The mission of Proof of Writing is three-fold:

Increase eCash adoption
Focus on the power of words
Incentivize substance over slop

Spread the use of eCash

I discovered Bitcoin in 2017 with the help of a now defunct blog called Yours.org. It was a simple blogging platform similar to this one that allowed anyone to earn Bitcoin Cash for their content. I just so happened to stumble onto the site one evening in November of that year when someone posted a link to an article they posted on the platform with his BCH price prediction. So I signed up, sent a little BCH, and paid to unlock the article. Prior to this my only experience sending or receiving cryptocurrency was with BTC, and the experience was anything but magical. The fees were high, the processing time was extremely slow, and I couldn't understand why anyone would think blockchains were the future of finance. But my experience using Bitcoin Cash that day was nothing like that. I was blown away by how fast and cheap it was. The transaction went through almost instantly, the paywall lifted, and in a matter of seconds, I had paid to access this stranger's content. All without having to provide my name, or credit card number, just my cold hard electronic cash.

Unfortunately, that site didn't last very long, but it will always be near and dear to my heart because I'm convinced that without it, my crypto journey would have never gotten started. Over the years, I waited for someone to come up with a better version of Yours.org. And while various attempts were made, none came close to being what I was looking for. What I was looking for was a platform that provided users with a magical experience to show them the true power of crypto, aka magic internet money. My hope is that this new iteration of Proof of Writing can be exactly that and help people see that crypto isn't just about buying low and selling high, but a way to transform the digital economy and beyond.

Focus on the power of words

While designing this site, I made the conscious decision to avoid making it possible to upload images or videos. Not only because it makes the site faster, and saves me form having to monitor for illicit or illegal content, but because I want this platform to be a place to share ideas and stories, not eye candy. We are visual beings. There's a reason they say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I'd counter that by saying words are what ultimately give pictures their meaning. And I'm someone who is definitely interested in the meaning of things.

Maybe that's why I found a home on Twitter (now X) despite having never gotten into social media apps like Instagram or Facebook. Unfortunately, X seems to have recently become more focused on images and video as well, and so I wanted to differentiate this site by focusing solely on the written word. I know that most people don't like to read or write much these days, so maybe that means this platform never gains much traction, but I want to believe there's still a market for well written sentences, well told stories, and well articulated ideas. I see an entire generation spending all their time scrolling through meaningless images that rot their brain, and I want this place to help counter that trend if even in a small way. A place that forces you to not only read, but to think.

Incentivize substance over slop

The recent developments in AI technology are undoubtedly amazing. In fact, it's the only reason this site exists. But it's also made it far too easy for anyone to harvest our attention by creating what I'll call slop for the masses. Slop is everywhere these days. You can have written slop as well, of course, and I'm sure AI generated slop articles will appear on this site sooner than later, but the difference is, whereas traditional social media sites offer up content that is free to consume and incentivizes people to do whatever it takes to garner the most attention, every article served up on Proof of Writing requires an eCash payment to access. What I'm hoping will happen is that it will disincentivize people from posting slop, and at the same time, incentivize those who are willing to prove their work and don't want to give it away for free.

Whether or not any of this comes to fruition is anyone's guess, but I want to see how this experiment plays out. I recently told some folks that my goal with this site is to be the antithesis of Only Fans. Considering Only Fans generates billions of dollars of revenue, maybe striving to do the opposite of that platform isn't the smartest, or most profitable, idea. But I've never claimed to be the smartest, nor do I believe that being the most profitable is always the right goal.

The proofofwriting.com mission

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