The number of developers and users of the Stack Exchange, a collaborative Q&A platform for developers, has decreased substantially, due to its lack of incentive for freelance programmers. To properly incentivize developers and solution providers of the network, a group of engineers have launched Synapsi, a blockchain-powered knowledge market.
“We believe Synapsi offers a solution to any platform where users want to provide incentives for high-priority questions and issues,” Ken Miyoshi of Synapsi told Joseph Young in an exclusive interview.
“Users can now attach bounties to questions on Stack Exchange as an incentive to developers who may prefer bitcoin over reputation. Our initial focus is integrating with GitHub and enabling users to contribute and collect bitcoins for bugs, feature requests and resolving issues,” he added.
The Synapsi implements multi-signature technology to allow users to deposit BTC while posting a question on the platform. The deposit of the user and the multi-sig implementation creates a unique escrow account between Synapsi, user and the developer who answers the question.
As soon as the user confirms and validates the answer provided by a developer, the funds are released by Synapsi.
“Synapsi uses a 2-of-2 multi-signature implementation where Synapsi and the user asking the question are both required to sign the transaction. This creates a unique escrow arrangement that allows the user to credibly commit to making payment while giving Synapsi only negative control over funds. Users can directly pay to the best response or to multiple responses or request a refund if there is no satisfactory response,” explained Miyoshi.
Instead of using altcoins or alternative blockchains to speed up the verification process, the Synapsi team decided to implement the bitcoin network due to its ability to process microtransactions with low transaction fees. Furthermore, there are no blockchains today which provide the same level of security that the bitcoin blockchain offers.
“While bitcoin is currently well-suited for micro-transactions because transaction fees are low, Synapsi enables users to offer incentives for more specific and more valuable information. We also think bitcoin is the ideal currency for the platform because it’s secure, open and inclusive,” continued Miyoshi.
Monetization
Currently, the Synapsi platform takes comission fees from users only after the questions are answered and users are paid. It charges no other fees apart from this small management fee to sustain the business and manage its team of engineers.
Because the Synapsi platform uses the multi-sig technology, most of the processes are completed autonomously. However, the Synpasi team may raise capital later on to further improve the platform and expand its team of engineers and developers.
“Synapsi is designed to be a sustainable business by charging a commission only when questions are answered and users are paid. We don’t currently plan to take investments but we may raise capital depending on our strategy,” concluded Miyoshi.
