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<h1>The Apprentice task.</h1>
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>Imagine pitching a blockchain business idea to one of Alan Sugar’s evaluators in the final of the Apprentice. What would this idea look like? You will create a business plan using the headings below. The business plan will comprise a minimum and maximum of 3000 words. A digital badge will be issued to the project which receives the highest grade.
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Part I can be found here where I created an executive outline of my proposal.
#### <br>[The apprentice project.](https://leofinance.io/@niallon11/the-apprentice-project-writersblock-ie-proposal)
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Now I have put together a full breakdown of the proposal to submit for my course.
The app will be hosted on both website and mobile app versions. The business is going to have a tokenized economy to fulfil its business goals. There will be two tokens on the site.
- One token for consumers to reward creators, (DIVINITY) tokens.
- One token for creators to reward consumers, (DISCIPLE) tokens.
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## Blockchain Grid.
**Value proposition.**
There are a lot of social media websites out there spanning all content types. There are also plenty focused on writing and stories. The leading writing app at the moment is “Wattpad”. A creative writing site with 90 million monthly users, (Thehindu, 2020).
Wattpad is a company that provides a social storytelling platform allowing individuals to read, write, and share stories.
My site will be in the same genre as Wattpad while offering a totally different product. Users of this site will have an immutable account linked to the HIVE blockchain.
- A decentralized account with access to the whole Hive eco-system.
- A secure cryptocurrency wallet.
- An account to post original content to.
- Access to 2.3 million users from day one.
- The ability to earn from their content from day one.
- Proof of authenticity for any future disputes.
- The ability to gamify their audience though rewards and tokens.
**Customer segments.**
The demographic audience for this style of sites are majority female aged 13 to 34. An audience familiar with modern technology and that are comfortable with working from a computer. There is already a large market for amateur content creation and this project will tap into that existing market with the caveat of sharing our profits with the people adding the value to the site.
The legacy model takes all of this valuable content and makes a profit from it while giving nothing back to the people adding value. Our business will be built on rewarding those who create the most value.
With the current climate a lot more people are working from home and others are looking for ways to earn additional income in their spare time. A site of this kind would appeal to the large group of authors who would like to earn money for writing. Readers who would like to become a part of this style of gamified community. People that are looking to earn from home.
Our business will be based on offering the customer the benefits of a modern tokenized account that looks and feels the same as the existing un-monetized options.
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## Technology Grid.
**Infrastructure configuration.**
I have chosen to base this business on the Hive blockchain as it meets a large number of requirements for a social media app that other blockchains do not. The most important one from a development perspective is the (HAF),
*“HAF is an acronym from the HIVE Application Framework. In short, it is a software system that allows to easily write applications working on the HIVE blockchain.”* (Mickiewwicz, 2021)
In reality this will allow any coders to build apps for the hive eco-system without needed to understand blockchain or how to build onto it. As this is such a niche and emerging sector it is hard to find any suitable developers that can work in this area for most start ups. HAF will allow any developers to build and link their work to the chain.
Hive as a blockchain also has a number of advantages over its competitors for building apps.
- It is a public and permissionless blockchain that is easy to build onto.
- The chain has easy to use accounts with real usernames rather than strings of numbers.
- Transactions take three seconds and have zero fees.
- There is a much lower barrier to entry than other options.
- Users can create an account through existing web2 media like Facebook and Google.
- All data is public and easily readable through queries.
- There are already 2.3 million accounts that will have access to your app from the very start.
- There are a number of successful social media apps already built in the eco-system that have created a trail to follow.
- There is prebuilt infrastructure to tokenise projects.
By developing this business onto the HIVE blockchain we have a readymade base for development with open-source tools and a community of 2.3 million existing users accounts who are familiar with using Web3 sites and the majority of whom already interact with some form of social media site already built onto the blockchain.
Web 3.0 is the next evolution of the internet where, *“no permission is needed from a central authority to post anything ... there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure ... and no “kill switch” (*Silver, 2020)
This means that while any app that I build will be a centralised entity subject to our terms and conditions. Any account that signs up to the blockchain are free from censorship and threat of deletion as it exists outside of my control. I can ban them from my app but their account, content and assets are solely their own and will show up through other apps. This is very important for creative freedom as some users can put a decade into building a web2 account on social platforms to have it removed without any notice and remove their value and source of income at the same time.
**Data analytics configuration.**
For this business we will need to measure a number of data points to build our rewards algorithm. Content creators will be rewarded based on community consensus. Creators will then earn reward tokens to give out to the community based on their earnings and engagement metrics.
- Content created.
- Page views.
- Time spend on site.
- Votes.
- Clicks per minute for ad content.
- Votes distributed.
This will all form part of the platforms tokenomics and ensure that value is given back to the community.
**Skills configuration:**
We will need to build a team of developers experienced in social media sites and with knowledge of blockchain and tokenomics. Actual development will all be done in existing formats so it will just be necessary to that they understand how each account interacts with the blockchain layer and the platform itself.
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## Supply chain Grid.
**Key partners.**
We will not need any third party partners to host on the blockchain as it is permissionless and there are open APIs to interact with.
We will contract with the hive-engine team who provide a token programme, support staff and a full exchange for tokenized projects.
After launch the plan will be to either partner with or establish a publishing company to further popular content to other mediums and platforms.
We will need to recruit an ad partner. I would recruit Publift as a Google certified publishing partner with a simple and profitable ad programme.
**Value supply chain configuration:**
The value of the platform will be in creating a cooperative writing platform where all participants are rewarded for adding value to the system. In the introduction we outlined the token economy within the platform.
70% of profits will be used to maintain the token economy. 20% of the profits will be used to support the platform and fund future development. 10% of the profits will be paid to the main stakeholders of the platform.
The sources of income will be broken down in the next section of the plan.
The 70% will be used to buyback and burn (DIVINITY) tokens from the external market which will put the profits into the accounts of the creators who earned them. This will give them a fair share of income generated.
The price of buyback will be determined by the amount of profit generated per week and the amount of (DIVINITY) tokens minted for rewards. As it is an external market these token can also be bought or sold on any HIVE based exchange.
Content consumers who are awarded (DISCIPLE) tokens for their participation on the site can use them on the platforms marketplace. Here they will be able to exchange them for unique NFT items (Non-fungible tokens) with a guaranteed and limited supply.
- Avatars.
- Fan tokens.
- Limited artwork.
- Limited content.
- Paywall content.
These will be minted to the HIVE blockchain and as NFT’s can be bought or sold externally as well as used on our platform. They will range from generic top fan badges 1 of 10M to creator specific items such as a 1 of 1 Top fan of X writer for December. Market fees will apply to mint any unique items and for secondary sales.
**Political, Economic, Social, Technological Risks:**
Building anything in the blockchain space is a risk at the moment due to lack of clarity around supporting legislation. We are dealing with an emerging technology that operates in a grey area where tokens and taxes are involved.
Anything that we build now will be done to best practice according to current laws but as the industry matures we will see a lot more focus put on regulating this space.
Social media is a competitive area with a lot of similar sites competing for the same customers. Our platform will have a distinct advantage as a blockchain based site with all of the extra options that this will allow us to implement.
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## Finance Grid.
**Costs.**
The main cost of this project is the development team. As stated above it will not need to be a specialized one due to the nature of the (HAF) which will lower our initial outlay. Estimated cost website €10,000
We will need to pay €1,250 to the hive-engine team for their tokenization tools.
Registering a domain can be done with Writersblock.ie going at €250.00 for a ten year period.
Staff costs will be made up of mainly technical staff.
- Developers.
- Moderators.
- Technical support.
- Marketing staff.
Work will be fully remote so there will be no need for a stationary office but space can be rented on a needs basis. This is the initial team for getting started for the first two years. Then after beta version, expand the team for full launch.
Mobile app will be the second phase of building after the website. Estimated cost of €50,000 once website is operating and profitable.
Marketing will not be a main priority until the end of beta mode as we want the site operating smoothly before bringing in large numbers of users. Until then word of mouth will serve to bring in existing HIVE based users to test the features and work out bugs for full release and large scale marketing work.
**Revenue.**
There is a (DAO) Decentralized Autonomous Organization on Hive for funding development projects. I will submit a proposal for funds of $1000 per day to cover start up costs and developing the full product.
The main source of future revenue will be Ad revenue. This will be generated by users coming onto the site and interacting with the content.
While tokens will be handed out to active members based on their value added. It will also be possible to purchase additional tokens from the site itself. The marketplace will also have a 5% fee on secondary sales as well as fees to create NFT’s for sale by the community.
We will create a range of our NFT’s to add to your profile which can be purchased using the project tokens earned, or by straight purchase.
The hive blockchain distributes a daily reward pool in its native crypto token to content creators using proof of stake distribution.
These funds will be claimed by the platform for all content generated through the platform and re-distributed using our value added specifications instead through the creator and consumer tokens.
Collaborative publications will generate a fee for the company going forward.
## Conclusion:
As this is a college project I have taken a few liberties with the information as you might have noticed. Nothing technically wrong but the numbers might be a bit slanted to make it look a bit better.
I would actually like to build something like this for the chain and think that it would have a good chance of success if done the right way and could bring in a lot of new users.
The biggest problem as with any Hive based app is the ease of use so I would need to make the transition from web2 to Hive seamless for it to work.
Buy Hey, if anybody wants to build it just give me a shout. I need something to do with my time after xmas. :D
Other than that I'm happy enough with the outline I drew up and could improve the concept if i kept working on it over the next few month to a better standard.
These are the fun projects as they are the ones which i would do for my own knowledge even if i didn't have to hand it in for marks. Thinking, planning and seeing where we might go into the future.
Posted Using [LeoFinance <sup>Beta</sup>](https://leofinance.io/hive-167922/@niallon11/the-apprentice-project-writersblock-ie-proposal-part-ii)
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