Crafting the Future of Web3 Social -Insights from Port3 Network’s CTO
In recent times, the realm of Web3 social networking has witnessed the emergence of two intriguing projects: Friend.tech and Tipcoin. Last week, I participated in a Twitter Space discussion centered around Web3 social platforms, where we delved into various facets of the social arena. It’s crucial to continue exploring this topic and attempt to draw some conclusions.
Friend.tech and Tipcoin
Friend.tech (FT) is a Web3 product akin to platforms like OnlyFans and Knowledge Planet. It operates as a web app, seamlessly integrating into your desktop as an app without the need for App Store approvals. Currently, it requires an invitation code to join. After linking your Twitter account, you need to deposit funds into the Base network to proceed with joining communities.
What sets FT apart is its innovative approach to making joining and leaving communities a transaction involving shares. To join a community managed by a Key Opinion Leader (KOL), you need to purchase a Key, the price of which increases as more people join, akin to trading tokens in liquidity pools like Uniswap. This model appears to draw inspiration from Unibot, sparking a frenzy of Key purchases, with bots actively seeking the latest Keys for arbitrage opportunities.
On the other hand, Tipcoin is a bot-driven mining system that rewards influence on Twitter. The mining rules are simple: tag the Tipcoin account and include “$tip” in your tweets. The Tipcoin bot assesses users’ tweet behavior based on factors like views, retweets, and comments, then rewards them based on their influence. Points are tallied in each epoch, and Tip tokens are distributed based on rankings and percentages.
Both of these projects are built on the Twitter platform, leveraging users’ Twitter identities to create social connections and track user behavior.
Additionally, both projects have introduced clever tokenomics, especially Friend.tech, which effectively turns user participation in social communities into a trading activity, generating a certain wealth effect. Tipcoin, on the other hand, relies on leveraging Twitter KOL influence to promote its project and token, serving as a form of Fair Launch.
The Challenge of Sustaining Momentum
The initial challenge these projects face is a lack of long-term incentives. Mechanisms like Tipcoin distribute chips to everyone mainly through mining, contingent upon their contribution to the project’s substantial influence through active retweets and tagging. However, such token distribution models lack long-term incentives, as there’s no real drive for individuals to accumulate such a large position. This might ultimately lead to a focus on meme culture.
Friend.tech, on the other hand, presents an interesting model. It helps KOLs establish a paid community and accurately incorporates user behavior into transactions, fueling speculative activities. While it does address certain needs, its user base remains limited. It would be challenging for it to surpass platforms like OnlyFans unless it fundamentally transforms the social landscape — a feat that seems almost impossible.
OnlyFans, known for its subscription-based social media platform allowing users to earn income by sharing photos or videos, primarily featuring adult or explicit content, has faced comments from its social community since Friend.tech opened up for image sharing. In essence, Friend.tech is the Web3 version of OnlyFans. This issue of explicit content spamming social platforms has surfaced in previous decentralized social products like Damus. Friend.tech, in this regard, is no different, just more mature. After all, what attracts attention is often the human weaknesses: money and sexuality.
This is precisely the issue with decentralized social platforms — they often emerge from incentives and tend to lose value amid rampant spam, eventually leading to an inglorious end. However, the positive side is that the failures we see now in this space are an improvement in many ways compared to past endeavors, both in terms of experience and model.
Web3 Social Has Yet to Mature
Web3 social experiments have not been in short supply, from Steemit to Deso, the short-lived Damus, and the current Lens Protocol. None of them have truly succeeded in establishing Web3 social products with strong user retention. What’s the reason behind this?
Several factors contribute, with the primary one being that in the crypto sphere, economic models often overshadow the social application itself. Fundraising and trading take precedence over social interaction in the blockchain realm. Hence, we observe a utilitarian nature in crypto projects, a lack of long-term vision, and user enthusiasm primarily driven by mining rewards. Users engage in social activities to earn rewards, and eventually, they depart when those rewards wane. Since users come solely for mining rewards, the content quality remains poor, and ultimately, inferior coins drive out the superior ones. No one cares about valuable social interaction.
Another reason is that Web3 social products have yet to surpass Web2 in terms of user experience. Web2 boasts a massive existing user base and the most mature products, along with a treasure trove of user social relationships and data. In contrast, Web3 social platforms need to start from scratch, unable to capitalize on network effects. Even if they attempt to graft onto existing platforms, it raises barriers and decreases the potential user base, primarily attracting only a minority from the crypto field.
Many Web3 social projects have found a clever solution: innovating on top of Web2 data to create a Web3 incentive layer. Projects like Friend.tech and Tipcoin gained substantial traction in their early stages through this approach. It has become a consensus that one shouldn’t try to establish social platforms from scratch but rather innovate on top of existing social infrastructure.
However, this approach comes with significant drawbacks. Building on a Web2 platform imposes limitations on crucial data aspects. When too many users flood in, Tipcoin’s detection function faltered, and the Twitter platform started collapsing Tipcoin-related tweets. It’s essential to recognize that the foundations they built upon are fragile. If Twitter were to ban the API keys of projects like Friend.tech or Tipcoin, users would be unable to use the apps, and the entire model would crumble.
From this perspective, decentralized social platforms like Lens Protocol, NOSTR, and Farcaster have an advantage. They don’t have to worry about being shut down by Web2 platforms, which is a direction that should be maintained long-term. To build a stable platform, the core must rely on decentralized protocols rather than central platforms.
In summary, social platforms should initially bootstrap based on existing Web2 platforms, but data should be stored in decentralized protocols. They should adapt to user habits through grafting initially, then gradually transition away from Web2, aiming to capture a flow of traffic. Eventually, there might be a moment of divergence, but before achieving complete decentralization, the goal is to cultivate user habits and reach a critical mass.
Another critical factor is the maturity of infrastructure. Because current blockchains cannot handle social-level transaction volumes, constructing social platforms directly on the blockchain is impractical.
What We Need in a Web3 Social Platform?
CZ recently tweeted that better decentralized social networks are on the horizon, poised to make their mark. So, what kind of Web3 social platform do we need, and how do we build it?
The primary obstacle to the development of Web3 social networks is the inadequacy of the infrastructure, hindering the creation of seamless user experiences. After BNB Chain’s Green Field launch, we caught a glimmer of hope. Not everything should reside on the blockchain; only the most crucial elements should. Most social content should be stored in easily accessible storage layers.
First and foremost, social platforms should prioritize addressing real user needs and fulfill regular social requirements.
