Ever since Gavin Wood came up with the idea of Web3 in 2014, the fate of Web3 social media in a decentralized and trustless web setup has remained a matter of speculation.
Will new-age social media apps be as crucial to the adoption and proliferation of Web3 as was the case with Web 2.0? Only time will tell!
For now, let’s check out these Web3 social media apps that can are giving Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and other popular Web2 social media platforms a run for their money.
Odysee – YouTube’s “Freewheeling” Successor
Tooted as the best Web3 social media platform alternative to the Web2.0 video streaming platform YouTube, Odysee is an open-source video-sharing app with 8.7 million active users. The platform evolved from LBR.TV and is built on LBRY’s blockchain-based content-sharing ecosystem.
Unlike YouTube, Odysee puts the power in the hands of its creators and users. This means the ability to monetize content without having a set number of subscribers. On the other hand, viewers have the freedom to skip ads and pay as many Lbry coins as they think the video deserves.
And in all fairness, given the value-based transactional nature of the platform, this is a justifiable arrangement. In addition to the freedom, Odyssey’s community guidelines are a far cry from the content censorship platforms like YouTube and Twitter abide by.
You still can’t publish videos that promote terrorism or hate speech. Nonetheless, Odysee gives you every leeway to get creative with the content you publish. As founder and CEO Jeremy Kauffman explains, Odysee is built to be a platform where “everyone can have a voice.” And by the looks of it, it is set on the right path.
Mastodon: A New Way of “Tooting” Your Horn
Defined as “the largest decentralized social network,” Mastodon is a Web3 social media platform that is a collection of millions of blockchain-based communities. It boasts state-of-the-art microblogging functionality. You could call it a Twitter alternative, but Mastodon can house any self-hosted social media platform.
You can exchange 500-character messages called “toots,” photos, and videos with other users. Mastodon models its features after Twitter, adding the capability to retweet or “boost” a toot, display warning signs for sensitive content, etc.
And the platform is ad-free so far. So you don’t have to worry about corporate interference while sharing personal content or endure a barrage of targeted marketing-driven ads. It offers better privacy than Twitter, and thanks to forking, you can expect each Mastodon community to abide by its own set of rules.
Mastodon also automatically deletes old toots, keeping your feed clean always. You can choose to opt out of search engine indexing if you wish to. So, if you do not wish for your toots to be searchable, you can do that too.
Supernovas: The Coolest NFT Marketplace for Creators
Supernovas is a decentralized marketplace and Web3 social media platform for trading NFTs. Like Instagram, it has a feed, DM, likes, and comments. Not to mention a marketplace to make NFT trading a breeze for creators and customers alike.
The deal with Supernovas is that creators can collect incentives based on the value their NFTs generate on the platform. Collectors, meanwhile, can mint NFTs hosted on the DeSo, Solana, and/or ETH blockchains.
What makes Supernovas such a unique alternative to Instagram is the freedom that creators have in trading their NFTs. It is decentralized and supervised by the overarching DeSo protocol. Consequently, Supernovas won’t suddenly reach down on any of the creator accounts and cause them to lose everything.
So, your account and data are safe from the get-go on this Web3 social media platform.
However, the standout feature of Supernovas is that it allows for gasless minting, meaning you can mint your NFT without paying the blockchain. So even the most nascent creators can sell easily on the decentralized social media platform.
That’s autonomy and authority, unlike any Web2 social platform!
Niche: A Web3 Social Media Platform that Gives Creators Their Freedom
Like most Web3 social media apps, Niche, too, is a decentralized social media platform that allows community users and creators to trade in content. And that could be anything, from videos to NFTs.
Niche is a Web3 social media platform that also sells its ‘club memberships‘ or what is equivalent to holding an account on Meta or Instagram as an NFT. So you become a part of a larger community with no singular ownership of any sort. That also implies that Niche does not own or sell your data to big conglomerates.
Once you’re a Niche club member, your content and data live forever on its blockchain.
Hosted on the NEAR blockchain, any content you create, buy, or sell on Niche is safe and secure.
Niche is also one of the rare Web3 social media apps with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. That’s a big selling point because most Web3 apps suffer from poor UI/UX.
Can it replace Meta in the coming days? It has the potential to, but nascent Web3 adoption may not work in its favor.
The Questions Around Web3 Social Apps
A major problem that continues to plague Web3 and apps associated with it is the lack of awareness. In addition, since Web3 apps do not have the best user interface, it currently dissuades even hardcore social media users from trying them out.
On top of it, most Web3 social app developers need to address the question of revenue generation. What will be their chosen way of monetization once the platforms take off? Will the sudden inclusion of ads take away from their free-to-use appeal?
Meanwhile, there’s a bigger existential question that Web3 social media apps need to answer. An obvious pitfall of Web3 apps is that it puts creators and users at the center of their existence.
Giving people autonomy and authority over their content sounds all hunky-dory until you realize that just about anyone could use it to their advantage. This poses a burden of responsibility that some users may not be well equipped to handle.
When you allow just about anyone to create content, you make space for naysayers to develop and propagate their content too.
Conclusion
In its quest to put power in the hands of the people; will Web3 social media apps end up feeling the heat?
Or, will a decentralized setup spur a social media revolution that all content creators are waiting for?
Will Web3 apps take over centralized and highly-regulated Web2 social media platforms? The jury is still out on that. So, We’ll have to wait and see!