Can decentralisation save the web? Part one - the media

Part one of a three part deep-dive into why it may be our only hope to save ourselves from ourselves.

So much of the modern-day Internet is broken. For all the incredible knowledge and information it has spread to billions of people, right now it's hamstrung by misinformation, polarised debate, hate speech and more.

What's worse is we have given away our most powerful card in the deck to tackle this; our own data.

But the opportunity of a decentralised web could potentially turn the tables and return control back to those who truly own the experience.

There's so much to cover I will break this up into several posts to cover just some of the potential brewing with blockchain technology. First up, the media.

Summary: Just give me the facts!

• The web is broken - we've lost control of our data and tech giants own the Internet
• Can decentralisation & web3 truly democratise the web again?
• What are the existential crises media is facing?
• Web3 could give rise to new business models to ensure their survival

The modern day web is almost entirely controlled by big tech. Google, Meta, Microsoft & Amazon are involved in virtually every single interaction you have each and every day. Some are even labelling it as a hostile takeover of the web.

They are your window into the web, they control your attention across social media, they deliver most of your Internet services, and even control two-thirds of the architecture that deliver those services. And they do so with our data. The data they own after we willingly handed it over. Remember - if it's free, you are the product.

New companies who begin to buck this trend are usually subsumed by these tech giants. A few stand defiant, but most cave to the pressure of VCs looking for their big payoff for their investments.

Social media (also known as web2) initially felt like a watershed moment, changing our relationship with the web and even driving democratic uprisings against oppressive dictatorships. It was the beginning of the Arab Spring in 2009 that highlighted this turning point to my colleagues at SBS News, after our fledgling digital team used Twitter exclusively to cover the event once all international media was expelled from the country.

Sadly, as web2 exploded in popularity, those early days of information sharing and respectful debate quickly gave way to disinformation, abuse, and hate speech. The race to the bottom was on.

The rise of web3

You'll be hearing a lot more about web3 soon - which may lead you to ask 'what the hell was web1 & web2?' Easy fix - here's a quick Matrix style explanation here.

While it seems simple enough, web3 promises much more. A decentralised Internet is a democratised Internet. Everyone owns it, yet no-one owns it. And this mechanism brings enormous opportunity. When everyone is a stakeholder in the web, it brings with it an entirely new way to drive creativity, marketing & loyalty, digital ownership, payments, and much more.

Yes, this nascent technology has been beset by scandals, poor architecture & bad actors over the last couple of years. I've fallen victim to a couple myself; my friends and I have called this process 'Crypto University'. But when you understand the thesis and the tech, it's hard not to get excited by the possibilities.

Decentralised (and tokenised) media

As we enter an election year in the United States, the world is bracing itself for an onslaught of misinformation – supercharged by AI – that will make the Cambridge Analytica scandal feel like kindergarten. In fact it's already begun, with AI-created deep fake robocall impersonating US President Joe Biden urging voters in New Hampshire not to go to the polls. Trust in the media (particularly in the US) remains at an all-time low. While we live in a post-fact world (particularly after the Covid-19 Pandemic), web3 offers at least a partial solution.

Once data is written to a blockchain, it is immutable, uneditable, and verifiable. By housing content metadata on an official blockchain, people will know instantly if it's authentic based on where it is hosted. The very nature of this tech harbours huge potential for offical bodies (think governments, health bodies, manufacturers, ticketing companies, and other transactional exchanges). An immediate salve to deep-fakes, misinformation, and counterfeits. What people choose to believe, however, is another matter entirely.

New business models

It also allows for entirely new – and desperately needed – business models for media organisations, who are facing an existential threat that many will not survive. I wrote more about this in the context of AI in my first post here.

It's likely the organisations that will lead the way in this field will be entirely new entities that will build engagement & loyalty platforms through tokenised media, NFT-driven memberships & subscriptions or rewards programs.

Practising what they preach is NFTnow, a web3 publisher that literally puts its money where its mouth is. There are intentionally no banner ads on the site and, as such, no programmatic revenue. Instead co-founders Matt Medved & Alejandro Navia have decided to sell memberships via NFTs, giving their owners exclusive access to special content, events, and voting rights in deciding what issues are covered. It's a work-in-progress but one being watched closely across the industry.

The potential here is enormous, based around the ever growing niche media communities we are engaging with each and every day. These communities can drive entirely new governance & participation models, giving rise to a new wave of a strong, independent media that no longer relies on the attention economy; rejecting social media, clickbait, and an ad-model driven by the personal data of their audiences.

It's early and there's still a lot to work out (there will be failures) but the opportunities are too great to ignore.

Part two - the creator economy. Coming soon!

– Val