How to build a killer Web3 social media platform?

Author: Doug Petkanics

Compiled by: Baize Research Institute

Since the rise of Ethereum in 2016, the blockchain community has been searching for examples that can transcend financial use cases and make an impact on the real world.

Can Web3-driven peer applications be disruptive compared to their Web2 counterparts, bridging the gap and achieving mainstream adoption? So far, promising examples like Cryptokitties and Axie Infinity have temporarily captured global attention and sparked a massive crypto movement, but they lack the sustainable durability to provide a continuous success story for the entire world.

Meanwhile, social media applications have faced criticism in recent years; this category has clearly matured and could be disrupted by Web3, yet has similarly failed to achieve mainstream adoption. Early experimental protocols like Steemit, a Reddit-style community, and Pepo, a TikTok-style application, have not gained mainstream attention, while emerging social protocols like Lens, Orbis, Farcaster, and DeSohave have not matured enough to spark real-world interest or convince mainstream users.

So far, many of the protocols we have seen are trying to clone the functionalities of existing social sites: Web3 Twitter, Web3 TikTok, Web3 Reddit, Web3 Twitch. It often results in an experience that is nearly a clone but below standard, forcing users to pay Gas fees for every interaction, and "vaguely" promising better creator monetization or data ownership.

However, mainstream users have indicated that they are unlikely to switch to Web3 platforms simply for the reason of data ownership, which they care little about. Unless the application truly offers better, sustainable creator monetization and distribution methods, along with a wealth of high-quality content, it will struggle to capture mainstream user attention. Web3 applications that combine mainstream users with token-incentivized content often gradually fade away and become irrelevant.

A breakthrough killer social platform is unlikely to emerge in the form of "Web3 version of X"; instead, it will introduce a paradigm-shifting behavior that is genuinely native to a decentralized network coordinated by blockchain.

I. Rapid Growth of Web3 - Surprising

Let's take a look at some uniquely disruptive concepts within the blockchain ecosystem:

• Crowdfunding and capital formation
• Permissionless access to global, digital-first financial services
• Digital ownership and verifiability
• Collective, global coordination

The above list can be simplified to ICO, DeFi, NFT, DAO.

While we all try to point out how innovations in these areas can change and improve society as a whole, I do not believe this is an extension of the real world, but rather the boundaries of the Web3 digital world.

DeFi protocols are far more effective when interacting with composable on-chain assets, trades, and digital goods than when securing a mortgage for a new home.

NFTs representing digital assets like in-game items, PFPs, or collectibles are more appealing and disruptive than NFTs representing tickets or contracts, where they often bring more friction and legal overhead than their value.

Token-coordinated DAOs gather strangers digitally through chat rooms, code repositories, and online tools at a speed far exceeding that of any company or nonprofit organization to form, scale, and achieve goals.

I have accepted the signals above and recognize that a digital-first, Web3-centric world has emerged, existing independently through blockchain use cases in the aforementioned categories. But I believe it becomes particularly powerful when this Web3-centric world is growing at an incredible pace.

I used the term Echo Chambers, which I think is worth debating.

Six years ago, when I fully committed to the blockchain industry, my greatest fear was that it was purely an echo chamber—a group of optimistic forward-thinkers (and a group of unethical opportunists) talking to each other about their dreams of data and financial sovereignty, and better economic coordination between creators, users, and platforms. Even if this fear still holds, it is also incredible to see the size of this echo chamber growing rapidly. Witnessing more talented developers, entrepreneurs, creators, investors, and social scientists being so deeply captivated by the flaws of Web3 and dedicating a significant amount of their time to it is one of the most inspiring aspects of my work in Web3.

In the early 2000s, New York City once hosted Internet Week, and conferences like SXSW gathered the entire internet industry in their echo chamber. Soon after, the internet touched every aspect of people's lives, and the idea of Internet Week became irrelevant, as there was no way to gather a single community in an industry that touched nearly everything and meant different things to everyone. We see a similar situation in blockchain, where there are many unique domains—core infrastructure, scaling solutions, gaming, NFTs, regulation, Web3, the metaverse, etc.—all relying on the characteristics and use cases of blockchain but thriving in their own fields.

So how big must the echo chamber be before Web3 becomes the latest version of the internet?

II. Several Opportunities to Build Killer Apps

Some of the best Web2 social applications stem from the "come for the tools, stay for the network" approach. Instagram initially allowed users to apply filters to their mobile photos, making them look great, which was useful regardless of whether you had followers. You could record and share snippets of you singing or lip-syncing, and with popular short audio clips, eventually becoming a hit on TikTok after the social network and recommendation algorithms layered in.

Because the next disruptive Web3 social application will not merely be a clone of a Web2 application, and it will be challenging to recreate existing social graphs in Web3, it is likely that large social applications centered around Web3 will start as tools that address some user problems in Web3. Given the success in areas like DAOs, NFTs, and DeFi, there are clearly new opportunities around themes of social and content.

• DAOs need a trusted "safe haven" to organize and distribute content that aligns with Web3 values.

• There is a lack of content management and moderation services in Web3 social protocols, and they are not well incentivized.

• The discovery of high-quality content centered around Web3 remains highly decentralized.

I previously mentioned that blockchain-based DAOs have the power to achieve rapid global coordination, incentivizing people to take similar actions without direct communication. These DAOs communicate through digital tools, and content distribution often takes the form of videos—community meetings, core developer meetings, project demos, project overviews and reviews, token analyses and comments, etc. These activities often lack a secure "home" on traditional social media platforms—where content can be arbitrarily deleted at the content level, or worse, accounts can be banned.

Traditional social media platforms have incredible control, able to make changes at any time without the consent of individual creators, which is extremely detrimental to individual creators. Content surrounding permissionless new financial systems poses a threat to the status quo, so we need a "safe haven" unencumbered by Web2.

Many projects and DAOs still rely on tools like Google Meet and Zoom for calls and presentations, using YouTube to record and archive their calls for playback, and there are few dedicated content management sites to distribute this content outside of YouTube channels.

Opportunity: Build a Web3 Native Zoom

Huddle01 has made a great start. Using open standards like webRTC to support meetings, and utilizing Livepeer for streaming and recording content, it now offers a viable alternative to Zoom + Meet. However, to make this Web3 platform native, it has been upgraded—with features like anonymous wallet login, NFT PFP avatars, and a token access control system around who can join and view meetings. It truly embodies the native thinking of Web3, making it suitable as an echo chamber for rapidly growing Web3 projects.

Opportunity: Build a Web3 Native Video CMS for DAOs

After many projects hold calls, presentations, and meetings using conferencing and live-streaming tools, the next step is often to upload the recordings directly to YouTube. However, there is a significant opportunity to organize this content within the project's own "home" for easier access, searching, commenting, discussing, educating, and utilizing. In other words, what the Web3 world lacks is a video content management system (CMS) for DAOs. What other opportunities exist beyond traditional video CMS platforms?

• A token access control system can determine who can access content based on on-chain logic (such as NFTs or tokens held in a user's wallet). This is more accessible than obtaining permissions from large tech companies and embedding proprietary CRM technology in browsers.

• Crypto-native payments can immediately open monetization for users worldwide without needing to establish complex credit relationships through limited payment providers and banks.

• ENS and other on-chain identity supports allow users to bring their identity and reputation beyond this application and import existing identity features into more applications—rather than using Facebook account-based logins.

• Decentralized storage, streaming, and playback mechanisms provide independent infrastructure for these applications to ensure content persistence, rather than being subject to cloud platforms like Amazon and Google.

These and more opportunities are aimed at meeting the unique needs of the crypto ecosystem, with emerging tools like StreamETH already being used to organize and archive content from the Ethereum ecosystem.

Opportunity: Build a Curation/Management DAO for Web3-Centric Content

One often overlooked step in the early stages of Web3 social applications is content management. The homepage of a "decentralized YouTube" simply displays the most recently uploaded videos, and the chaotic content does not provide a good content experience for users.

I believe there should be a DAO that curates content based on clear guidelines. The initial vision for this mechanism is that the DAO is coordinated by a token, which will be distributed to those who successfully identify content, review content quality, and filter content by tagging types before harmful content appears, with tags including DeFi, NFT, token analysis, etc. This would greatly enhance the platform's ability to provide a good experience for users and retain new users.

III. Piecing Together a Killer Web3 Social Application

Being used and noticed by mainstream users is something that is difficult to perfectly plan in advance—it often requires the right timing, product vision, and a lot of luck. Therefore, the suggestions outlined below are merely my thoughts on how I hope to see a killer breakthrough application emerge.

• Start with tools. Build a content management system for DAOs and persuade them to use applications like Huddle01 to host their meeting records and distribute their content. Each DAO using it would receive a page listing all their historical videos, making them easy to navigate, discover, search, and include access control (or possibly creator monetization mechanisms). This would be useful for individual DAOs or isolated projects.

• Enable some value-added management for all user-generated content within this tool. Web3 content is often public by default—stored on decentralized networks and widely distributed. Start curating a homepage for the highest quality Web3 information across the ecosystem using the aforementioned curation DAO, including archives and categorizing as needed—DeFi, NFT, token analysis, etc. The model here is a video-specific Reddit—a Web3 homepage for the internet.

• Build an identity layer around the Web3 social network—based on wallets, identities, soulbound NFTs as user reputation. Users can interact with content across DAOs and communities, meaning that reputation portability is a sticky feature for building network effects around social applications.

• Consider creators. Creators will need a compelling reason to choose Web3 social media applications—content distribution to target audiences is more valuable than the uncontrollable content distribution in Web2 social, not to mention the other monetization and control advantages supported by Web3.

The above suggestions outline a path toward a Web3-centric YouTube/Reddit, but to truly capture mainstream user attention, it will depend on the project's innovation in product mechanisms, user experience, and incentive structures.