<html><head></head><body>Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media and seeing headline after headline about some crazy NFT sale of a JPEG ape? Perhaps you heard about Gary Vee launching his VeeFriends collection, Nas dropping his latest album as an NFT or Snoop Dogg announcing Death Row Records as the first ever Metaverse record-label. Whatever it is, welcome to the beautiful world of web3.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="the_world_of_web3">The world of web3</h3>Web3 has seen huge growth over the last few years, particularly in the boom over 2021 which saw <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/politics/crypto-currency-venture-capitalists.html" id="">venture firms pour more than $27-billion in crypto-related projects</a> with most of that capital being allocated to web3 projects.&nbsp;‍For all intents and purposes, web3 is the term used to describe the internet run on crypto tokens.‍<h3 id="first_of_all,_what_is_web1.0?">First of all, what is Web1.0?&nbsp;</h3>Web1.0 was the first iteration of the web. It was bare bones and mostly consisted of people reading content and creators (in most cast developers) putting up simple websites.&nbsp;‍This is often described as the read-only web, as the content was statically served, meaning rather than pulling information from a centralised database it was pulled from your local PC.&nbsp;‍Content was mostly limited to blogs and you weren’t able to interact with the content in any kind of way.&nbsp;‍This was the web from 1991 through to 2004.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="the_web_today">The web today</h3>The web today can be described as Web2.0 and this is what all of us today are familiar with.&nbsp;‍Technology has evolved from just serving content from your local device, to serving content from a central database. Interactions aren’t limited to just reading or consuming content, but you can also interact with it in all kinds of ways. This is what is referred to as the read &amp; write web. This evolution has meant that the content-creation process has moved away from relying on developers and has kick started what is now known as the creator economy.&nbsp;‍The creator economy consists of independent creatives who have identified ways of leveraging their skills or knowledge as a side-hustle or full time gig. Whether you’re a videographer, blogger, musician, painter, influencer, comedian, you name it… if you want to create content and push it to the web you can. Web2 enabled millions of people to get out there and start creating, sharing and even earning from their work.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="the_challenges">The challenges</h3>Although web2 opened the doors for creators, it came with its own set of challenges and drawbacks, including:&nbsp;‍<ol id=""><li id="">Creators being ‘de-platformed’ losing their life's work.</li><li id="">Tech companies taking a profit-first mindset over a creator-first</li><li id="">Data breaches at major tech companies exposing private details of millions of people.&nbsp;</li><li id="">Bank accounts being shut down with little notice or communication.&nbsp;</li><li id="">Consolidation of tech companies eliminating competition.&nbsp;</li></ol>‍To put simply, you don’t own your data/content… and because of this, you have little to no control over how it’s used.&nbsp;‍By enabling web2 to build &amp; host the rails for creators to build on. We forfeited any kind of autonomy or power to have a say on what is done with that content.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="the_web_today_is_built_on_ad’s">The web today is built on AD’s</h3>The biggest challenge of all arises in monetisation of content.&nbsp;‍After web2 content-platforms quickly grew to millions of users, they struggled to find any meaningful method to monetise their users' content. This is what gave birth to the AD-model and as of today still remains the preferred method amongst web2 content platforms.&nbsp;‍The biggest challenge with the AD model is it runs at a direct conflict with its own users… as opposed to providing value via the content and the creator, the value is shifted to the attention gained via the creator and thus reducing a creators options for creativity &amp; potential value creation right down to their ability to capture the attention of their audience.&nbsp;‍The other challenge is that by virtue of the content-platform owning the data, they have complete control to dictate what cut of the revenue they make. Given that creators have no alternatives they are ultimately forced to concede to the offers handed down to them.&nbsp;‍This kind of model is designed to incentivise user-growth &amp; output at all costs and de-incentive any meaningful content-creation or engagement.&nbsp;&nbsp;‍<h3 id="what’s_life_like_as_a_creator">What’s life like as a creator&nbsp;</h3>Today millions of creators are publishing content on platforms like Youtube, Twitch, Instagram, Tiktok and Spotify to name a few.&nbsp;‍However, only a small percentage of these are actually earning enough to make a living.&nbsp;‍<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream" id="">An article in 2021 by Businessinsider</a> showed that 98% of artists on Spotify earn as little as $12/month. The average payout of a creator is $0.003 per stream, meaning you would need 250 streams to earn $1.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-tiktokers-make-real-creator-examples-2021-7" id="">A similar article by Businessinsider</a> mentioned famous creators such as MrBeast, Hank Green and&nbsp; Influencer Preston Seo speak out about their TikTok payouts. Preston, who has 2.1million followers, mentioned his Tiktok account earned anywhere between $9-$38/Day. This kind of experience for creators is consistent across most major content platforms and although we’ve seen more creative models appear as of late such as Patreon’s membership model or Tiktok’s virtual gifting. The reality for most creators is that they don’t have any control over their content and it is incredibly hard to make any money online from their work.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="welcome_to_web3">Welcome to Web3&nbsp;</h3>Web3 is the next evolution of the internet and perhaps the most exciting in the history of the web for creators.&nbsp;‍This is often what is referred to as the read, write &amp; own web.‍The key difference here is that developers don’t build &amp; deploy applications to a central server, but rather to a blockchain.‍You’ll often hear blockchain be mentioned in conversation around web3. For those of you that aren’t familiar with what a blockchain is, the short-version is:&nbsp;‍<ul id=""><li id="">It’s a distributed database&nbsp;</li><li id="">Data is stored in blocks.</li><li id="">The blocks are organised in a timeline &amp; timestamped.&nbsp;</li><li id="">The most recent block is stacked against the last block to create an irreversible chain of data known as a blockchain.&nbsp;</li><li id="">No single point of failure as nodes [computers validating the network] are distributed.&nbsp;</li><li id="">Each block is individually hashed, meaning to alter data you would need to chronologically go back and un-hash every block.&nbsp;</li><li id="">Each node is required to store a complete &amp; updated version of the database, making it impossible to alter unless the majority of the network (51%) reaches consensus.&nbsp;</li></ul>‍The blockchain brings to web2 a number of enhancements which means web3 is: <ol id=""><li id="">Verifiable&nbsp;</li><li id="">Trustless&nbsp;</li><li id="">Transparent&nbsp;</li><li id="">Robust</li></ol>‍<h3 id="what_does_this_mean_for_creators">What does this mean for creators</h3>The beauty of web3 means any unit of value can be represented directly on the blockchain as a ‘non-fungible token’ or ‘NFT’ for short.&nbsp;‍This redefines the concept of what is valuable on the web and gives creators the option to explore new models to earn never previously available.&nbsp;‍The source of value becomes the creator and the medium becomes the NFT.&nbsp; An NFT can be any image, photo, video or any piece of digital media. [Image of NFT by Artist, Musician &amp; video ie, Beeple, Nas &amp; NBATopShot]‍All data is verifiable on the public ledger that is blockchain, meaning you can always validate the authenticity and origin of any NFT.&nbsp;‍By having a piece of content as an NFT, creators have complete and full control over what happens with that content.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="a_new_way_for_creators_to_earn">A new way for creators to earn</h3>This gives creators a number of ways to earn, never before available.&nbsp;‍By having creator content as an NFT, creators are able to design custom-coded mechanics directly into the smart-contract that dictates the rules behind the NFT.‍This means creators can do things like add a royalty everytime the NFT swaps hands, or reward community engagement based on interactions, purchases or milestones achieved or token-gate certain online portals such as websites that provide access to exclusive experiences like early-album listening parties or fan experiences. <h3 id="‍shared_value-creation">‍ Shared value-creation&nbsp;</h3>Web3 enables incentive-aligned community building and brand loyalty.&nbsp;‍For creators, they can now create content with full autonomy, control and ownership.&nbsp;‍For consumers it offers the ability to have full ownership, control and pride over their digital identities and activities.&nbsp;‍This is where you’ll hear a lot of talk about “Utility” &amp; ‘Community’ in web3. Web3 enables not just the creators to be empowered, but the fans and communities behind those creators to become stakeholders in the value creation process.&nbsp;‍This enables brands &amp; creators to form deeper relationships with their communities than ever before.‍<h3 id="what_kind_of_creators_can_benefit">What kind of creators can benefit</h3>Web3 can benefit pretty much any creator or online brand. If you have a community and you create content you are in a prime position to benefit from Web3.&nbsp;‍A great example of this is NBATopShot, who leveraged the NBA community and web3 to build digital collectibles of match highlights. NBATopShot launched 2-years ago and has just recently crossed the $1bn in sales mark. If you create content but you don’t have a community, then you can still enjoy the benefits of web3 and leverage all the perks of autonomy and ownership to encourage &amp; incentivise your own fans and supporters to build a community.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="the_future_of_the_nft_economy">The future of the NFT economy</h3>NFT sales accounted for $40bn in 2021 and is expected to double to $90bn by the end of 2022 according to an article by <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nft-market-sales-dropping-170000363.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAB6SYaYh5yTsrZSf-MzCSBuo4o7XGpPQl4nlIag8VtrgQQx93sUdSAIzqkmDA0CxHNhAe-V0s-9JTP7Qyi82ebavqhQOYmau_nIhh67X8nY11sInAG2jrlAQUeqLwZ9F6U4sUzyDD_c2qtOIPreNhU-vVlvwqT8grC2IX5LtK5tR#:~:text=Crypto%20exchange%20Kraken%20to%20launch%20NFT%20marketplace&amp;text=Total%20sales%20hit%20%2437%20billion,billion%20for%20all%20of%202021." id="">Yahoo Finance.</a>‍At the end of 2021:&nbsp;<ul id=""><li id=""><a href="https://medium.com/electric-capital/electric-capital-developer-report-2021-f37874efea6d">34,000 developers had migrated to Web3.&nbsp;</a></li><li id=""><a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/global-crypto-users-reach-1-101646507.html" id="">More than 295 million users had a crypto wallet.</a></li></ul>‍We believe web3 is the future of the internet and the creator economy and everyday we’re seeing stats that back up that more developers, creators and collectors are joining web3.&nbsp;‍<h3 id="mome">MOME</h3>Here at MOME we’re on a journey to create value through the most meaningful moments in culture.&nbsp;‍We help creators/brands and artists to execute web3 business models.&nbsp;If you’re interested in exploring how web3 could work for your brand, please get in touch today.</body></html>

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