In digital world, most of the time you are a product. Not exactly product as slave centuries ago to be bought and sold, but nevertheless a product somebody sells and makes billions. Basically, every time you use something you are not charged for, you are the product. Whenever you use Facebook or Gmail, you are a product. Facebook or Google sells information about you to their customers who instead get access to you to sell their products to you.
Some of the most valuable companies have been built on this premise. Many people, including most very rich people, have silently agreed to be a product for somebody else in exchange for privilege to use e-mail or post their pictures for free. Gmail works very well, often better than commercial versions. Facebook works very well as an entertainment channel or personal photo album with minimum fuss. The user gets a quality service free (and helps to contribute to billions of valuation of the companies).
There is nothing wrong with this. However, the technology today allows to build the same quality and ease of use for a fraction of cost. So, the business can charge the same ¨free¨ and pay a fraction of the billions back to ¨product¨ … eeeh users which are the key value driver the social media business. This is the reason I like Steem. Not for money, there isn´t much yet, but for concept.
In the next few years I believe we will see a lot alongside this trend. Blockchain has immense potential to rewrite how societies are managed, products created and distributed. Once the trend runs out, we are unlikely to see Facebook or Google around (at least, not in present form) and, more importantly, bloated governments around the world will be replaced with some much more efficient form of governance.