Block.one announces another $ 150 million for Voice to operate independently, with a total investment of $ 300 million

Block.one, the developer of the EOS blockchain protocol, announced a $ 150 million investment in its social media platform Voice, which was announced in June last year.

According to a statement from the company, the investment is said to split Voice into a separate business, separate from Block.one. A Block.one spokesperson said the $ 150 million included $ 100 million in cash and $ 50 million in intellectual property assets.

In January of this year, the social media app Voice hired Salah Zalatimo, the former global chief digital officer of Forbes, as its CEO, and launched a public beta version the following month. Zalatimo told The Block that the company hopes to officially launch the application in the first quarter of 2021.

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The announcement said: "Under Salah's leadership, Voice will operate as an independent business and will use this $ 150 million capital to expand its business scope and expand its workforce."

Voice debuted in the summer of 2019. At the time, the product had been marked as a social media platform, allowing real users (rather than robots) to publish and share content for Voice Token rewards. To ensure user authenticity, the application requires authentication for each user. All verified users will then receive some Voice tokens every day and can use these tokens to flesh out certain posts. They can also earn extra tokens by creating original content.

"Voice is really a content market where users can control the type of content being promoted, and community members do n’t have to be afraid to make mistakes. By designing such a platform, each user is verified by knowing your customers (KYC) and attaching their true identity On shared original content, we enable users to hold each other accountable, "Zalatimo said in the announcement.

According to Voice's website, using blockchain-based tokens can make the content promotion process more transparent and auditable. However, according to Zalatimo, the currently available version of the Voice application is built on a dedicated EOSIO blockchain instead of the EOS public blockchain.

Zalatimo says:

"Voice will launch on a dedicated blockchain. Because it is not possible to innovate quickly, iterating and optimizing products like Voice on a public blockchain is not feasible."

As The Block previously reported, this social media app has spent Block.one for at least a year and has cost $ 150 million, including the Voice.com domain name for $ 30 million. Block.one confirmed to The Block that the company has spent a total of $ 300 million on social media applications to date.

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