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Blockchain news
Unlike bitcoin, though, there is a fixed number of Mass Coins: once the coins have been created, there will be no further inflation of supply, so the value should only go upwards, driven by the demand from advertisers who will use the currency to bid for data. One trillion Mass Coins will be created, with 70 percent being distributed to investors who commit bitcoins to the project’s ICO, which will be used for development and marketing. The Mass Network will therefore be its own ecosystem and monetary system. It’s an intriguing example of the way that blockchain technology is developing, and facilitating new kinds of communities and businesses.
Brave new world
Mass is an example of the way that blockchain brings not just quantitative but qualitative change. A few years ago there could be nothing like this – the infrastructure to support it simply didn’t exist, because the existing payment options didn’t work at that kind of small scale. Options like Mass were off the table, and the incumbent systems became entrenched. Thus Mass highlights one possible direction of travel for blockchain application: specific businesses that make use of dedicated payment systems to drive value for their users and investors in ways that were never before possible. Content curation systems, advertising platforms, loyalty programmes – some will share currencies, some will have their own, but they will all be linked through frictionless exchange in any case, functioning like different forms of private money. Some may become more important than that, and find application beyond their immediate ecosystem – perhaps being adopted as broader currencies of payment. Mass is one of the first to see the possibilities of making the free market truly free.