DApp Review Series 1 — Everipedia

eosys (55)in #en • 6 years ago

The first DApp review we will be looking at in our DApp Studio is Everipedia. Everipedia is an EOS based encyclopedia forked from Wikipedia. Its name is a combination of “Everything” and “Encyclopedia”.

Development Background

According to Killer Whale’s Youtube interview with the co-founder of Everipedia, Mahbod Moghadam, he was once moved by the fact that someone had made a Wikipedia page about him, only to be disappointed later when Wikipedia removed the page, claiming that Moghadam was not famous enough. This inspired Moghadam to create a GENIUS version of Wikipedia, leading him to join the development of Everipedia.

Moghadam claims that Wikipedia does not put together all information, and excludes information that they deem unnecessary. If one is unable to find information on Wikipedia, they must access other -pedias such as Star Trek-pedia, Star Wars-pedia, and Investopedia, which makes information search uncomfortable for the users. Thus, everipedia weeks to combine such distribution information and knowledge into one single platform.

Introducing the Team Members

There are some notable members in the Everipedia team. Firstly, the cofounder of Everipedia, Mahbod Moghadam, is the Chief Community Officer of Everipedia. He studied history and international studies in Yale, and went to Stanford law to become a lawyer. He is the co-founder of a digital media company which we all know, GENIUS (previously Rap Genius). Personally, I found the CIO of this project to be fascinating. The CIO is none other than Larry Sanger — former editor of Nupedia, co-founder of Wikipedia, and founder of Citizendium. Sanger joined the project believing that incorporating blockchain with encyclopedias could help him realize the ideal he had when he founded Wikipedia.

Summary and Analysis of White Paper

In the white paper, Everipedia not only points out the problems that Wikipedia faces with its current structure, but also explains how its users reach a consensus, get rewarded for reaching such consensus, and create value within themselves. They explain this process through three modules: the governance module, the token module, and the article module. The word “module”, which appears in the white paper several times can be hard to grasp at first, but substituting the word for “composition” might help your understanding. Everipedia consists of these three modules.

1. Governance Module: The module in charge of network governance

The governance module allows users to vote on all changes required in the network. For instance, through the governance module, users can vote on whether an edit in an article is accurate or not, or vote to change certain governance rules in the network — all can be changed through votes except information regarding token balances and the database that contains the articles. Through such democratic process, governance-related consensus can be reached. The debate before consensus can take place off chain, but the execution of change will be recorded on the blockchain. In case users fail to reach a consensus internally, either the core developers or the Everipedia foundation can intervene to carry out an update, but this type of governance is not ideal according to the white paper. Thus, they attempt to achieve a trustless on chain consensus through this module.

2. Token Module: The module that tracks token balance, token supply, token remittance, etc

As the name suggests, anything token related happens in this module. The settlement of token balances is tracked, recorded, and saved by Everipedia through this module. The annual mint rate was set at 5% to match the inflation rate, but this can be changed through a voting process. This module also calculates how many tokens each editor gets as a reward.

3. Article Module: The module that allows the suggestion of edits, and sends the information of changed database states of articles to the IPFS node

Through this module, users can add, subtract, or edit certain parts of an article on Everipedia. Simply put, all processes related to the editing of an article occur through this module. Editors make changes in an article, and when enough votes approve the edit, the change is recorded on the blockchain.

Everipedia’s token, IQ token, must go through a staking process, just like an EOS coin. After staking the IQ token, users can suggest edits, or vote on governance processes. IQ tokens are staked to BP (Brain Power) tokens on a 1:1 ratio. Also, in order to protect the network from attacks, staked tokens are locked up for 21 days.

How to Use Everipedia

Now I’ll demonstrate how to actually use Everipedia. As a reader, to read articles on Everipedia, access https://everipedia.org, and to write and edit articles as an editor, access https://iqnetwork.io

The following steps demonstrate how to create a new article on Everipedia as an editor.

First, to become an editor, you need an EOS account, and a Scatter wallet chrome extension. Log into your EOS account through the scatter extension, and click on ‘create page’.

Insert the name of the page you would like to create.

In the creation page, you can fill out the information in each of the blank boxes according to the instructions.

After writing your article, once you click on save, a popup appears, saying that you need to stake your IQ tokens.

In this page, you can stake your IQ tokens for BP tokens, which will allow you to upload the article.

Now that you’re familiar with what Everipedia is, and how to use it, we’ll explore it’s unique selling points as well as its weaknesses.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Strength

One can claim ownership of the articles he writes
Tokens awarded for contribution to the network
Censorship free
Low risk of the server crash
Access to information from other pedias (ex. Star wars wiki, Marvel wikia, etc)
Sustainable, as it has its own token model

Weaknesses

Complicated preparation process (EOS account, Scatter chrome extension, IQ token required)
Complex token economy (the concept of staking can be hard to grasp)
The possibility of inefficient resource use
The profit model is nothing new
Lack of groundbreakingly creative idea
High entry barriers

Other Information

Listed exchanges

: Bitfinex, Bancor, Chaince, KKEX, Upbit, etc

Supporting Wallets

: SimplEOS, Grey Mass, Hyper Pay, Move in One, Token Pockets

Conclusion

Because Wikipedia is non-profit, it is hard to value its economic worth, but in 2013, it was said that Wikipedia’s value lies between 6–10 billion dollars. On the other hand, if we multiply the number of IQ tokens supplied by the price of the token to estimate Everipedia’s value, Everipedia is worth about 14 million dollars. According to the white paper, Everipedia plans on supplying 10 billion tokens in total, and considering the fact that Everipedia is still at its beginning stage, and that it is growing rapidly with huge community support, if it manages to absorb knowledge and information from the other pedias, combining all information to offer knowledge in a single platform, I believe it has the potential to outgrow Wikipedia.

Moreover, the fact that Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia and currently the CIO of Everipedia, sees Everipedia as a means to realize the ideals Wikipedia once had when it launched, makes me look forward to this project.

Thank you for reading the first DApp Review Series on Everipedia. The next review will be on NOMAD.

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