The Levied Project: A Social Network for Intentionality and Exclusivity

Executive Summary

The Levied Project is a revolutionary social network that fundamentally redefines online interaction through a high-friction, pay-per-action model. By requiring micropayments for every user action—from scrolling a feed to posting a comment—we reject the "free-for-all" paradigm that has led to spam, trolling, and low-quality content. Our platform is not intended for the masses. Instead, it is an exclusive digital ecosystem designed for a discerning audience of "whales"—influential individuals, professionals, and creators who prioritize intentionality, high-quality engagement, and a curated online experience. We will use cryptocurrency to enable seamless micropayments and a proprietary, keyword-based search engine that eliminates algorithms. This strategy positions Levied not as a competitor to existing social media giants, but as a prestigious digital club where friction is a feature, not a flaw.

The Vision: From Mindless Consumption to Mindful Interaction

The current social media landscape is defined by an attention-based economy that incentivizes addictive, low-effort engagement. Platforms are plagued by algorithmic manipulation, data exploitation, and a constant flood of low-value content. The Levied Project offers a radical alternative:

• Mental Transaction Cost: Every action requires a conscious decision. Users must evaluate the value of an action, such as a like or a comment, before making a small payment. This creates a thoughtful, deliberate environment where every interaction carries weight and intent.
• A Sanctuary from the Masses: Levied's high-friction model naturally filters out casual users, spammers, and bots. This creates an exclusive community where engagement is driven by genuine interest and financial commitment, leading to a higher-quality experience.
• The Power of Transparency: Users have a clear and predictable understanding of their costs. Unlike opaque ad-based models, our system is transparent, with all actions and associated costs clearly displayed, fostering user trust.

The Product: A High-Friction, High-Value Platform

Our platform is built on a set of core features designed to deliver a unique and exclusive experience.

Pay-Per-Action Micropayments

Every user action on the platform incurs a small charge, paid instantly via a cryptocurrency-based in-app wallet. This model serves as the foundation of our strategy.

Sample Micropayments:

• Viewing Feed: $0.01 per scroll
• Liking a Post: $0.005 per like (99% refundable if regretted)
• Commenting: $0.02 per comment
• Sending a Direct Message: $0.05 per message
• Uploading a Photo: $0.10 per photo
• Viewing a Profile: $0.008 per view (a small percentage is directed to the profile owner)
• Searching for a Friend: $0.03 per search query
• Loading Own Profile: $0.002 per load
• Clicking a Notification: $0.001 per click

These payments, though small, add up quickly, creating a barrier to thoughtless activity and encouraging purposeful engagement.

An Algorithmic Alternative: Weighted Keyword Search

To eliminate the manipulation and bias of traditional algorithms, we will implement a 100% keyword-based search system. To prevent spam and encourage thoughtful communication, each word within a post will have a financial cost based on its semantic weight.

Our proprietary system assigns one of ten predefined weight classes to every word, with costs increasing with weight. This system encourages concise, meaningful communication and deters keyword stuffing.

Word Weight Classes (10-1):

• Emotion (10): Raw, internal affective states.
• Urgency (9): Compulsion for rapid action.
• Certainty (8): Degrees of confidence or belief.
• Plan (7): Organized frameworks or intentions.
• Memory (6): Recalling past information.
• Law (5): Universal, normative rules or principles.
• Perspective (4): Subjective points of view.
• Draft (3): Incomplete or tentative ideas.
• Symbol (2): Minimal, conventional signs.
• Flash (1): Fleeting, transient mental impulses.
• Null (0): Words lacking semantic content.

This system guarantees a high degree of transparency and objectivity, as a word's weight is determined solely by its heaviest dictionary definition, independent of context.

The "Critical Mass" Solution

The initial "zero-to-one" problem, where an empty social network is worthless, will be addressed by making certain public posts visible to non-members at a reduced cost. This allows new users to explore the platform's content before committing, while still maintaining the pay-per-action model. We will also implement an invitation-only model for initial access, potentially limited to prestigious email domains, to ensure a high-caliber community from the outset.

Monetization and Technical Strategy

Our monetization strategy is simple and direct: revenue is generated through the micropayments for user actions. This model provides a clear, scalable path to profitability.

Technical and Business Plan:

• Cryptocurrency Integration: We will use cryptocurrency to circumvent the high processing fees associated with traditional payment systems for micropayments. This enables the model to be economically viable.
• Scalable Backend: The system will require a robust, efficient backend infrastructure capable of processing millions of micropayments per second. We will scale our infrastructure to meet the demands of an exclusive, high-value user base.
• Creator Empowerment: A portion of the micropayments for engagement (e.g., likes and comments) will be directly shared with content creators. This provides a transparent, fair, and ad-free revenue stream for those who produce high-quality content.

The Unexpected Benefits of Friction

While conventional wisdom suggests high friction is a deterrent, we believe it is a source of unexpected benefits that will appeal to our target audience:

1. Drastic Reduction in Trolling, Spam, and Low-Effort Content: The financial cost of every comment and post makes it financially unviable for bots and trolls to operate, fostering a more civil and substantive environment. This leads to:
   • Higher Quality Interactions: Users will be less likely to post low-value or hateful comments, leading to more civil and substantive discussions.
   • A "Paywall" Against Bots: The cost of millions of microtransactions will add up quickly, effectively creating a firewall against bot networks.
   • Reduced Casual Liking: Likes become a meaningful form of endorsement, creating a more accurate reflection of true value.
   • Thoughtful Content Creation: Creators are motivated to produce high-quality, valuable content that is worth the small cost for engagement.
2. A More Private and Intentional Social Experience: By charging for actions like profile views, we discourage mindless scrolling and digital stalking, creating a more private and secure online experience. This fosters:
   • Protection from Prying Eyes: Users are less inclined to mindless stalking, enhancing digital privacy. A small percentage of profile view costs could go to the profile owner.
   • Fewer Superficial Connections: Connections are made more deliberately, making "friends" a sign of a real, valuable network.
   • Mindful Usage: The financial cost encourages users to be more present and conscious of their time on the app, discouraging addictive, endless scrolling.
3. Direct and Transparent Monetization for Creators: In a micropayment system, content creators get a direct cut of every "like" or "comment" their content receives. This establishes:
   • Equitable Revenue Sharing: A transparent and fair economy where valued content is financially rewarded without relying on advertising.
   • Shift from Attention-Based Economy: Rewards genuinely valuable content over controversial or polarizing content.
   • Reduced "Subscription Fatigue": Users pay only for what they use, offering flexibility and granular consumption.

In essence, while the app would likely fail in the conventional market due to its high friction, its unique "pay-per-action" model inadvertently fosters a more thoughtful, private, and high-quality online community, free from the common plagues of spam, trolling, and shallow engagement.

The "Critical Mass" Problem and Competition

A social network's value is directly proportional to the number of people using it. This is known as the network effect. Without a large number of users, the app is worthless. This assumes no one would be interested, which is a very myopic view. I think like Edward Bernays, the man who doubled the consumption of cigarettes with the infamous torches of freedom parade.

• Zero-to-One Problem: No one would join a social network with a pay-per-action model if there's no one else on it. The very first users would have to pay to interact with an empty platform, which is an impossible sell. The problem is solved by making posts public; a public cost costs less. Maybe not everything would be behind a paywall. Maybe users could choose to make their profile private or public, at a cost; maybe private is more costly.
• Competitive Landscape: The app would NOT be competing with platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), which are functionally "free." Why? Because a lot of people don't use it, like me, because they're annoyed with stupid algorithms. My app would have no algorithms and would be 100% keyword based.

Keyword-Based System and Lexical Weighting

How to avoid keyword spam? Like this: Not only does posting have a base cost, each word costs too, and not all words cost the same. There are ten weight classes as I call them. My app scans the dictionary and assigns each word a weight class.

Weight Classes

• Emotion (10): Purely internal subjective affective states or feelings perceived or experienced directly, without reference to external structure, judgment, or temporal factors. It is the raw mental state that triggers immediate psychological response.
• Urgency (9): Meaning that conveys temporal immediacy, necessity, or compulsion for rapid attention or action, independent of emotional tone or abstract certainty.
• Certainty (8): Expresses epistemic stance—degrees of confidence, belief, or doubt about factual or propositional content, excluding emotional or temporal components.
• Plan (7): Denotes deliberate, organized frameworks, systems, or intentions designed to structure actions or achieve objectives, requiring active mental construction.
• Memory (6): Refers to mental content or processes involved in storing, recalling, or referencing past information, devoid of affect or normative implications.
• Law (5): Abstract, universal, or normative principles, rules, or constraints governing phenomena or behavior, independent of personal viewpoint or urgency.
• Perspective (4): Indicates the subjective standpoint, vantage, or framing through which information or events are interpreted, excluding the content itself.
• Draft (3): Designates incomplete, provisional, or tentative ideas, forms, or plans lacking finality or full development.
• Symbol (2): Minimal, conventional signs or tokens used to represent ideas or objects without embedded affect, urgency, or complexity; basic units of meaning detached from elaboration.
• Flash (1): Transient, fleeting, ephemeral mental phenomena or impulses that arise and vanish rapidly, with minimal cognitive elaboration or persistence.
• Null Class (0): Words or tokens lacking coherent semantic content or definitional clarity, including onomatopoeia, nonsense strings, or purely formal markers with no referential meaning.

Weighting Rules — Exact Protocol

• For each dictionary word, collect all official definitions listed in the dictionary source.
• For each definition, determine its category membership by comparing the definition's conceptual content against the above weight class definitions.
• Assign the definition to the single weight class whose definition it matches most precisely and fully, without overlap. If multiple classes seem partially applicable, choose the one with the clearest, exclusive fit.
• Among all assigned categories for that word’s definitions, select the highest numeric weight category.
• Assign that highest weight category as the word’s sole classification.
• If no definition matches any weight class (e.g., nonsense words, purely grammatical tokens), assign the word to Null Class (0).

This procedure guarantees: no overlaps, heaviest assignment, context-independence, and completeness.

Decision Tree for Assignment

• → Start → For each word:
• → Read all definitions of the word.
• → For each definition:
• 1. Does the definition convey a pure internal feeling or affect without external reference? Yes → Assign Emotion (10) → Next definition. No → Go to 2.
• 2. Does the definition express time urgency or immediacy compelling quick action or attention? Yes → Assign Urgency (9) → Next definition. No → Go to 3.
• 3. Does the definition express degree of belief, confidence, or doubt about truth or fact? Yes → Assign Certainty (8) → Next definition. No → Go to 4.
• 4. Does the definition indicate deliberate planning, framework, or organization of action or structure? Yes → Assign Plan (7) → Next definition. No → Go to 5.
• 5. Does the definition involve recalling or referencing past information without emotional or normative context? Yes → Assign Memory (6) → Next definition. No → Go to 6.
• 6. Does the definition describe universal, normative, or abstract principles or rules? Yes → Assign Law (5) → Next definition. No → Go to 7.
• 7. Does the definition specify a subjective point of view, standpoint, or interpretive frame? Yes → Assign Perspective (4) → Next definition. No → Go to 8.
• 8. Does the definition describe something incomplete, tentative, or provisional? Yes → Assign Draft (3) → Next definition. No → Go to 9.
• 9. Does the definition represent a minimal sign, token, or conventional symbol detached from elaboration? Yes → Assign Symbol (2) → Next definition. No → Go to 10.
• 10. Does the definition denote transient, fleeting, ephemeral mental phenomena or impulses? Yes → Assign Flash (1) → Next definition. No → Assign Null (0) → Next definition.
• → After all definitions processed, select the category with the highest numeric value assigned among all definitions.
• → Assign this highest category as the word’s final classification.

A lot of people express complaints about missing the old faulty search engines where a typo could get you into a whole new world. This is a problem that is hard to fix with internet-wide search engines but maybe not within this exclusive social network. I predict people would develop their personal glossaries, which would then be adopted by more people and a whole new language could emerge. Maybe people would replace letters with numbers, like replace A with 4. Also, maybe you could be able to look up the most expensive post ever made on the app.

I'm tempted to call the app linguistics.channel or something like that, but I haven't decided on a name that conveys exactly what I expect from it without being distractive instead of attractive. I was also thinking about levied.channel.