Decentralization and social networks

Cryptocurrency as a monetization tool

Web 3.0 ideology could not skip over social networks. This Web 2.0 monetization model where the lion’s share of profits goes to the platform itself with a small part to the most demanded Influencers, while the average users take the role of consumers is a thing of the past. Cryptocurrencies are a natural progression of technology for a new more equitable monetization model:

• Suitable for microtransactions

• Easy to track movements without special skills

• Decentralized

The transition to this model accelerated with the growing interest in DeFi and NFT industries, which contributed to the democratization of financial services and the digital art market.

Web 3.0 competitive landscape

Yup (YUP)

Launched: 2020 “Social network for curators:”

A multi-platform ecosystem of content storage. Users can collect and post collections of tweets, videos, books, etc.

Pros: Seamless — content can be collected and published through a browser extension, a large selection of categories, clear monetization principles, YUP token is on Polygon.

Cons: Low retention, popular materials get up to 50-100 likes, low availability of the token despite considerable time after the launch

Publish0x (BNTY)

Launched: 2018

A blog platform that allows content creators and readers to earn cryptocurrency.

Pros: First successful blogging platform with a token, over 2.5 million monthly users, active community of readers and bloggers, user-friendly interface.

Cons: extremely low payouts (trend articles collect up to $5-10, and users have been paid about $430,000 in total since the launch), small functionality.

Chingari (GARI)

Launched: 2022

The equivalent of the blocked TikTok in India, a platform for short entertaining videos.

Pros: Simple monetization principles, aggressive PR-campaign, GARI cryptocurrency is “tethered” to the working product, based on the Solana/Polygon ecosystem.

Cons: Narrow focus on entertainment content for young people and exclusively in the Indian segment of social networks.

Decentralized Social Blockchain (DESO)

Launched: 2021

L1 blockchain for social networks: Information is transmitted via nodes, DESO token is the basis for monetization.

Pros: High degree of decentralization because most of the architecture components are moved to the blockchain, independence to own Tier-1 platform, large funding at the start of $200 million, DESO is already available on Coinbase Pro and AscenDEX.

Cons: the team and the creator are related to the controversial project BitClout, which offered to sell digital tokens of celebrities at the price of their social capital, the project stores seed phrases of users’ wallets on Google Drive.