Building a web3 product
Why you should never do it!
TL;DR
Web3 is just an enabler, a layer on top of web2. The starting point should never be to build a web3 product but to solve a problem. The web3 toolkit may help with the solution, or it may not.
Web3 definition
The most common and probably most easy-to-understand definition of web3 starts by describing its predecessors and then explains web3 by comparison. It goes something like this:
Web1 is the reader’s internet. A revolution by itself, but unfortunately, a group of selected few had control over what content got published, and the everyday user was limited to the ability to consume it.
Web2 is the read/write internet. Through the advent of blogs and later social networks, everyone gained the ability to write and publish their content, making it accessible to most internet users. Earning this capacity for almost everyone to publish and reach wider audiences was a significant advancement but (and this is an enormous but) the ability to monetize this content was severely constrained. We shifted from a select few having control over what was published to a select few having control of the generated revenue (and still have significant control over what was published)
Web3 brings the ownership layer. You can now not only read and write but also own a piece of the internet, you, the everyday user.
This definition is easy to understand but a bit misleading, as seen in the rest of this post. Web3 is not only about ownership and also doesn’t mean you will have ownership, just that eventually you can.
The technology
What makes this ownership thing possible? What fundamental advancements did we see in technology that created this new web?
As you probably already know, it was something called the blockchain.
By enabling the everyday user to publish content that is uncensorable, immutable, and with provable provenance, the blockchain initiated this new internet.
Use cases
A couple of exciting examples are commonly mentioned when talking about this ownership economy.
The decentralized Uber.
One of the drawbacks we have seen with the advent of the gig economy is how often the workers get the short end of the stick, working a lot and receiving very little for it. But aren’t they the core of the businesses? Shouldn’t they be better compensated?
Let’s say Uber was a tokenized company, meaning there were tokens in the blockchain instead of stocks representing the company ownership. Each time a driver completed a successful ride, they would earn some.
Sounds great for the driver, but what’s in it for the company?
Aligned incentives! If the company goes bankrupt, the tokens the drivers own would be worthless. On the contrary, if they keep overdelivering, the probability of the token valuation going up is a lot higher.
Simple and impactful.
The user owns his social data.
Today when a user sends out a Tweet or posts a new photo to Instagram, that Tweet content and that photo get stored in Tweeter and Meta’s servers.
Tomorrow, a new Twitter competitor you like a lot more appears, and you want to move there. All the social history you built over the years, all your followers, all that stays with Twitter. If you’re going to move to this new social network, you must start from scratch.
Let’s now move into this alternate reality where blockchain gained wide adoption. All the content we post gets stored in the blockchain. All your social graph gets mapped in the blockchain, and the most important thing is that you are the only one with the key to access it. No one can block you. You own your content.
You can bring all your history when you want to move from social network to social network.
I know that today, primarily due to regulations, this isn’t so simple, but still, it is achievable. The tech is already here. We need our Governments to realize there is no way to avoid it and start to embrace it.
(and I also know you can’t store all of the data on-chain, but there are ways to do it without saving everything there and maintaining all that I said above, like with Zero Knowledge Proof tech)
Building a web3 product
Now, hopefully, you have a better grasp of what people talk about when mentioning web3. So, how can you create a web3 app?
The short answer is, you don’t!
Like you wouldn’t start a successful product with the decision to build a web2 app, web3 is the same.
You start by finding a problem you think is big enough and interesting enough for you to engage in finding a solution. Next, by being aware of what web3 can add, you will eventually decide if it is advantageous or not to incorporate web3 features into your solution.
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
- Netflix would develop a feature where subscribers with a special NFT in their wallets could watch unique content and reward the most loyal subscribers.
- Emirates airways tokenized their air miles point system and allowed customers to trade them openly.
- Ticketmaster implemented NFT tickets and started making revenue from secondary ticket sales.
You see, these are not new products, just existing ones leveraging blockchain properties.
So let’s keep building with this in mind!
