Ethereum-Based Blogging Platform Mirror Opens Up to Everyone

The Ethereum-based publishing protocol is moving past its popularity contest model while eyeing subscriptions and other new features ahead.

By Andrew Hayward

In brief

• Mirror, a decentralized Ethereum-based blogging protocol, can now be used by anyone.
• Previously, prospective users had to be voted in by the existing community.

Mirror, an Ethereum-based decentralized blogging protocol that first launched last December, has opened up its doors to all creators.

Prior to today’s announcement, creators could only gain access to Mirror by earning enough votes in Mirror’s weekly WRITE Race on Wednesday afternoons. Existing Mirror users would have two hours to vote on applicants using the protocol’s WRITE token, making it a popularity contest of sorts. The top 10 finishers in the voting would be airdropped one WRITE token, which they could redeem for a Mirror-hosted .xyz blog. (It took Decrypt Editor-in-Chief Dan Roberts four months to get voted in.)

While very similar in look and feel to popular blogging platform Medium, Mirror shakes things up with an array of crypto-native features and capabilities. It’s a decentralized protocol that lets users log in and “sign” posts with an Ethereum wallet, plus it uses blockchain-based storage protocol Arweave to “permanently” back up posts and boost their censorship resistance.

Over the past several months, Mirror has added various crypto-centric economic elements to enable monetization for users, unlocking the ability to offer NFT collectibles, hold auctions, and even launch crowdfunding campaigns. In April, the writer Emily Segal funded her next novel on Mirror. In July, the creators of an upcoming documentary film about Ethereum raised $1.9 million worth of ETH through a Mirror crowdfunding drive.