SocialFi and Web3 identities are being discussed more and more. Are you paying attention and participating?

The importance of social platforms and their indispensability in contemporary life

Before we dive into SocialFi and Web3 identities, let’s first think about why social platforms are so important. Since the 21st century, with the popularity of smartphones and the development of media, we have entered an era of information explosion. Whether it is browsing daily information, shopping, or communicating with friends and relatives, we all use smartphones without knowing it. Think about it, open your phone, what application do you spend the most time using every day? I believe that most people are like me, social platforms are the ones we use most frequently in our daily lives.

There are many types of social platforms, including those that provide information and life sharing (IG, Xiaohongshu), those that focus on making friends and information sharing (Facebook, Weibo), and those that provide a large amount of video and video content (Youtube, TikTok, BiliBili) and so on. With the continuous improvement of mobile application functions, and even the rise of short videos in recent years, it may be difficult for us to clearly distinguish what kind of social platform they belong to. However, there is no doubt that they have become an integral part of our lives, and social platforms have become an indispensable catalyst in life.

SocialFi and Web3 Identity: Opening a new era of decentralized social and real identity

SocialFi is a concept that has attracted much attention in recent years and will gradually become the focus of discussion in 2023. This concept uses blockchain technology to build a decentralized social platform. In traditional social platforms, whether we are content creators or ordinary users, we do not really own our own creations and user data. These platforms use user data to make huge profits, and SocialFi provides users with a new choice. This decentralized social platform empowers creators, allowing users to choose whether to share data and obtain corresponding benefits from it, realizing the concept of “Contribute to Earn”.

Web3 Identity is an important concept after the emergence of SocialFi and ENS (Ethereum Domain Name Service). In current social media, when we create an account, we need to provide a username, which represents our identity on social media. The concept of Web3 identity is similar, but the difference is that Web3 identity truly represents the user’s corresponding rights to use and represent the identity. Unlike traditional social media identities, if you become very famous one day but the corresponding username does not belong to you personally, social media has the right to prevent you from using that username or identity. Therefore, Web3 identity highlights its uniqueness and provides a more authentic and decentralized identity experience.

SocialFi’s advantages and role in the Web3 ecosystem

Decentralized social media (SocialFi) plays an important role in the Web3 ecosystem and brings many advantages. First, SocialFi provides a more open and low-threshold participation method, attracting user loyalty and enabling them to participate for a longer period of time. Compared with DeFi and GameFi, SocialFi has a relatively low threshold for participation, and does not require high investments like DeFi, nor is it as susceptible to token supply and price fluctuations as GameFi.

In terms of entry barriers, SocialFi’s model is closer to traditional social platforms, using similar login methods and interfaces, which reduces users’ learning costs. This makes it easier for SocialFi to attract a wide range of users and provide similar functionality to traditional social platforms. In addition, SocialFi usually focuses on the interaction between users, entering different mentalities and getting to know new circles through social platforms, which helps to increase users’ motivation to participate and reduce the possibility of users quitting.

However, SocialFi still has to face some challenges, one of which is dealing with gas fees. Since decentralized social platforms require data verification, miners need to charge Gas Fees, while most users do not need to pay any fees when using daily social platforms. This requires project parties to find solutions to reduce or handle costs in this area to ensure that users do not feel an additional burden when participating. Solving this problem will help SocialFi achieve greater success in the Web3 ecosystem.

Are there any related projects worthy of our attention?

Lens Protocol

Built by the well-known DeFi project AAVE team, the main goal of Lens Protocol is to allow users to establish digital identities and interact with other users. As a leader in social media protocols, Lens Protocol is committed to providing a friendly environment for developers and ordinary users, and actively building an extensive decentralized social ecosystem.

Farcaster

Farcaster, a recently high-profile social ecological protocol, has attracted the attention and expectations of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik and EthHub. In a short period of time, Farcaster’s total number of users has exceeded 150,000, and its cumulative revenue has exceeded US$500,000, showing that it has considerable potential on a decentralized social platform.

Bluesky

Bluesky, founded by former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, aims to introduce elements of traditional Web2 social platforms into decentralized social platforms. The project has recently been opened to the public for participation, and Jack Dorsey’s enthusiasm for the Web3 ecosystem also makes related projects expected to usher in good development due to his popularity.