically through a type of universal basic income. The more hours you spend on the site, the more of the Bitcoin MYK tokens you receive. And the reason it's called Bitcoin MYK is much or similar to like what you get And basically the Voice token project, where the annual inflation rate is what allows the Voice tokens to be produced and paid for in the project. BitcoinNYK does a fork of the Bitcoin network, and the unclaimed Bitcoin coins are basically recirculated back to and given to people to use on our site to post content to. Basically, if they're musicians or artists or videographers, they can use their BitcoinNYK tokens and they are able to basically, um, uh, promote it and push it to the forefront. Um, and so it's a very similar element um, to, uh, what you get in the Voice project, right? Um, so that's quite interesting. Excuse me, I keep getting locked in there. So, um, where it's a little bit different— I keep hitting— I'm on my mobile device, keeps hitting me in my chat room. Okay, that's a little bit better. So you can see there are models, uh, they're basically, um, musicians here. And, uh, it's really cool because all these artists with the BitcoinMYK token, they can promote their work absolutely free. And in addition to that, earn on views and plays. So some very similar characteristics to the Voice, uh, project. Um, now where it is different is, uh, it's very low-level KYC, if any at all. We just take basically just emails, right? No driver's license upload, none of that stuff to register an account with the site. So it's the lowest level of KYC as you get and very, very hassle-free. We also use a system, um, a counter system that pushes out bots, uh, and so that we know that the participation levels are real. And, uh, um, and that's in our project, the most important thing is that the views are unique and less concerned about the identity of people. And so quite the interesting project. There are also games. You can actually play games on here. And when you play games on here, basically you earn playing the games, right? So it's just so much cool stuff. And what we've tried to do, I guess what we tried to do with BitcoinMYK is we tried, we attempted to basically look at cryptocurrency and try to determine all of the good things about it, we could kind of put them into one thing and discard many of the negative aspects of cryptocurrency in that, in that way. Also, the BitcoinNYK project does trade right now on the Steem blockchain, but it's important to understand this is a universal bridge cryptocurrency, um, and, uh, and, uh, it basically means that you're able to move this cryptocurrency from one chain to another through our gateway fork system. Um, so pretty darn interesting here. It allows it to expand and to grow and to be, be a part of other networks by being able to use the gateway system to send your, your cryptocurrency against the trading pair of your own, uh, base pair or cryptocurrency community you're already in, right? So in something like, uh, Bitcoin or EOS or Waves or Telos, Bitcoin Cash, there's going to be pairing systems, base pairs against the BitcoinNYK token. And this is how you would send these tokens to various communities, right? So pretty darn interesting, pretty darn interesting. I think a good option to what we're getting on Voice. Uh, definitely you want to give it a try, see if you like it. Maybe you could make some comparisons between it and Voice. Uh, right now a lot of our posting is actually done because we're a universal bridge cryptocurrency. Our posting is actually done through the Steem blockchain, so we do run— we do mostly do more— most of our transactions with the Steem blockchain, although again we can transact, uh, through our gateway system to other blockchains and use the token over there. All right, um, so very exciting. Um, it's absolutely free to try. You can start earning BitcoinMYK tokens today. Day. If you're not in the United States, unable to try the Voice project, give BitcoinNYK a try in the meantime. Give it a try, it's absolutely free. And once you get on Voice, you can compare the two and let us know which one you think is going to work best for you in the future. Because I think right now it's kind of up in the air, uh, what's going to happen with this. I know a lot of people like myself who've decided not to participate in the Voice project. And definitely not discouraging anybody not to do so. It's just a decision I'm making here on my own. I would love for y'all to try it, come back and let me know what you thought about it. And let me know what you think about this project. We're going to be bringing you a lot more information about it today, but you could try it now. A lot of cool features, a lot of things you can do. Let me real quick show you some more things about it. just so you know what you're getting, what you're going to be doing. So, for instance, I'm going to show you really quick. Let me go down here and show you the game section. Hit the menu button. Let's go over to games, show you how you can play games and you can earn playing our games. Uh, if I could find the games button. Where are you? I know you're here. Oh, there we go, games. Let's click on that. Let me show you how our games work. We're going to go through some of the cool features, uh, of how you earn our Bitcoin MYK and, uh, why you might want to try it. And, um, you know, and let us know, uh, what we can do to improve it, uh, once you're on there. So loading up the games now. Take a moment, get all the games loaded on here. I'm hoping to take a moment. Maybe it's my recording device. It's a lot of games actually too. Okay, let's see what that's gonna do.