Web3 Social: Opportunities and Mission

Recently, the discourse around Web3 is filled with negativity, but in reality, many developers are still working hard. Although Web3 social is not yet mature, it has made considerable progress. Different people have different expectations for Web3; some seek a better experience, while others need protection of their personal data sovereignty. With technological advancements and cost reductions, the emergence of real products may be just around the corner.

The Underlying Demand Theory of Web3 Social

Successful products are built on solid demand. Humans are social animals with social needs. Holding tokens is a new way of connection, and open verifiable databases expand the dimensions of information obtained from connections. The new information environment fosters new social relationships and interaction methods.

In the development of internet social networking, economies of scale are a significant feature. Social projects that cannot establish economies of scale under specific demographics and purposes struggle to survive. Compared to Web2 giants, the scale of Web3 social networking is even less than a fraction of theirs. Economies of scale present a major challenge.

The unique advantage of Web3 lies in its underlying information support across databases and organizations, as well as its composable and pluggable social interfaces. Tokens are a typical feature of Web3, with social support for token issuance and the quantification of rights interaction through tokens at its core. The organization of social relationships is a unique application of Web3 social.

The Development Context of Web3 Social

The Web3 environment provides advantages for entrepreneurs, and social projects show two development trends:

1. Develop decentralized social technology standards
2. Build Token Consensus through Social Networking

Competition of Decentralized Social Technology Standards

Losing control over social information sovereignty leads to the loss of cognitive and choice freedom. Decentralized social technology solutions are a necessity. New generation projects like Bluesky, Nostr, Lens, and Farcaster have all provided their own protocols, making progress by sacrificing some degree of data decentralization.

Technology is not the problem; overcoming the disadvantages of scale is the challenge. Token incentives have become the primary means for most projects. However, token incentives face two major dilemmas: the subjective value of social content is difficult to judge, raising doubts about the effectiveness of incentives; and they are susceptible to witch attacks.

STEEM is a pioneer of Web3 social networks, its concepts and design are still being referenced. However, with the collapse of consensus and rampant witch attacks, the token-weighted voting content production and recommendation system has exited the stage.

There are currently no good cases for issuing assets directly anchored by content. The market is not sensitive to the assetization of content, and users do not care about content sovereignty.

The content recommendation system continues to develop, showing promise after multiple iterations. If a better social product can be created to serve users interacting on-chain, it will be the first step towards the realization of decentralized social networking.

Projects like TGbot and Farcaster are showing positive trends by introducing trading and asset issuance into social scenarios.

Social Asset Tokenization

Using social media to issue tokens is another development path. For projects, it is a means of financing, and for users, it may be a financial product. The key is to establish a consensus on token value and liquidity.

Attention tokenization is the secret recipe for Meme coins, but maintaining consensus is difficult. Social relationship tokenization is more down-to-earth, with DAO and Friend.tech exploring this path. Content tokenization emphasizes the relationship between tokens and content ownership, but current applications are limited.

Bonding curves solve the liquidity cost issues for small-scale projects, and projects like Friend.tech innovate based on this.

Opportunities and Mission of Web3 Social

In the past two periods, Web3 social has faced setbacks, but progress is evident.

• The threshold for wallet login has been lowered from PC to mobile.
• Advancements in blockchain infrastructure, reduced transaction costs, increased speed
• The social protocol layer makes compromises to achieve decentralization.
• Network expansion improves user experience
• Innovative Embedded Social Scenarios
• Middleware advancements, such as on-chain data integration, analysis, tagging, etc.

Compared to the previous period, the infrastructure and tools are more complete, the number of Web3 natives has increased, and Meme tokens and NFTs are continuously educating users.

The Blueprint of Web3 Social

Future Web3 social interactions may center around content, built around users and service providers. For example, a certain capital may produce Web3-themed series, using a decentralized media solution that incentivizes user participation through tokens and provides peripheral services and products. This model will bring users a brand new social experience.

The Mission of Web3

The underlying foundation of the Web3 revolution is liberalism, aimed at providing more choices. The mission of Web3 is to return the rights taken away by centralization to everyone, rather than imposing ideals.

The difficulties of Web3 social media stem from immature technology and organizational structure issues. In the future, it may center around content distributors, focusing on users and service providers. Enhancing interactivity and aggregating traffic will be key to the success of Web3 social media.