The Ownership Economy and Why It Matters: Web3 101

December 23, 2021

The Ownership Economy doesn’t always mean a literal distribution of tokens, stock options, or equity. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that an application or service is entirely built on a blockchain.

Rather, it means that ownership — which may manifest in the form of novel economic rewards, platform governance, or new forms of Social Capital — can be a new keystone of User Experiences, with plenty of design space to explore.

The top-earning writer on the paid newsletter platform Substack earns more than $500,000 a year from reader subscriptions.

The top content creator on Podia (referral bonus), a platform for video courses and digital memberships, makes more than $100,000 a month.

And teachers across the US are bringing in thousands of dollars a month teaching live, virtual classes on Outschool (referral bonus) and Maven.

Whereas previously, the biggest online labor marketplaces flattened the individuality of workers, new platforms allow anyone to monetize unique skills.

Gig work isn’t going anywhere—but there are now more ways to capitalize on creativity.

Creators can now build audiences at scale and turn their passions into livelihoods, whether that’s playing video games or producing video content.

This has huge implications for entrepreneurship and what we’ll think of as a “Job” in the future!

The Ownership Economy ("Creator Economy"):

The Ownership Economy: Crypto & The Next Frontier of Consumer Software | Variant Fund

New digital platforms enable people to earn a livelihood in a way that highlights their individuality. These platforms give providers greater ability to build customer relationships, increased support in growing their businesses, and better tools for differentiating themselves from the competition.

In the process, they’re fueling a new model of internet-powered entrepreneurship.

It’s akin to the dynamic between Amazon—the standardized, mass-produced monolith—and the indie-focused Shopify, which allows users to form direct relationships with customers. That shift is already evident in marketplaces for physical products; it’s now extending into services. 

These new platforms share a few commonalities:

  1. They’re accessible to everyone, not only existing businesses and professionals

  2. They view individuality as a feature, not a bug

  3. They focus on digital products and virtual services

  4. They provide holistic tools to grow and operate a business

  5. They open doors to new forms of work

Web3: What It Is And Why It Matters:

Web3 Education Landscape | Medium

Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are talking about ‘Web3’ – here’s what it is and why it matters...

Others Say The Creator Economy is Overhyped

What About NFTs?

Adidas Originals will launch its first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as it dives into Web 3 and the Metaverse.

Of course, this is going to be a commercial part of the Metaverse, where companies use NFTs — which use the transparency and security of the digital ledger of blockchain to authenticate unique digital items — to market both digital and physical products.

The Adidas Originals collection is inspired by and presented in partnership with NFT leaders such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney, and the team behind the Punks Comic.

The NFTs are on sale today, and buyers will receive exclusive access to Adidas Originals experiences and products.

*UPDATE*

Adidas has arrived in the Metaverse, strutting into the digital frontier in the form of a Bored Ape avatar clad in banana yellow Firebird tracksuit, a matching bucket hat, and a set of heart-shaped glasses resting over its disinterested eyes. The non-fungible token, which Adidas now owns, sold in September for 46 ETH (around $156,000 at the time), according to data on OpenSea.

Melania Trump has become the latest celebrity to try and cash in on the craze for non-fungible tokens. Trump is latest in lineup of celebrities to dabble in crypto. The former First Lady’s token will run on the Solana blockchain.

But, she's not alone!

Legendary former professional basketball player Michael Jordan and his son Jeffrey Jordan have revealed they are getting into blockchain and Web 3.0 technology.

The father and son duo’s first tech venture is called Heir Inc., a platform that aims to connect loyal fans with popular athletes.

Furthermore, Jordan’s tech platform aims to launch a token called “heir” built [also] on the Solana blockchain.

Last Friday, Dom Hofmann tweeted the launch of Loot, one of his new projects looking at games and game creation through the lens of NFTs:

More Creator Economy News:

The Creator Economy Landscape | CB Insights

How can you anticipate the content people want before they want it?

How do you figure out where your audience lives online and what they like?

What is a Creator, after all?

New Creator Economy Tools:

Google has rolled out a U.S. beta launch of Qaya, a platform that helps creators develop web storefronts to sell their products and services for Creators in the Creator Economy.

The New App Deeply Connects Creators and Followers Via Subtext’s Powerful Messaging Capabilities.

“Subtext’s new app is adding a very valuable service to Koji’s current roster of apps, enabling creators to own a new premium channel directly to their top followers. Followers can visit a creator’s Link in Bio and immediately sign up for their Subtext messaging service without ever leaving their page, keeping the focus on the creator and their content,” said Grant Long, Head of Growth at Koji.

“We hope this will make creators’ Subtext subscriber growth faster and easier to promote than ever.”

Meta (formerly Facebook) today is introducing a new “Professional” mode for user profiles, designed to be used by Creators looking to monetize their followings on the social network.

The new mode, which is initially available to select Creators in the U.S.

Last Minute Creator Economy Headlines:

Take a moment to reflect on the stories you told, the milestones you reached, and the memories you created this year.

While 2021 has kept us guessing, Creators around the world gave us meaningful stories to find comfort and community in no matter what. This time of year serves as a reminder for how far you’ve come as a Creator —from the big accomplishments to the little surprises. On that note, we’re thrilled to bring you your 2021 Spotify Podcaster Wrapped.

Pandium, a fascinating kind of app-marketplace-as-a-service company, released a State of Product Integrations at the SaaS 1000 report this week.

They examined integrations, public APIs, and “app centers” offered by the 1,000 fastest growing SaaS companies from 2019 to Today.

YouTuber MrBeast has 71.6 million subscribers and is rumored to make $24 million a year.

That’s pretty jaw-dropping, to be sure.

But what about everyone else?

For the first several years of Stratechery I would write a year end article about “The State of Consumer Technology”; the last one I wrote, though, was awhile ago, because consumer technology, dominated as it was by Apple and Google on the device side, and Google and Facebook on the services side.