Today's content platforms optimize for attention
because ultimately, it's what the ad revenue engine pays for
and how the servers stay on and the creators get paid.
There, tolerated slop passes for successful content.
The zapnet optimizes for appreciated content
because the only content that flows is that which gets zapped.
The shift
Everything wrong with your feed traces back to one thing: who pays.
Platforms and creators are paid by advertisers. The metric is time-on-screen. The result: clickbait, ragebait, and feeds designed to keep you zombified in a chair. If content makes you put your phone down and think, the system considers it a loss.
Users pay creators directly with micropayments — "zaps." Content only spreads when someone finds it worth paying for. The metric is genuine appreciation, not eyeball time. Viral content can only be valued content.
How it works
Your feed is built from a trail of voluntary micropayments — not engagement metrics.
See something worth a dime, a dollar, two cents? Zap it. A Bitcoin lightning micropayment goes straight from your wallet to the author. No middleman.
The authors you zap have zapped things too. Their zaps point to content that's novel to you, yet almost certainly aligned with what you care about.
Follow the trail further — second-order, third-order zaps — and the feed gets richer. You're simply asking: "where did the voluntary value flow?"
Writings
Essays and ideas as the zapnet takes shape.
Low-volume. Major milestones or new essays only.
The zapnet isn't a company. It's a protocol-level idea built on open infrastructure that already exists. Half the system — Nostr and Bitcoin Lightning — is live today. The missing piece is the application. If that excites you, come help figure it out.
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