Facebook and Twitter will soon be obsolete thanks to blockchain technology
Today’s social media landscape is dominated by Web2 companies – mostly Meta (Facebook) and Twitter. The companies collect data from billions of users and collect billions of dollars in revenue from user-generated content. While that’s great for the companies and their shareholders, it comes at a cost to average users and professional content creators.
But in the near future, decentralized social media – or Web3 – is likely to end the old model by giving power back to users.
No more kicking out unruly users
Because platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are centralized, users are at the mercy of company bosses, who demand compliance with the platform’s guidelines. If users don’t comply, they can lose content and followers they’ve spent years building in a matter of seconds.
A well-known example is Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump. While you may debate Trump’s views, the decision by Twitter management did not include the millions of Twitter users who make the platform so valuable. It showed how little control Web2 users have over Twitter’s decisions related to their content, even though they are the ones who create value for the company.
The beauty of Web3? Company managers will no longer be able to dictate who gets to use their platforms.
Another problem with Web2 social networks? Fenced gardens
Another problem with Web2 social media is that it has been characterized by “walled gardens.” If you have 1 million followers on Instagram and want to start an account on YouTube, you need to start with zero followers. There’s no way to move audiences over because they’re connected to the individual platforms, not you. This applies even to platforms owned by the same company – such as Facebook and Instagram.
Related: Decentralized Social Media: The Next Big Thing In Crypto?
Web3 introduces solutions to reduce the number of intermediaries, create an open ecosystem, enable new forms of monetization and give individuals more power not only over their content, but also over their followers.
New blockchains on the horizon
Several platforms have launched what could replace the social media industry on Web2. They include the Aave team’s Lens Protocol and the Andreessen Horowitz-backed DeSo. Both are built to host decentralized social media apps. They already have a number of live applications including Lenster, Phaver, Iris (decentralized Twitter) and LensTube (decentralized YouTube).
How do they work? With Lens, for example, users can use a non-fungible token (NFT) to connect their content and followers directly to a cryptocurrency wallet. That means zero dependencies on the individual platform because they have cross-platform access to their followers.
If a user posts something, it is automatically shared across all platforms they use. And because their followers are connected across platforms, they have the same number of followers on each platform. If a new platform emerges, users don’t have to build their audience from scratch. In Web2 terms, it’s like having an account connected directly to the internet instead of one tied to Facebook’s closed ecosystem.
Direct user monetization instead of ads
Another feature of Web3 social media is that instead of generating revenue from advertising, users have the opportunity to monetize their work directly. The model motivates users to publish much better content. It’s simplified by allowing creators to set a fee to “aggregate” their posts – or to set a fee to follow them. The income then goes directly to the creator, not to the platform.
Influencers will accelerate adoption
Some critics claim that Web2 social media has such a lead that it will be impossible for Web3 social to catch up. But the reality is that the benefits of decentralized social media are so significant that major content creators will cross over and bring their audience with them.
Related: The Metaverse will change the paradigm of content creation
There are already many examples of prominent influencers who have their own social media platforms because the corporate platforms would not allow them to share their content anymore. Web3 offers an obvious solution to the growing number of those who have been banned from Web2.
Give ownership over own content and followers? Easy ways to generate income from your work? Connect everything with easy-to-use NFTs? What is there to complain about? Blockchain technology gives us a social media space that rewards users – not platforms – and is better than any we’ve dreamed of before.
Darius Moukhtarzadeh is a cryptocurrency entrepreneur focused on decentralized social media applications. He has previously worked as a researcher for Sygnum, the world’s first digital asset bank. He also worked for Ernst & Young in blockchain consulting and for several startups in the Swiss Crypto Valley.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
