The State Of Web3 Social | Decentralised Social Media Applications

Web3 social is gonna be interesting!

If Defi is solving a lot of problems that we generally face with traditional finance, why not use this blockchain technology to build a social media DApp (short form for Decentralised Application), and probably try to create something better than a web2 social media.

And the developers are on it. Yes, they are in the initial stages and most of them might be having a lot of issues. But at least, some DApps and the protocols that support the underlying infrastructure are here.

Nevertheless, we are gonna be looking at some social protocols and applications in this article.

But before that…..

Why Do We Need Web3 Social Media DApps

Web2 social media apps already have network effects and that is definitely a very almost impossible thing to break and bring in users to web3 social media Dapps.

So, why do it anyway when they already have a great UX and are spending billions of dollars on the development and design?

– Decentralisation

If it’s not for decentralization, we wouldn’t even need blockchains in the first place.

Web3 social has the ability to solve the ownership problem and censorship resistance that we face with web2 applications.

Users should be able to own their accounts instead of renting the accounts from centralized parties who can delete our accounts if they have to and mute what we have to say if they want to.

Content Censorship, Content Demonetization, and Deplatforming will not be a part of web3 social.

We are talking about a platform that will be powered by the community where they can vote and help shape the platform’s future, instead of just relying on whatever the gatekeepers decide to do (like in web2).

– Composable Identities & Portable Data

Billions of people use social media now. And it’s very hard for users to leave the platform even if they don’t like the app because they can’t take away the network (followers) and content (posts, articles, etc) with them.

For example, I can’t take away my Instagram followers to the Twitter platform. And so these limitations will make me use the platform anyway along with their addictive design mechanisms.

But in the case of web3 social, you can take away the followers and the content with you, because you own it. An article that is an NFT is an NFT in any app and you can move it because you own it. Data portability at its best. The platforms will no longer own the content.

If a user can export my email list from one software and easily import it into another, why can’t a user do that with his/her social followers? That’s one of the key aspects web3 social is betting on.

Moreover, the current social media platforms don’t allow developers to build on top of those platforms. Using composability to achieve innovation is something we’ve seen very less often in web2.

– New Revenue Models

The web2 social platforms keep extracting the data to make more revenue while giving nothing to users except for the platform to use for free (‘If the product is free, you are the product’).

Related: How Web 3.0 Can Fix The Problem: “Not Getting Paid For Sharing The Data”

Web3 social world has different plans when it comes to monetization.

Instead of just using ad revenue models, users can monetize their content via NFTs, issuing social tokens, via post to earn, and more.

Imagine social media platforms sharing their revenue with users for getting their attention and making them view ads. Something similar to what Brave (Web3’s google chrome) does (they pay their users with $BAT). We are talking about some big things like economic inclusion and wealth redistribution.

Imagine using NFTs as content subscriptions. Imagine content creators issuing tokens (like equity) to fans, making them part of the creator’s success or failure (skin in the game).

All of this is easier said than done and we don’t actually know the actual flaws in these models, but hey, let’s hope for the best!

– Finally

In the case of social media DApp, you & only you can Control your account, you can earn Rewards, you (as a platform’s token holder) can have a say in the future of the platform, and ultimately nobody can kick you out of the platform.

Web3 Social Media DApps

The foundation for the web3 social is being laid out already.

-Social Graphs

We have seen social graphs like Lens Protocol (on Polygon) and CyberConnect Protocol (on Ethereum and Solana).

So, what’s a social graph?

We all have social connections. If you have to map out all of these social relations, that would make your social graph.

And in the web2 world, companies like Facebook are monopolizing social graph data at the expense of user privacy. These social graphs represent our digital identity.

And the goal of these web3 social graphs is to help users own their digital identity and provide ownership to their data.

In the end, users should be owning their data, their network, and their content.

DApps like Lenfrens, Lenster, and Phaver are built using the lens protocol.