Today, we got the chance to chat with Jeff Kirdeikis, the CEO of Uptrennd. In this interview, we discussed Uptrennd’s goals, what makes them stand apart from their competition, and much more. 

Starting off, how would you describe Uptrennd?

Uptrennd is a new social media platform that wants to give the power back to its users. This is exemplified by our plan to share over 50% of all advertising revenue generated on the platform with our community of users. Uptrennd utilizes a point system to incentivize high quality engagement between users.

And what is the goal of Uptrennd? 

Uptrennd operates on 4 key principles that underpin its primary goals of decentralization and user-centricity: distribution of wealth, freedom of speech, equality of opportunity, and data privacy. 

Uptrennd users are able to earn points for interacting with the platform through posting, commenting, receiving post upvotes, and similar activities. These points are redeemable for the platform’s token, 1UP, which in turn is redeemable for fiat currency on third-party exchanges. In addition, the platform employs a level system which is tied to users’ point earnings: higher levels are able to earn more points for their interactions with the platform. 

Uptrennd believes that users should be free to voice their diverse opinions without censorship on the basis of subjective biases. This is so long as the contents are compliant with the platform’s legal requirements and community guidelines (e.g. – no hate speech/threats of violence, content plagiarism, point system abuse/manipulation, etc.).  

Uptrennd makes it a priority to not give preference to older users on the platform: it strives to give all users equal opportunity for visibility and point earning potential based on the quality of users’ platform interactions as opposed to their seniority. 

Uptrennd places immense importance on the preservation of user privacy. As such, Uptrennd does not collect, sell, or disseminate user data in any form. 

How does the point system work? 

The point system is an integral part of the Uptrennd platform that gives it a unique value proposition over competing platforms: users are essentially able to monetize their content. 

Users can earn points with upvotes, comments, donations, contests, and a few other activities. These points can then be spent to highlight posts, advertise, purchase goods/services, and other community creation activities. 

Can you tell us more about your team? 

The rest of the management team also consists of dedicated and passionate entrepreneurs with backgrounds including sales, marketing, product design, among others. Our plan as management is to foster a culture of intrapreneurship, resulting in a team of intrinsically-motivated, dedicated, self-starters that seems to have led to one of the fastest growing blockchain-based social media networks. 

What is the competition like for Uptrennd?

Uptrennd’s competition stems from other blockchain-based social media platforms, particularly Steemit (STEEM) and Hive (HIVE). While Steemit and Hive currently have larger market capitalizations and wider user bases than Uptrennd, we’ve got a great growth rate going right now and are projecting 2.2 million users by January 2021. 

And what are your competitive advantages? 

First, Uptrennd’s user-friendliness and onboarding extends well-beyond the cryptocurrency community. New users can join and begin interacting with the platform seamlessly, unlike with Steemit and Hive, where new users often have to wait days for verification to create an account.

Second, Uptrennd has an inherently more democratic structure in terms of equal opportunity for visibility and earning among users. Steemit and Hive are more oligarchic, as bigger accounts tend to get better visibility and monetization. 

This is the fourth in a series of interviews we are doing with high-level executives at cryptocurrency projects we find interesting and relevant in our fast-changing world.