Shoshana Zuboff has written extensively about the extractive nature of big tech platforms for profit and growth in her seminal text about about surveillance capitalism, but we are still yet to see any major alternatives that have attempted to remedy this social dilemma with more equitable solutions. Sites like Patreon and Onlyfans have made a step in the right direction towards addressing this, but they are specifically tailored for niche content creators, and don't have the same sense of user experience similar to the popular social media networks (Facebook, Ig, Twitter et al) that allow us to create connections with almost anyone and everyone. All the hype around web3 has mainly been focused on NFTs and their potential to build digital communities, but not enough attention is being given towards innovating new social media networks that can leverage decentralised technology to enable true community ownership. The only social media platform I have heard of thus far using blockchain-based technology is called "Steemit". On its platform users can earn cryptocurrency, STEEM, for publishing and curating content.
More recently, last year in March, Meta announced that it would be introducing Digital Collectibles to Showcase NFTs on Instagram - the feature will enable users to connect a digital wallet, share digital collectibles and automatically tag the creator and collector. Furthermore, there will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on Instagram. Later in September, they announced that everyone on Facebook and Instagram in the US can now connect their wallets and share their digital collectibles. With that being said, business will still remain as usual in all other aspects on the platform, so only NFT creators really stand to gain from this new feature.
A lot more can still be done to enable users to monetise their content, and to create new features that allow them to own their audience and the data associated with it. Much has been written and discussed about how a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO) could potentially help facilitate this type of functionality within a network, but we are yet to see one that has done this successfully because folks are still trying to use a flawed token based governance approach to creating these types of DAOs. Add to that, endless regulatory red tape in the US has stifled any type of progressive innovation in this area. An alternative path towards achieving this goal clearly lies in creating a completely different model for decentralised community ownership that doesn't rely on the aforementioned flawed approach. This is where platform cooperatives come into the picture. The Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society published a great research paper about grounding decentralised technologies in cooperative principles: which offers some food for thought in finding a practical solution for this issue.
The famous saying by Joe Pullizi about 'never building your house on rented land' highlights a major flaw with building an audience on most social media platforms, but despite this, there is still a need for a centralised media platform that can offer users easy to use backend web3 tools and services for them to build their "houses" on it in such a way that they maintain full ownership of their audience, and the data generated by it. This is what the Rally Network sort of tried to start working towards, but is unfortunately struggling to scale at with ease. Their business model is purely focused on helping creators and their communities build their own independent digital economies by only offering "Crypto for Creative Communities", and not actually providing tools that enable users to build their own network within a bigger one. Web2 sites like Webflow, Wix, and Squarespace have been able to do this with great success, but don't have a social networking aspect built in to their platforms so there is still a huge gap for innovation in this regard that can hybridize all these functionalities.
Following a disappointing experience with launching his own social token ($tilt coin) on the Rally Network, Pullizi is still bullish about web3 for the creator economy, and recently stated that #Web3 tokenisation could potentially be at the top of the subscriber hierarchy, and leveraged as a business model for content creators:
The piece below by Jeff Kauffman Jr. about web3 enabled community ownership and cooperatives: How They Work and Why They Matter, does a great job providing a practical approach and framework for how these new models can begin to take shape.
A cooperative is a legal entity that gives its owners rights to governance, profits, and liquidation value, while also limiting their liability for the debts of the business. (If structured properly, cooperatives offer a novel approach for unleashing the power of tokens to track and distribute ownership in a legally compliant way).
For those that have tracked web3 projects closely, you are familiar with tokens representing governance and voting rights.
Missing from this equation though is a value stake in core assets in the form of profits, true equity ownership, or the liquidation value that could come from selling a business.
Compliant ownership is the greatest advantage that cooperatives can bring to the web3 space, which in turn, unlocks access to high value ownership such as profits and liquidation value.
It is worth noting that tokens and web3 fundamentals are not required to pursue this model. Given that, any brand or startup could begin laying the foundation for this in a meaningful way today.
What web3 and tokens offer is the ability to scale the cooperative model in a way that is absolutely not feasible in anyway without the use of blockchain technology. Not to mention the transparency that is inherently baked into a public ledger.
A 7 step guide and model for community ownership
One of the most effective approaches involves holding or consolidating the productive assets of the project under a parent company and allowing a cooperative to join the cap table.
1) Consolidate productive assets for existing projects.
This involves bringing all assets, including those controlled by governance tokens and those held by a corporation or other entity, under a single parent company or subsidiary.
2) Form a cooperative and join the parent company's cap table.
Create governing documents that outline membership requirements, voting procedures, board composition, and other details.
3) Invite users to join the cooperative.
Potential members should meet certain conditions, such as owning NFTs or tokens issued by the project, verifying their identity, and actively participating in the project. The cooperative can continue to add members after the initial group joins.
4) Determine how to treat previously issued tokens.
Utility tokens or digital collectibles can remain in use, but some projects may impose reasonable restrictions on their transfer to take advantage of SEC precedents that might not view them as securities.
5) Join the parent company's cap table.
The primary ways a cooperative can acquire equity in the parent company are by providing services in exchange for stock or purchasing it from builders, investors, or the parent company using funds from memberships, retained earnings, etc.
6) Participate in parent company governance and economics.
Members should have access to the profits and governance of the business on equal footing with builders and investors. Profits may be distributed to the cooperative in proportion to its equity interest in the parent company, or as otherwise agreed upon. Profits are generally tax-deductible to the cooperative and taxable to members who receive them.
7) Exit.
When the user network is strong and the valuation of the project is high enough, builders and investors can maintain control of the business through their equity in the parent company until it is time for a successful exit. Users can gain increasing control as the network grows and the cooperative earns or buys more equity in the parent company.
Benefits of the cooperative model:
The benefits of using cooperatives in web3 projects are clear: they align incentives, amplify growth, and provide a compliant solution for distributed ownership. The future is bright for brand builders who can push the boundaries of value creation through community ownership.
And lastly, the white paper we have all been waiting for: Cooperatives - An ownership model for digital networks
Source: https://www.jumpnews.xyz/
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