If you spend any amount of time on the internet -which you probably do- you must have come across the words “bitcoin,” “crypto,” and “blockchain.” These words aren’t just part of the tech-savvy vernacular anymore. They’ve become part of our daily lives. If you are still not sure what these words really mean, you’ve come to the right place. This is not a Blockchain for dummies post, but let’s get you settled on the concept step by step!
What Exactly is Blockchain Technology?
Before we start on what Blockchain technology is, you must get familiar with what web3 (or web 3.0) is. The web, as we know, consists of layers. The first layer, web 1.0, is basically the system that was created in the 1970s to send emails and documents. This first layer of the internet started out as a military technology and was financed by the American government and army before being made available to the general public for free. As technology progressed, we were introduced to web 2.0 in the 1990s.
New platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google were launched. These centralized platforms offered a wider range of services to users. However, unlike web 1.0, these new platforms sought profit (by advertisement). To do that, they collected the data created by user activity as well as some of the user’s personal data. The concept of web 3.0 appeared as an alternative to the centralization of the Internet.
Initially introduced by the proponents of privacy, Web 3.0 is based on the concept of open internet and uses blockchain technology to make this possible. To explain it simply, this new technology allows us to store information in a decentralized and open ledger. This decentralization originally aimed to break the grip of tech giants over the data by making the internet more transparent. Of course, the transparency of data is balanced with encryption to protect user privacy.
Blockchain & Crypto
When you are buying your morning coffee from the shop around the corner, you either pay in cash (the fiat money issued and backed by the state) or with a credit card (where the bank stands as the trustee between you and the coffee shop). Basically, money is a game of trust. The receiving party needs to know that the piece of paper or the digits on their bank app will hold value. Crypto proposes an alternative to this system that requires intermediaries to establish trust between parties.
Crypto is the name given to coins or tokens that are based on blockchain. Blockchain’s decentralized mechanics allows us to build systems so open and hard to fool that they might, theoretically, enable us to get rid of the intermediaries when exchanging value. The first and most famous example of crypto is Bitcoin.
What is Blockchain Technology, with an example please?
I hear you asking what crypto is good for. Well, mainly, any operation. For example, remittances. Yes! Wiring money internationally requires a SWIFT transaction. Money goes from one account to another by going through multiple banks. This is a lengthy and costly process.
How does crypto help remittances? Crypto allows users to send tokens directly to each other without intermediaries. The transaction is recorded on the blockchain’s open ledger for everyone to see. These transactions are much faster though they are not free. The sending party is still required to pay a fee called the “gas fee”. This is the cost of writing the transaction on the blockchain’s open ledger. Depending on the crypto the users send each other, the gas fee can vary greatly.
Blockchain Social Media Platforms: Is Decentralized Social Media The Future?
The decentralization trend quickly expanded into other realms thanks to blockchain projects. One example is blockchain-integrated social media.
This trend originally started with the appearance of NFTs. Digital tokens are registered on the blockchain and often associated with a visual image. NFTs use blockchain to validate the originality of artworks. As such, they allowed the art market to become more accessible and enabled more creators and collectors to join by eliminating the need to go through galleries or other intermediaries that are used to validate the originality of artworks. Also known as crypto art, this market spearheaded a whole new trend. Crypto art was soon followed by the NFT collectibles market.
These tokens are akin to physical collector’s items such as sports cards, but they also grant access to NFT-gated communities (meaning forums where you gain access by buying a specific token). As NFTs became more omnipresent, people sought bragging rights. This was created on existing social media platforms to integrate NFTs in some shape or form.
But the integration of blockchain and social media has a lot more to offer. For instance, web 3.0 platforms like Snapmuse.io take the lead in revolutionizing the social media experience of millions by using blockchain.
How does it work? Following the web 3.0 approach of breaking down the barriers between individuals, Snapmuse.io, the community-focused web 3.0 platform, breaks down the barriers between creators and fans. This platform lets the content creators create a digital collection called CreatorPasses and share a part of its revenue with their community by giving rewards to their fans. Why? By doing this, the company makes it possible for creators to access the funding they need to supercharge their channel’s growth without leaning on any intermediaries and by relying only on their fans.
What is more, the platform is not only worthwhile for creators! Fans are also an essential part of this picture. In a very web 3.0 manner, this tool brings the power back to the users. By buying CreatorPasses and becoming a collector on the platform, users can build real connections and create real impact. They have access to rewards and benefits offered by their favorite creators, such as a holders-only Discord channel, merchandise, and more.
In addition to that, collectors can claim SMX tokens, which is the native utility token of the Snapmuse.io ecosystem, at a discounted price based on the collected channel’s performance and can swap them for a token of their choice. More importantly, since this token is based on real value, the tokens you will hold in your wallet will also have real-life value. If you wish to do so, you will be able to swap your SMX tokens for dollars and visit that coffee shop around the corner again. All that decentralization actually works.
See? Blockchain is, in fact, not hard to understand at all! Although it feels like echoes from another universe at the beginning, it is, in fact, as easy as any purchase, and even more importantly, it is emancipating you from the tech giants while giving back the power to your hands as a user.
So now that you know what web 3.0 is and how it works, are you ready to explore and take your place in the social media revolution?