Fractopus: Incentivizing source attribution for an interconnected Internet

Fractopus is an on-chain protocol that connects content on the Internet into a peer-to-peer revenue-sharing network based on inspiration and source attribution.

The current Internet has four major problems:

1. Information is lacking source attribution
2. Content is controlled by centralized platforms
3. Creators struggle to get revenue and exposure
4. Consumers are trapped in information bubbles They are all caused by the missing interconnectedness of the Internet.

Fractopus incentivizes creators to connect their content with their inspirations, bringing exposure and revenue share to each other. Each piece of content can address other content as its sources by allocating percentages of its future revenue to the sources (inspirations). In this way, it becomes a branch of its sources and is showcased in a "You may also like" section after them, gaining exposure. The sources get revenue streams from all of its branches, branches of the branches, etc. While the branches deliberately choose where they gain exposure, instead of having the obscure algorithms choose for them. This forms a two-way incentive that resembles the traditional multi-level marketing mechanism.

In this way, we solve the four problems with one protocol and establish an interconnected Internet where:

1. Information is easily traceable
2. Content is in an open database
3. Creators control monetization & exposure terms
4. Consumers experience democratic content curation

The network that Fractopus establishes is essentially a percentage allocation layer based on URLs. The network is a public good stored on-chain and is accessible for any person or application to build on. Use cases other than revenue-sharing are also open to be explored.

Copus: Fractopus’ flagship dApp: an open-source publishing platform

Based on Fractopus, we built Copus, a multimedia publishing platform that is designed to create interconnections and revenue-sharing relationships between content. Copus supports unique features such as bi-directional linking, collective content graphs, and community content curation. To try it out, please visit: https://www.copus.io/