https://nasacademy.com/blog/article/best-examples-of-top-web3-projects-to-watch-in-2022
We have been talking about Web 3.0 and data privacy for a while now – and many are already onboard for the next version of the internet. But there is still a need to dig a bit deeper and fully grasp the potential use cases of this technology. Through examples of Web 3 projects, you will not only strengthen your understanding of Web 3 but also help you in understanding the difference between the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 business models.
The very genesis of Web 3 is the fact that big tech is monetizing our data and attention. Our collective data are the so-called product in the entire social media ecosystem. However, with rising concerns over data privacy, many new-age companies have stepped up and created innovative revenue generation models.
These newer models do not rely on monetizing the user data, or attention. So in this article, we are going to learn about some Web 3 projects that are creating ripples in the online world by causing this disruption.
Privacy and snooping is just one aspect of ad-based revenue models. There are some other concerns in this conventional way of earning money. Let us discuss them in more detail:
Unlike the popular belief, advertisements do have hidden costs involved with them. Yes, third-party apps and trackers consume up to 50% of your mobile data. This means you have to pay your service provider more money to get a plan with higher data usage quota.
Web pages are designed in a way that advertisements load before the content itself. That means you are wasting a significant amount of time with each browsing session. This does not account for the fact if you get carried away by an advertisement and completely miss what you were originally set out to do.
Since every session now leads to more data and time consumption, there is a direct correlation with the battery life of your device. Research says that this can impact up to 20% of your total battery life. Your phone is unable to operate at its full power capacity because of these advertisements.
Brave browser was developed by Brian Bondy and Brendan Eich. It is a web and mobile-based browser. Brian has been a former employee of Khan Academy and Mozilla, and Eich created Javascript and co-founded Mozilla. All this validates the fact that these gentlemen know what they are up to.
Brave is a fast, privacy-first, and free to use web browser based on the Blockchain technology. It aims to reinvent the entire ad ecosystem by impacting its core pillars like users, advertisers, and content creators.
Brave browser is 3x faster than conventional browsers as it has a built-in ad blocker.
For appreciating the model deployed by Brave browser, let us understand how any traditional Web 2 company operates in the online advertising space.
A content creator works hard to push out a piece of content. This can be an image, video, blog etc. Then this creator piggybacks on the network effects of a platform to distribute this content.
As more and more people hop on to the platform for content like this, the platform gets brand deals. Brands pay big $ to the platform, which in turn shares a piece of that pie with you as a content creator – because ads were integrated with your piece.
Your content was the hook to stay on the platform all along.
Some key problems that are emerging from this model are:
Unlike Google and Facebook (which, let’s face it, invade your privacy in the name of targeted advertising), Brave approaches this by tracking user attention and engagement in real time. They track what tabs you are working on, and how you are interacting with each of them. And this data is not sent back to some centralized server.
This enables Brave to learn what kind of ads need to be shown based on your consumption pattern. So as a user, you only get served by the ads that are related to the content you are browsing.
This doesn’t end here. Users are also paid for paying attention. This happens in the form of native cryptocurrency of the platform called Basic Attention Token or ‘BAT.’
Now brands would reach out to the content creator directly instead of routing it through a platform like Google or Facebook. They would pay the creator in the form of BAT to run ads.
In a nutshell, the brand gets targeted advertising using the browsing patterns.
Creators get incentivized to create engaging content.
Users get incentivized to watch that content.
TikTok is an internationally famous short-form video content platform. India recently banned TikTok over its data snooping tendencies. This gave rise to multiple platforms facilitating short form video content. One such platform is Chingari. After establishing itself in this segment, Chingari recently decided to pivot to Web 3 completely. They came up with a token called $GARI and completely got rid of advertisements on its platform.
…But then how is the company making money? That is where the Web 3.0 example kicks in. Let us explore the innovations around it:
Do you know where majority of Amazon’s revenue is coming from? They have a business arm called “AWS” or Amazon Web Services. AWS is in the business of selling storage to corporations to run their databases. This storage is centralized and a lot of key players use it for hosting their websites.
If we apply Web 3 principles to this business model, there is a requirement to decentralize storage as well. That is what Filecoin does.
Think of Filecoin as the Airbnb of storage. If you have some empty storage in your computer’s hard drive, you could actually rent it out and earn money from it.
Here’s what there website says about them:
“Filecoin combines with IPFS, a peer-to-peer distributed network protocol, to make a more efficient and secure web free from corporate control. The Filecoin network achieves staggering economies of scale by allowing anyone to participate as a storage provider and compete for your business.”
Now that Web 3 has tried to spread its wings by disrupting every industry, why should video streaming be any different? Theta is a blockchain network designed to power video streaming. The genesis is rather simple. Currently, the cost of video storage is going up and is likely to increase in the near future with technologies like 4K and 8K becoming mainstream.
To tackle that, Theta operates a decentralized network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer basis. The project is advocated by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.
This project is likely to change the streaming industry for good. The industry is centralized and the infrastructure cost is high right now. Users often end up with poor experience which involves advertisements and content creators are also not compensated adequately.
Theta’s main business concept is to decentralize video streaming, data delivery, and edge computing, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and fair for industry participants.
We just discussed four Web 3 projects, from quite different niches. And that should give you a fair idea that even if we are not ready, Blockchain technology and Web 3 wave is going to impact our lives permanently – one way or another.
So, ideally, it would be better if one could embrace that change. And how exactly can that be done? By signing up to our web3 community!
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By Admin Nas Academy
By Admin Nas Academy
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