Mirror

Mirror is a decentralized publishing platform for articles based on Arweave.

To write on Mirror, you need to use a browser with an integrated crypto wallet, such as the Google Chrome browser with the MetaMask wallet.

First, you connect your wallet to Mirror. Then, you can write in a rich text editor, including images, and publish, with the article being signed with your wallet.

The article gets a permanent Arweave address, and its content hash is computed and stored. Henceforth the article cannot be modified as its content hash would not match.

My Writing Experience

Using the MetaMask wallet on Chrome, I connected to my Ledger Nano S. Within Mirror, I connected to my wallet MetMask wallet. This required a sign-in with my Ledger Nano.

The editing experience was very similar to Medium and very smooth.

I hit Publish and my article went on air, on the blockchain, and onto the big world.

Now in Mirror, every article can be collected as an NFT, so I can dream of someone collecting it and myself collecting some payment in ETH.

Here is my article, Let's Get Physical, which you are welcome to collect.

How Do I Get Discovered?

All is fine and dandy, with my article permanently on the blockchain. But Mirror has no discoverability features. So you are left on your own to publish your article on social networks.

Ask Mirror offers a search over Mirror. It is good. It is fast. But someone has to know your articles are there to look for them.

So my feeling is my articles on Mirror live on some isolated island. You get independence from any platform, hosting company, or social network. But discoverability is much lower.

The Future for Mirror - Becoming TikTok

Mirror still has to work on the discoverability.

Going towards a TikTok-like experience of an algorithmic feed would make writing on Mirror much more attractive. As you are offered the possibility of winning the jackpot on the feed.

Yoram Kornatzky

August 15, 2022