When the internet was first invented it was thought to be a free, people-platform. But who benefits the most from for example social media? While Facebook relies on constant user engagement the user’s contributions are not rewarded. At the same time, Facebook has become a 500 billion dollar platform with the power to control an entire economy.
With such powerful players on the internet today the true people-platform seems like wishful thinking of the past. However, could it be possible to disrupt the online monopolies and shift from a privatized internet to user empowerment?
With blockchain it might.
Blockchain could enable the shift from a centralized web to a decentralized or even distributed internet. Instead of having platform monopolies, blockchain could cut out the middleman and become truly peer-to-peer.
How could that look like in an example?
Let’s take a rather unconventional example of publishing platforms for amateur writers. 2 years ago in our course International Creative Business we came up with an idea for a platform that lets anyone, from inexperienced writer to published authors publish their work on a platform. The model was subscription based, so instead of paying per content the reader paid a monthly fee to access all content on the platform. A portion of the payment went to the writer and another went to the platform. At the time that seemed like a win-win-win situation. The writer benefits because he gets an outlet for his work, the reader gets to read interesting content and the platform, well it makes money off of that.
But is the platform truly crucial in that equation and could it perhaps become a win for the users instead?
A decentralized, blockchain-based network instead rewards users for their contributions. Similar to steemit, writers would publish their work and get rewarded from the readers with digital tokens. That way the value of the content determines the votes it receives and in turn tokens are awarded to users for their contributions. Instead of a platform benefiting from the user’s content the writer himself does. A true peer-to-peer approach. We are in charge of the transactions, create and exchange value without powerful intermediaries. This is a game changer for the creative industry in terms of the way value is perceived and rewarded.
Every cultural industry is up for disruption and I am more than curious about the implementation of the blockchain revolution in the coming years.
