An executive from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) shared his expectations for various altcoins. He believes that Web3 in particular will bring solutions to the “headaches” and problems found in Web2-based social media platforms. Here are the details…
These altcoins could fix apps
Delivering a keynote at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC), a16z partner Sriram Krishnan shared a presentation explaining how Web3 can fix social media and consumer applications. Krishnan stressed that “the world of social media is stuck in a different era and things need to change.” The executive said that his goal in the presentation was to convince audiences that “now is the time to create large-scale crypto consumer social media marketplace apps.”
Krishnan, who has also worked with leading social media companies such as Meta and Twitter, highlighted some of the commonalities that modern social media platforms are currently working on. These include locking followers to a particular platform. “You can’t take them with you when you leave,” she said. In addition, social networking platforms have come to have limited or no API support, low economic benefits for creators, and not allowing users and creators to have a say in platform governance.
There are hopeful ways for Web3
Based on these issues, the manager believes there are promising avenues and opportunities for Web3 social platforms. These include targeting underserved communities and high-status individuals who do not have a voice on other platforms, and not focusing on financial incentives immediately. Contrary to popular approaches where Web3 is marketed as a way to pay creators more, the executive believes that another promising avenue that could lead to wider adoption is to avoid introducing financial incentives at the outset of building a social platform. He explains:
Social media dynamics are weird and complex. These are complex human dynamics, and I think it gets harder to map those dynamics when you get money involved.
What’s among the Web3 altcoins?
Krishnan also explained that the introduction of money immediately causes the focus on the monetary element, rather than just sharing for fun and bringing communities together. However, this does not mean that they should never introduce financial mechanisms. Krishnan emphasized that crypto projects ultimately have the power to promote the creative economy and give governance stakes to those who use their platform. The largest web3 cryptocurrencies by market cap include DOT, LINK, FIL, ICP and more. You can see the top 10 coins in the web3 space as follows:
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