OWN Insights 02: Web3 - The “Proactive” Expressive Economy
Enjoy the latest OWN insights, by our Chief Scientist, Dr. Kendall Mao.
Welcome to the OWN Insights series, where we invite industry leaders to take us on a thought provoking journey through the Web3 space. Throughout this series, industry leaders will be sharing a space, communicating their thoughts, and helping us to better understand the new iteration of the internet. Please enjoy this article from Dr. Kendall Mao, Chief Scientist of Ontology.
I. Introduction
The Internet was born for the sharing and exchange of information. With the development of technology, Internet service providers have completed the transformation from being an information display portal to becoming content generation portals, which is the so-called transition from Web1 to Web2, and the Internet users have also changed from “passive” reception to “interactive” participation. At present, most of the Internet platforms we are familiar with, whether they are search engines, knowledge communities, or social networking sites and video applications, rely on the interactive participation of users. It is under such a transformation that the scale of the Internet has developed to a considerable size, and the Internet has become an indispensable part of the life of the Human race.
2. Lack of “Proactivity”
Behind the prosperity and development of the Internet, the reality of excess information has caused “attention” to become an important resource that various platforms and creators on the platforms compete for. Platforms have made huge profits by catering to the needs of users and winning the attention of users. The platforms accumulate a large amount of user data, including not only creator-generated content, but also consumer behavior and preferences. These data have become the most valuable assets of the platform. The analysis of this data through tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning guides these platforms to lock in old users, attract new users and extract high profits, and build themselves into the best in the field.
In this context, creators have to shift to the top Internet platforms that can attract users’ attention on a large scale. The lead platforms that occupy the dominant position through network effects, firmly lock in consumers and enjoy most of the profits, whilst the rewards obtained by creators do not match their efforts. At the same time, due to the platform’s recommendation algorithm, the number of pageviews and likes has become an indicator of oppression for creators. Creators no longer pursue in-depth content creation, but aim to please large groups and move towards a direction that can cater to the attention of a larger audience which creates the problem of homogenization of the creator’s content. This has made creators more and more superficial and content more and more biased towards virality.
Creators’ rethinking of the production relationship between them and the platform has awakened creators. The “attention economy” in the Web2 era makes creators firmly bound to the platform, and their returns are far less than their efforts. The platform’s control over creators is not only reflected in the way and the amount of returns for creators, but it is also reflected in the control over their behavior, such as creators not being able to migrate with their fans, or change the way they interact with fans. This deeply hits the enthusiasm of creators, who are unwilling to “actively” explore and create more layered and in-depth content.
3. The “Proactive” Web3 Enables the Expressive Economy
In the past two or three decades of Web2, the “attention economy” has enabled the Internet to develop brilliantly, but it can also be seen that creators are at the bottom of the game with the platform, showing a downward spiral. The rights and voices of creators are less and less valued, and they can only cater to the public. In fact, if we think about it, the “attention economy” itself is biased towards attracting consumers and attracting the public. In this economic model, creators can only stay at the level of “interaction”.
The emergence of Web3, or the emergence of decentralized collaboration methods, gives hope that people will see a fundamental solution to this problem. Web3 enables users to regain ownership of their data and content, breaking the platform’s monopoly on content and how it is priced. The method of distribution and amount of rewards for creators has been greatly improved, and is no longer dependent on the platform and having a huge fan base. Creators can rely on high-quality content output to attract interested people and get high returns, which makes creators motivated and willing to “actively” create content with depth and connotation. Consumers are no longer just consuming the content provided by creators, they can invest in potential creators in the form of decentralized organizations.
In such a mode, creators no longer need to struggle for the “attention” of large groups, but focus on their own content and “actively” fully demonstrate their “expressiveness”, in order to acquire the consumption and investment of high-quality users. It’s also worth noting that there is an upward spiral between high-quality content and high-quality fans, which is a win-win relationship.
We call such a pattern the “expressiveness economy”, reflecting the positive correlation between “expressiveness” and returns in Web3. This “expressiveness” is not only reflected in the expressiveness of individual creators, but also in the expressiveness of the decentralized collaborative organization formed by creators and related users such as fans.
4. Conclusion
Blockchain-based Web3 brings one of the greatest characteristics of the Internet, users have control over their own identities and data. In such a network, with decentralized identity as the cornerstone and NFT and verifiable certificates as the data verification certificates on and off the chain, a production relationship of decentralized collaboration will be formed, which will promote the development of the Internet in a new direction . And all we can do is see it, engage with it, and build on it.
OWN (Ontology Web3 Network) Infrastructure is a series of general blockchain basic protocols and products provided by Ontology for Web3 applications. Basic components including data and reputation, etc., and general-purpose tools such as a Web3 wallet, etc. Web3 applications can choose different basic components according to different scenarios for easy integration. It saves Web3 applications from developing basic functions from scratch, and thus can quickly develop applications. Individual users can also quickly access Web3 applications by using OWN basic products.
Follow us on social media!
Ontology website / ONTO website / OWallet (GitHub)
Twitter / Reddit / Facebook / LinkedIn / YouTube / NaverBlog / Forklog
