Consumo ergo Sum ?
The last few years have been characterized by a paradigm shift in our global economy and business models. Our well-known attention economy has abruptly morphed into an addiction economy, where mass consumption has turned into digital servitude for a whole new generation of consumers. In this respect, it has unfortunately become more lucrative capturing consumers attention than funding world-changing research. Big tech companies have tremendously enjoyed the « winner takes all » mantra as they are even taking positions at the dawn of the Web 3.0. As our human brains shrunk back to the primary needs and emotional stage, attention become the de facto marketing tool : « The Social Dilemma » documentary highlighted that when a product was free of charge, we actually ourselves were the product !
The attention span dwindled from 30 seconds (commercials format on 80s TV) to 8 seconds (Tik Tok). Consequently and logically, Netflix CEO acknowledged this competition for eyeballs by admitting his main competitor was Fortnite (an online video game that captures up to 5 hours of daily attention per day- source PwC).
In this brave new world to paraphrase Huxley, the combination of gamification, metaverses and digital activation programs promise to be the new Holy Grail for marketing directors directly inspired by Erving Goffman sociologist concepts (in particular his study of symbolic interaction , The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 1956). However, how will the consumer retain their own free will and monetize their daily data and consumption ? While the Web 1.0 before 2000 was centralized (as an offspring of a US DARPA Project), Web 2.0 and Big Tech definitely trapped the consumer into the greatest wealth transfer of all times at their own profit. Web 3.0 holds the promise of digital ownership marrying Web 2.0 technological breakthroughs with a decentralized approach, scattering the value chain at the profit of the consumer and content-generators. This is at the core of Q20 mission : empowering the citizen-consumer, turning him from a passive to an active consumer (a consum’actor if we were to pen a new word). Decentralized consumer value will be an essential layer of Web 3.0 and we aim to build the ad hoc protocols for this long term purpose. Our aim is to aggregate wealth creation back to the consumer and intellectual property owners. The era of outrageous intermediaries fees is bound to end.
Blockchains are outstanding instruments to build consensus between brands, IPs and consumers via dApp or decentralized applications. Artificial intelligence will help end users to get their best value for their data and consumption behavior. As for the consumer, he is expecting rewards, loyalty and laser-focused tribe marketing : mass marketing is slowly dying like an agonizing dinosaur.
In this new Value Proposition, early adopters, fans and high net worth individuals would be pioneers. From NFTs to tokens, they are already redefining the rules of the game. For IP owners, we boldly envision the emergence of new assets class, with the digital tokenization (utility and security tokens) of almost every IP. Tomorrow, large companies will have tradeable equity, debt, but also tokens on specific segments of their intellectual properties or brands. These digital assets will be an integral part of their capital structure and unlock trillions of dollars in new financing. In a near future, Consumers will not just buy bonds or shares of their favorite companies : they could advocate, buy effective trackers of their favorite brands, characters, products , intellectual and properties . Pass-through tokens, related to actual transactions in the real tangible world, will redesign entire properties : Q2O plans to create bijections (in the mathematical meaning of the word) of these transactions on blockchain/ digital assets. Q2O Fintech will develop financial innovations to serve this market: liquidity pools, hedging, derivatives, sharding.
At long last, new technologies present us with the opportunity of regaining a freedom stifled by centralized organizations. We can take control of our own patterns of consumption instead of relinquishing them to GAFAM. The horizon line is that of Blockchain and AI-powered end-users and citizens once again masters of their own acts : far from socialist utopians, we will not eradicate consumption but give it a new meaning, through the scattering of the value chain back to brands and individuals. Descartes had said at the dawn of modern times : « Cogito Ergo Sum ». A post-modern Descartes would enthusiastically assert : « Consumo ergo sum ». This is our vision at Q20 : what has lately shrunk into a senseless consumption society can blossom anew into a society where consumption has a real economic meaning for the average citizen.
Authors
Philippe Wang, Founder Q2O
Sebastien Laye, Entrepreneur, Crypto Economist, Advisor to Q2O
