Technological & Economic Stack - Web 3.0

User-as-a-stakeholder model

Invention of the blockchain and decentralised storage technologies allows us to reinvent the web 2.0 model and commoditise the bottom parts of the techno-economic stack. By placing users data on the open access blockchain, we can open up the higher layers of the stack to innovation that are impossible under today's paradigm.

Instead of having silos of data competing on lock-in, we can have a marketplace of moderators, filters, indexing rules - each operating on the same level of data access.

Users vote with their 'eyeballs' and adopt the interface and filtering rules that match their preference and provide them with the best experience.

Each action is time stamped on the blockchain, allowing to verify specific order of events. So it pays to be the first to like future memes, adopt new interfaces, introduce new filtering rules, eliminate scammers etc.

This leads to the 'uberisation' of model used by Facebook and Google today. How would it look like then? You can imagine Facebook where each component such as Newsfeed, Chat, Groups, Photos is a separately owned entity with a separate group of stakeholders.

Or Google, where search results for different queries would be delivered through indexes controlled by various entities. Fashion queries could be routed through a different component that a sports queries.

Some of these components would be owned by a classic, publicly owned company. Others would be organized purely on the blockchain in a form of a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation.

Trading of links, connecting and disconnecting between UIs, indexes, filters or bots would be managed by smart contracts using value tokens exchanged in real-time.

How it works?

  1. Users exchange data using the decentralised data commons (blockchain + IPFS). There's no entity controlling the data layer.
  2. Interactions between users are facilitated using a Git-style protocol. Each user action is announced and time stamped on the blockchain. Content of user's action is hosted on the IPFS storage.
  3. Users' actions create an immutable, timestamped chain of events, public and visible in the database for other parties.
  4. Indexing, filtering, moderation and UI/UX creation is decentralized. Various economic entities can build businesses providing a better filter, ranking index, or a UI.
  5. Filters, indexes and UIs are shared and time stamped on the open data layer like other content types.
  6. Users can exchange monetary value between each other in return for certain actions. Value exchanges are facilitated via smart contracts. E.g "I'll pay you X if you post content Y". Smart contracts hold money in escrow and release it when the promise was fulfilled.

Advantages over the web 2.0 model.

  • users become stakeholders in the underlying data layer. All their actions are recorded and create a reputation chain
  • early adopters are rewarded with attention if the system takes off - due to a longer reputation history
  • 'uberization' of filtering, indexing and UI creation - entirely new ecosystem of value creation (once the data layer gets commoditised)
  • low switching costs align interests of UI/filter/index creators with the interests of users. Users can easily switch to an alternative ranking/filtering/UI using their data.
  • creation of new content based cooperation models possible. Decentralised social networks, news sites, ranking sites.
  • abuse, trolling and spam provide market opportunity for moderators & filter creators. It gives them more visibility in the system and protects value of the entire platform. It makes the system immune to abuse in the long term.