Commercial viability is one of the factors that determine the dependability and reliability of any new technology… And blockchain is not an exception. Blockchain has enabled a lot of possibilities and has helped in developing a different perspective towards certain aspects that had been classically defined otherwise… Like money, collectibles, and art.

The blockchain has also been instrumental in revolutionizing the web. To understand this revolution, we will need to understand its evolution… The evolution of the web we mean!

How did the web evolve?

Let us spare the details on the history of the Internet and the World Wide Web! While the first version of the web did establish the means for universal communication albeit, in a one-way fashion, the architecture inherently had a heavy degree of centralization.

The second version of the web which was more about collaboration and user-generated content was popularly called Web 2.0. A little over a decade and a half ago, this new version of the web represented a paradigm shift in the creation of content. People did not have to rely on a single source on the web that was heavily centralized when it comes to consuming content. 

Web 2.0 also opened up opportunities for monetization, rewarding content creators. This came in as a big bliss considering the fact that none of the efforts on the Internet were rewarded until that point in time. “Content creator” became a proper profession for some people, who were not only winning the bread and butter but even purchasing lifestyle products through revenues made only from content creation and the advertising revenue it brought.

Slowly, people started to realize that there was something even more valuable than money… And the value of the money that they got was a lot less than what they deserved. Heavily centralized organizations that controlled Internet advertising pocketed quite a lot of the revenue that creators deserved. This meant that these organizations were thriving on advertising revenue facilitated by the creativity and hard work of these content creators.

While on the surface, it might seem like daylight robbery, the intermediaries were necessary to create a smooth transition between the creator and the consumer… And also to handle a monetization network. A creator who wishes to step beyond the monetization options offered by the Web 2.0 platforms would, more often than not, end up jeopardizing their earning possibilities.

There was a need to remedy this situation where the creators were in complete control and command of the monetization possibilities. Parallel to this, there was also a need for people to have complete control over the extent of compromise on privacy. People were also looking at options where sharing of data for advertising purposes would be rewarded monetarily.

Enter Web3:

Web3 is the latest version of the web… And it is a quantum leap from what Web 2.0 was. Web3 is what the web ideally aspired to be.

Web3 is completely decentralized and is powered by the blockchain. As you may have known, the blockchain has the qualities and credentials it takes to automate certain processes. The blockchain data is immutable and at the same time, quite transparent. The smart contracts ensure that processes happen without any intermediaries and hassles that might eat time and money for breakfast and dinner!

Since Web3 is powered by the blockchain, NFTs have become an integral part of the Web3 ecosystem.

Going back to the first statement, the dependability of any technology is measured by its commercial viability. Web3 opens up a lot of opportunities for creators to make money.

Let us look at the different avenues that Web3 provides to creators, so they can monetize their time, skill, and efforts

Creations as NFTs

NFTs, as you may have known, are a digital representation of a unique entity on the blockchain. In the classic world of creations, it was easy to prove the authenticity with processes like radiocarbon dating. However, in the digital realm, there was always a risk of loss of provenance. When a photograph gets copy-pasted a certain number of times, it ends up losing its attribution to the creator, making the creator spend more on lawsuits than how much they would have made had they retained the rights to the creation!

With NFTs, the question of provenance is a thing of the past… And a binding answer to provenance is the thing of the future! The immutability ensured by the blockchain helps in proving that the creator of a particular digital asset is a particular person. This opens up opportunities for royalties, and that too, without any hassle as the process could be automated by the smart contract.

Web3 for advertising!

The world of advertising today is heavily centralized. Bringing Web3 into the equation can help decentralize advertising. With Web3, creators can directly get awarded for the sales that they facilitate through their assets including but not limited to their website, content, videos, social media pages, and images.

Web3 in transforming gaming!

Gaming assets have always been a challenge for and a cost to gamers. Once the game becomes obsolete, all the money they spent on developing the game character goes to waste. This statement holds true even for the games played on the web.

Thanks to Web3, gaming assets are now presented as NFTs. This would mean that the gaming assets have longevity beyond the existence of the game, and they can be sold on NFT marketplaces. This also creates a market for a lot of games that are interoperable, making the entire gaming world more democratic.

It is not surprising to see that a lot of top Web3 games incorporate NFTs into their gaming ecosystem. Gamers have also found methods to monetize the time and effort they spend in the game with the introduction of P2E gaming.

Closing words

People often talk about the creator economy. Come to think of it, the economy was always in the hands of the creator… Either scientific or artistic. When commerce became global, there was a need for centralization because regulated intermediation was mandatory.

With Web3 coming in and the awesomeness of blockchain technology and its manifestations like NFTs standing in the front of this revolution, the economy will truly be restored back to the hands of the creator. It would not be an exaggeration to say that we are all set to witness the digital Renaissance!