Here’s How Web3 Social Platforms Work, and Why You’re Going to Like the End Result

TL;DR

In Web3, we’re told how ‘decentralization is going to give us back control of our data’. But decentralization is the tool in this scenario – so what’s the end result?
For users: if you build a following on one social platform, it follows you to every other platform built on the protocol (imagine if your IG following ported to TikTok, YouTube etc.)
For developers: anyone can build a Web3 social platform using this universal method of operation – no having to worry about building out their own protocols/databases.
But the REAL win? We own our ‘social graphs.’ Social graphs are how companies like Facebook predict our purchasing behavior, and how they sell billions of $ of ads.
This threat of easy competition means Web3 social platforms have to: play nice, favor users over advertisers, continuously improve the user experience. Pretty neat, right!?

Full Story

Have you heard the saying: “people don’t want a quarter-inch drill bit, they want a quarter-inch hole”?

Another way of putting it is: when people buy a tool, what they’re actually buying is an end result.

In Web3, we’re told how ‘decentralization is going to give us back control of our data’.

But decentralization is the tool in this scenario – so what’s the end result?

Let’s look at social media to see how decentralization might give us better results, starting here:

Every social media platform is just a different configuration of text, imagery, video, and audio. But each platform has its own way of operating (its own ‘protocol‘).

In Web3, the approach to reshaping social platforms is:

“Why don’t we take that ‘way of operating’ (the ‘protocol’) and make it open / accessible to anyone to build on?

However they choose to configure the feed of text, imagery, video, and audio is up to them – we’ll just provide them with the same tools/rule sets.”

(Kind of like Build-A-Bear, for social platforms. Same tools and materials – different results each time).

The result for users:

If you build a following on one social platform, it follows you to every other platform built on the protocol (imagine if your Instagram following seamlessly ported over to TikTok/YouTube/Snapchat etc).

There’s a reason those #deleteFacebook campaigns never work – it’s because there’s no where else for us to all collectively go.

Decentralized protocols change this…

The result for developers:

Anyone can build a Web3 social platform using this universal method of operation – no having to worry about building out their own protocols/databases from scratch.

And convincing folks to try out a new platform isn’t as hard, because all of their followers port right over.

But the REAL win?

We own our ‘social graphs.’

Social graphs are essentially just a big spreadsheet of the pages we follow, the posts we like, the ads we click, the videos we view – any action/interaction we take/have on a social platform really.

Social graphs are how companies like Facebook predict our purchasing behavior, and how they’re able to sell billions of dollars of ad placements per year.

Web2 platforms trade us free-to-use apps, in exchange for our social graphs.

In Web3, the platforms can access our social graphs only if we allow them.

Combine that with the fact that our social followings come with us across each platform and you start to see the power shifting back to users.

E.g. If a platform starts to do something its users collective dislike, a new competing version can be spun up relatively easily…

And as users we can take ALL of our content, followers, DMs, and interaction history with us, instantly and seamlessly.

This threat of easy competition means Web3 social platforms have to: