In the Era of Web3.0，Where is the Future of the Creator Economy？

2022-03-08, 01:44

【TL; DR】

1. In the era of web 2.0, the main players in the creator economy are still large companies and platforms, which hold the ownership of content.
2. The platform holds most of the decision-making power, the decision-making is opaque, and the income mainly comes from advertising. These characteristics greatly limit the content creation.
3. DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is likely to become the key to the creator's economy in the era of Web3.0, which is determined by the natural attribute of DAO.
4. DAO is the best foundation to carry the creator economy, and the development of DAO is also birthing a new creator economy.

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Many years ago, Bill Gates published an article that later became a classic of the early Internet. In this article, Gates described the basic characteristics of the Internet: "anyone who has a networked computer can publish any content they create on the Internet." However, 26 years after the release of Bill Gates's "content is king", in fact, it is still difficult for content creators to earn decent income through content monetization. There is nothing wrong with Gates's argument that content is king, but in the era of web 2.0, most of the benefits brought by the creator's works were taken away by the large platform. Obviously, this is not conducive to the formation of a good creative atmosphere. So in the era of web 3.0, how will the creator economy develop?

Web3. 0 and Creator Economy

In the era of web 2.0, the main body of the creator economy is still large companies and platforms, which hold the ownership of content. This kind of content platform developed by large companies is divided into two parts: client and server. The client refers to the front-end software running on the user's computer, which is used to display text and images. The server refers to the back-end process, such as presenting update pages, interacting with the database, etc. As a result, the content creation of creators is a limited and painfully centralized platform.

This business model relies heavily on the closed network. The platform holds most of the decision-making power, the decision-making is opaque, and the revenue mainly comes from advertising. These characteristics greatly limit the content creation. The Internet should not become a tool for collecting money and a weapon of privilege for some large institutions, but should be used equally by people all over the world as an open and efficient public product. Since Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper, we see that it is possible to build a decentralized system. People are also calling for the establishment of a truly decentralized content platform and a decentralized system penetrating all fields.

So, how to break the original business model and make the creator economy in the era of Web3.0 to start a new chapter?

The Future of Creator Economy -- Dao

DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) is likely to become the key to the creator's economy in the era of Web3.0. You can understand DAO as a shared ownership structure and as an Internet community with bank accounts. In this community, all proposals are voted by the token owner. This makes DAO more democratic, fair and transparent than traditional enterprises and other organizations. DAO is also more secure and will not be controlled by a single individual. The core of DAO is to use blockchain technology to realize the automation and decentralization of organizational management. Through the pre-created smart contract, we can use value incentive to promote organizational members to make active contributions, making organizational management an "automated" process without center.

It can be said that DAO is the best foundation to carry the creator economy, and the development of Dao also gives birth to a new creator economy. With the help of DAO, people of different ages and industries in different regions can gather together for creation and communication, and content creators do not have to follow the rules and regulations formulated by centralized organizations when creating, so as to truly create an atmosphere of free creation.

As we all know, on the content platform in the era of web 2.0, creators are limited everywhere because whether their works can be exposed, attract traffic and realize all depend on the platform and capital. In order to make a living, creators have to choose to accept the "unequal agreement" signed between the platform and individual creators. So, how should DAO solve the problem of income distribution after eliminating the centralized platform?

The answer is community tokens. In the crypto economy under web3.0, the community tokens issued by DAO can naturally support the creation of excellent creators. By issuing community tokens, community members gain governance rights. In DAO, there is no external capital, and all decisions are voted by all members of the community. Among these DAO creators, everyone is involved in the creation, distribution and consumption of content. Those excellent and popular works and their creators can naturally get corresponding benefits. An able man can get more money, which is a very simple economic logic. This will undoubtedly greatly encourage creators, and truly achieve transparency and fairness. The future of the creators' economy will move in the direction of DAO.

Conclusion

Since 2021, the creator economy and related DAO have attracted a lot of attention through Web3.0, the creator's economy is developing rapidly, but it should be noted that the future of the creator's economy is not all rosy. It can be predicted that the future discussion and various disputes about the creator's economy are inevitable. For example, the ownership of creative content under the scope of law, the boundary between the commodity attribute and social attribute of content creation, the relationship between the subjectivity of creators and the objectivity of creative content, and the balance between decentralization and centralization. Therefore, where will the future of the creator economy go? Is the future of the creator economy to subvert the old business model and open up Pandora's box in the era of Web3.0, or to become a short-lived digital Utopia? Let’s keep an eye on it!

Author: Gate.io Researcher：Ashley H. Translator: Joy Z.
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