New Attention Economy

A New Paradigm for Content Discovery and the Attention Economy

Social tipping not only opens up a new paradigm for information discovery in social networks, but also stands to revolutionize the attention economy.

Let’s explore a fascinating example that once took place on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Blockchain-Based Attention Economy

Visit this Bitcoin address: https://blockchain.info/address/1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa This address belongs to Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin. Because of its historic and symbolic significance, people frequently send small amounts of Bitcoin to it—some even attach public notes in their transactions.

Upon closer inspection of these transactions, you’ll notice that owners of two Bitcoin-related websites used the public transaction records to link their URLs to Satoshi’s address.

Now, imagine if Satoshi himself were to send a few satoshis to these URLs. What would happen?

Even though the transaction might be worth next to nothing in terms of BTC/USDT, the traffic these websites would receive could be enormous. That’s because this address holds "reputation", is presumed to belong to Bitcoin’s creator, and is actively watched by the community.

In short, this address commands attention.

Let’s take a deeper look. A transaction worth just a few satoshis could generate thousands of page views (a rough estimate). That means the attention value far exceeds the monetary value of the satoshis being sent.

If we were buying coffee, Satoshi’s 0.0001 BTC is the same as mine. But if his 0.0001 BTC were used in a transaction—especially from the Genesis block—it carries attention value I could never replicate.

Social Tipping and the Attention Economy

With social tipping, people send microtransactions to creators via content. On one hand, this acts as a form of curation, highlighting both the information and the creator.

On the other hand, it creates a timestamped, immutable on-chain transaction link that points to the creator.

This link includes the community (e.g. #ticker) and information about the content itself. As a result, any type of Web2 social data becomes embedded within an open, public, transparent, and immutable blockchain system.

Meanwhile, as soon as the tipper recognizes the message behind the tip or the value of the token itself, they become immutably linked to the token and community through the reverse tipping link (by claiming the tipped tokens via the transaction).

Every Web2 social network account carries reputation. The microtransaction of claiming tipped tokens works just like Satoshi sending 0.0001 BTC—it transfers Web2 attention value into the token being tipped.

A Prediction: In the Future, Attention and Transactions Will Be Traded on the Same Blockchain-Based Link Graph

The Bitcoin user example demonstrates that blockchains are not just tools for transferring financial value, but also public, open, transparent, and immutable linked graphs of all kinds of data.

Traditionally, value exchange was siloed:

• The financial network and the attention network were two separate systems.

• The entire advertising industry was built on trading links and likes for dollars, or vice versa.

But now, we’re entering a new era where different forms of value—financial and attention—are exchanged on the same network, whether it’s Ethereum, Solana, Base, BNB Chain, or even Bitcoin.

This is the future of the open social network.

A Real-World Example from TagAI

Once, @DujunX posted a tweet on X (Twitter). Using the command “@TagAIDAO tip $TTAI”, @TagAIDAO brought the tweet on-chain and tipped it with $TTAI tokens.

The left image shows the original tweet. The right image shows the on-chain version of the tweet, along with the tipping transaction. Eventually, @DujunX followed @TagAIDAO and engaged in further discussion.

This example demonstrates how the “@TagAIDAO tip $ticker” function establishes a link between TagAI and the tweet by @DujunX, including an introduction to TagAI. This interaction energized the TTAI community to engage with the post on-chain, and through the reverse link, led @DujunX to become aware of and connect with TagAI.