Web 3 and the Rise of Small Media

Joon Ian Wong is the Founding co-president of the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers. He was formerly a Technology newsman for Quartz successful London wherever his interests included bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain. He began his vocation successful crypto arsenic 1 of the earliest reporters astatine CoinDesk, wherever helium helped motorboat Consensus.

You. Yes, you. Are you an existent human?

It’s not an wholly unreasonable question to inquire due to the fact that the likelihood of a quality speechmaking these words is astir 1 successful three. You see, two-thirds of postulation connected the net is comprised of bots, according to investigation by security vendor Barracuda Networks.

What are these bots doing? Many are cruising the web indexing web pages, making it easier to find content. Others are doing “bad bot” things similar trying to hack into sites. Yet much are clicking connected ads.

Joon Ian Wong hosts a podcast called "GMI Crypto Media" analyzing the improvement of media businesses successful crypto implicit the years.

It’s those ad-clicking bots that are a grounds of the occupation plaguing media today. Click fraud is profitable due to the fact that clicks make payouts from advertisement networks. But arsenic the measurement of postulation surges, the worth of each click falls. So the standard of postulation required to enactment existent journalism and publishing becomes ever larger.

The ad-fraud researcher Augustine Fou has a large illustration titled “Not Humans, Something Else.” It plots the full fig of net users successful the U.S. since 2004 against yearly integer advertisement spending. Ad walk rockets upwards and to the right, acold outpacing the fig of net users. To whom are advertisers showing each those ads? Probably bots.

What to bash astir each those bots speechmaking your cautiously crafted and edited articles? And, much importantly, however bash publishers get paid if bots siphon distant invaluable quality attraction and depress advertisement rates? Blockchains lick this – well, astatine slightest partially.

For blockchains to enactment astatine all, they person to lick the aforesaid occupation facing publishers trying to fig retired whether their assemblage is quality oregon robot: Sybil attacks. A Sybil onslaught is erstwhile a pseudonymous histrion spins up aggregate identities to overwhelm a network. The Bitcoin blockchain solves this by requiring nodes to wage a “tax connected individuality creation” without sacrificing pseudonymity, arsenic the authors of the fantabulous Princeton textbook “Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies” enactment it. This is Bitcoin’s celebrated “proof of work” Sybil-resistance mechanism.

Similarly, we tin ideate sprinkling immoderate Web 3, blockchain-enabled magic connected media models to make Sybil-resistant media. One of the simplest mechanisms for this is showing a scholar contented lone if they clasp immoderate token, oregon a sum of tokens, successful their crypto wallet.

This benignant of token-gated media exemplary doesn’t presume the benignant of token: FWB, which is not conscionable “SoHo House without the house,” but besides publishes respective streams of journalism, operates with a fungible FWB token. Meanwhile, a task similar Unlock Protocol offers token-gating down non-fungible tokens (NFT).

But due to the fact that tokens are needed to uncover contented means the taxation connected would-be Sybil attackers rises. What’s more, arsenic the steadfast gains popularity its token should emergence successful value, truthful levying a heavier taxation connected non-human readers. This aligns the interests of scholar and publisher, cutting retired the bot-enabled middlemen.

The conception of Sybil-resistant media isn’t conscionable a blockchain pipedream. More accepted media businesses (TradMedia?) are besides coming astir to the thought that tiny is better. Instead of the venture-capital backed wide audiences of yore — deliberation of task darling BuzzFeed (BZFD) and however its banal terms fell disconnected a cliff erstwhile nationalist markets could measure it. There’s present a lawsuit for smaller but much lucrative audiences.

This is the “primary engagement media,” which the expert Brian Morrissey has championed lately. Morrissey says publishers that follow this exemplary volition spell heavy and constrictive alternatively than wide and shallow. Crucially, this signifier of media volition besides beryllium sufficiently influential to get readers to bash worldly – whether that’s buying things from a publisher’s e-commerce level oregon re-upping a subscription.

The canonical illustration of superior engagement media done close is the "Not Boring" writer Packy McCormick, who, possibly predictably, has besides morphed into a crypto thought person and investor. He cultivates an assemblage done his newsletter, creates hugely influential sponsored deep-dives for that audience, and besides gets his readers to put successful his fund. That’s a batch of superior engagement for a solo operator. And you’re not precisely seeing BuzzFeed getting [liquidity providers] for its latest GameFi money from its readership.

What types of Sybil-resistant crypto media bash we person today? For starters, galore specified projects shy distant from utilizing the connection “media” astatine all. They mightiness telephone themselves decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), communities oregon immoderate different saltation of those words.

The aforementioned FWB is 1 example. Hold a definite equilibrium of FWB tokens and you get entree to its blistery events and in-the-know chat. But what’s little talked astir is its editorial division, which was 1 of the archetypal things the radical spun up, adjacent earlier its present legendary parties.

FWB editorial present comprises diagnostic stories successful the signifier of Works successful Progress, oregon WIP, ranging from “an oral past of Crypto Coven” to an extended metaphor connected however Alcoholics Anonymous is truly an 86-year-old DAO. It besides publishes a weekly newsletter called TL;DR, which is fundamentally a signifier of section journalism (you request 1 FWB to work it). Instead of journalists covering antithetic assemblage boards oregon municipality hallway meetings, writers sermon what went down connected the FWB Discord server’s warren of channels, threads and dependable chats.

Water and Music, founded by writer Cherie Hu, is different crypto media outfit that benefits from superior engagement. It co-writes probe reports with dozens of its assemblage members connected however exertion is changing the euphony industry, paying them successful its own STREAM token. (Disclosure: I advised Water and Music arsenic portion of my publication to the Seed Club accelerator.) You tin articulation the assemblage (read: Discord server) by paying a bully old-fashioned subscription, but past instrumentality portion successful things similar co-writing reports utilizing the token. Water & Music has 1,500 paying subscribers, and they’re mostly radical whose jobs are affected by tech successful music.

Forefront is different content-heavy task that eschews the “media” label, preferring alternatively to telephone itself a “port of entry” to Web 3. It publishes a podcast, hosts a information offering, and sends retired a play newsletter. Like Water & Music, it rewards contributors successful its FF token, and you go a assemblage subordinate by holding immoderate FF to statesman with.

While the Web 2 media satellite is inactive grappling with a displacement to reader-supported concern models, crypto media tin amusement the mode with Web 3-enabled features. It tin swap proprietary paywalls with universally readable wallets. It tin crook passive readers into progressive co-creators with token incentives. And it tin archer some the unfolding communicative of crypto media arsenic it is creating it themselves. I’d similar to spot a bot marque consciousness of that.