Philadelphia · Field interview
"The numbers don't add up to work for nobody."
Volume II — The Why & The Mechanism
Why now. How it works.
Local truth keeps getting priced out. We’re a contributor-owned video-and-essay network — no investors, no ads, paid-first sequence — that pays for the work onchain and keeps it free to watch and free to read. Here’s how it actually runs.
The founder
Maceo Whatley.
Started We Them Media in his college apartment in Philly in 2021 with his roommate’s airdrop and a Best Buy mic. Five years in, nine countries deep in the Ethereum ecosystem. Builds slow, ships steady.
The Why
On record · ETH Denver 2026
We’re already bridging cultures.
One conversation at a time.
A platform for the everyday person.
I’m building a media platform that’s a public good. Stories from everyday people around the world, free to access, not bent by who’s paying or who’s running for office. Run by a collective. A place for everyday people to put their concerns, questions, excitements, and fears on record.
Narrative is a public good. News is a public good. We’re experimenting too, you know, seeing how far this tech can push journalism back toward what it’s actually for: holding power to account.
The way I think about it: how can we have videos from places that don’t even have power, come online through a Starlink onchain, and we can actually see and know what people think and feel? Not be relying on people who have a stake in us not doing that.
People deserve to be seen. Erasure ends here.
As Devin put it: “The large news outlets are very corporate-driven, very financial-driven. So something more decentralized, run by a collective, to create a platform for people to share their voices in a time where I feel like we really need it most.”
The Mechanism
Live June 1, 2026
Four steps to launch.
01
The community asks.
Anyone posts a question to poidh.xyz/a/wethemedia and attaches funding. Pay on delivery. The bounty stays open until someone actually answers it well.
02
Storytellers answer.
Storytellers browse the open questions and pick the ones they have real proximity to. Shoot the piece, submit it, tag us. We collaborate on YouTube and amplify on X.
03
Quality work earns $20 every week.
I read every submission, every week. Quality work gets a tip, no matter which bounty it was answering. One tip per person, per week, for twelve weeks. You practice, we pay you.
04
Summer ends with the people who help us figure this out.
On August 31, the strongest contributors get bounties of $1,000 or more, funded by the community and matched by us dollar for dollar. Winners stay on as lead voices for their cities when the network expands in Q4.
Jun 01
Tips go live
Weekly $20 review begins.
Jun–Aug
The practice period
Twelve weeks. Submit, improve, get noticed.
Aug 31
Winners announced
Strongest contributors. $1,000+ bounties paid.
Q4 2026
Network goes long
Lead voices retained. Long-form begins.
All my life I’ve known the starving creator. What are we going to do about that?
More
The fuller story
How the rest of this comes together.
Volume IV — Mission
Mission
The why, in plain language. Pan-African coalition, situated knowledge, reconnection.
The team
Crew
Lagos, Abuja, Nairobi, Philadelphia, Charlotte, on the road. Who’s reporting from where.
Volume V — Methods
Methods
The journalism stack, our partners, our philosophy. In public, while it’s still being built.
Volume VI — Standards
Editorial standards
How we report. What we won’t do. Sourcing, AI use, COI, corrections, source protection.
Volume VII — Money
Funding transparency
Where the money comes from. What it’s allowed to do. Disclosure thresholds.
Volume VIII — Tipline
Tipline
Send us something we should know. Signal-first. Source protection commitment.
Volume IX — Accountability
Community accountability
Monthly Discord townhalls. How feedback reaches us. How we change when we get it wrong.