True Review Is Coming to NEAR by Two’s Complement (2C): Censorship Resistant Reviews Have Arrived

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This year at ETH Denver, Two’s Complement (2C) created an innovative blockchain-based application known as True Review. In light of increasing surveillance from technology behemoths and government agencies, deplatforming, and overt manipulation of user-data on the internet, True Review is a breath of fresh air for users interested in owning and using their data in a fully censorship resistant manner. 

What is True Review?

True Review is a permissionless, censorship resistant, and user-owned application for providing reviews about businesses and events. It was created by Two Complement at ETH Denver in response to notable current events, “The inspiration is very timely – Google deleted over 150,000 negative reviews on Robinhood after the GME event, causing irreparable damage between users and big tech.”

True Review balances the need for verified and legitimate reviews, with the demand for user-owned data and censorship resistant speech. Simply put, True Review allows for companies to get real feedback from real people, while customers can give honest reviews, without giving up their data or opinions to large technology companies. As intuitive as it sounds, this solution is a paradigm shift that foreshadows the future of software applications. 

How Does True Review Work?

True Review consists of four main components: (1) Verifiable User Identity Management, (2) Company verification and storage on IPFS, (3) User-Controlled review of businesses, with data stored on IPFS, and (4) Gamification of Reviewing Activities using NFT’s on NEAR!

Part 1: Users Prove Their Identity (If They Want To!) 

For optional bot or spam protection users are able to verify their identity through their Colorado Digital ID. This is for people who would like to connect themselves personally to their reviews.

Part 2: Companies Are Verified Through Their State Registry and Held in Decentralized Storage

For users to be able to know that a company is legitimately the company that they believe it to be, company registration data is identified and then stored in decentralized storage. 

Part 3: Users Can Review And Comment With Full Data Ownership

As the 2C Team explains: “People own their data by backing rich text/image/video reviews with IDX & Ceramic (all stored on IPFS of course!)” This means that no one but the user posting the review can modify or alter the review itself. 

Part 4: Gamification and Competitive Advantage on NEAR

While NFT’s are only their early days, the 2C Team was highly strategic about incorporating NFT rewards and gamification into the application. Users receive special rewards and tokens for different missions and questions built into the application. This is described by 2C in the following manner: 

1. User checks in to an Organization to complete a “quest”

2. A NEAR NFT is minted as a reward and assigned to the user’s IDX DID

3. List of each IDX DID’s tokens is stored on NEAR contract

Not only is this gamification mechanism on NEAR a competitive advantage to existing applications, but it also leaves an avenue open down the road for companies to build in special bonuses for users via NFTs (i.e. Imagine a business providing coupons, discounts, and other perks to users leaving a review for them on True Reviews). 

Why Does This Matter? The Transition From Web2 to Web3

True Review epitomizes two emerging trends that will drastically alter and enhance user freedom and ownership on the internet. The first, is the transition from Web2 to Web3 that companies like Two’s Compliment (2C) are making. These early companies understand the dangers of surveillance, and are making the early transition to the new decentralized world of the Open Web. 

Second, is the emergence of what has been coined as the Virtual Economy. For True Review, this specifically relates to the gamification and NFT component of the project on NEAR. By integrating NFT’s, the application allows for new value to be created directly between users and businesses in a mutually beneficial way for all parties involved. 

True Review On NEAR

True Review’s integration with NEAR for gamification and NFT purposes is an ideal fit for both the long-term goals of application and NEAR. In the context of True Reviews’ mission to provide censorship resistant reviews between users and businesses, NEAR support for this project via granted bounty is directly in line with the larger mission and vision of NEAR: 

“A World Where People Have Control Of Their Money, Data, Power and Governance.”

2C Teammates Building True Review:

Katy Jeremko

Nico Valencia

Julian Ramlal

Chieri Wada

Resources for True Review: 

Figma Prototype

GitHub Link

https://devfolio.co/submissions/blah-7859