Why The Creators Economy May Never Be Completely Decentralised.
You may have heard the following phrases on your timeline;
NFTs, Web3, Crypto, Decentralisation, Creator Economy, DAO, and more…
But what does it mean?
Unfortunately, this is not the article that describes each of the topic above. (Let me know if you would like that)
Instead, this article targets individuals who have a working understanding of this space.
I want to discuss the following concept and delve into the reasons why we may never be decentralised, ever.
Firstly, for contextual reasons, I want to highlight how we even got to this topic and why the topic is now becoming a mainstream phenomenon.
Let’s take it back, back to 1996.
A man, who you all know as Bill Gates, published a classical text titled ‘Content is King’, which you can all read here. In this introductory text, he describes the characteristics of the internet. In which he says:
“(1) Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the internet, just as it was in broadcasting. (2) One of the exciting things about the internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they create.”
The passage above is what most people believe is the provenance of the creators economy. A modern-day adage used to cement the importance of the internet, and how it may one-day revolutionise the future of our economy.
An economy where creators will be able to use the internet to showcase their creation without the need of having ‘Murdoch’ as their last name.
But today, we see the creators economy as something more significant than what we initially intended it to be.
Don’t get me wrong. Bill Gates was right about the creators economy. But what he failed to mention was the humungous societal shift in the working economy as a whole.
Today, millions of people are now making an entire living on the internet, and it’s safe to say that nobody had anticipated the calamity of this revolution.
But before I digress, let’s get back to the topic at hand, which is:
Could the creators economy ever be completely decentralised?
Personally, I would argue no.
Let’s use this quick anecdote.
OpenSea.
OpenSea = Centralised marketplace that sells NFTs
NFTs = Decentralised non-fungible tokens
OpenSea is valued at $13.3 Billion with a recent $300m funding round. Let’s assume the company shares are diluted (which tends to be the case all the time). This will equate to the company essentially being owned by a venture capital firm.
Why is this important?
If OpenSea operates as a centralised platform and uses its platform to sell decentralised assets, then ultimately, the assets aren’t decentralised.
Hear me out…
Suppose the board of directors wake up one day and ultimately decides to change the entire value proposition of OpenSea into a 14-minute grocery delivery service. In that case, eventually, the creators of those NFTs will no longer have a platform to sell on. This will equivocally mean their sense of decentralisation is dependent on that one platform to remain the same.
And if you argue back by saying ‘The asset is still decentralised regardless of where you sell it on’ — then you are right. But, I have a counter-argument to that statement, which is, what is the benefit of owning a decentralised asset that can’t be sold anywhere?
The only way NFT creators can really be decentralised is if they operate and sell their art through a DAO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation), or they own the entire infrastructure themselves, with no platform help. Meaning they create their own marketplace using blockchain technology, own community through discord, and only uses Web2 platforms to promote/build their brand.
The entire notion of decentralisation sounds good on paper. However, I firmly believe larger companies will eventually clock the game and find ways to make it centralised which equates to them having content ownership rights. The companies that will be leading this would be; Meta (Originally Facebook) and Block (originally Square), Microsoft, and a handful of others.
Another aspect of decentralisation is the creators economy.
There is an optimistic article circling the inter-web at the moment. Without going into details about what/who the article is about.
The article’s central premise is that creators will have complete ownership of their content, the platform it is published on, and the data/monetary benefits, etc.
I strongly disagree this will be the case. Let me explain why;
Firstly, the bar for entry is extremely difficult to enter.
We need to remember that the majority of users on the internet are non-technical individuals. Not everyone knows what blockchain technology is. And not everyone has the determination or the drive to think about decentralising their platform, let alone understand what decentralisation is.
Secondly, there will always be the Shopify of something…
No-code, low-tech, easy-to-build — these are the new buzz words that are taking the digital world by storm.
Everyone wants things quickly and easy.
Want to build a website? — Use a WIX template and build one in less than an hour.
Want to build an online shop? — Use Shopify and run a successful e-commerce business in less than 30-days.
These are quick and easy ways to build businesses today, so why should someone take on the laborious task and learn about how it all works when they can use a Shopify-style builder for Web3 companies. Quick disclaimer — There are several VC backed companies claiming to be the Shopify of Web3 companies.
And if there is a rise of centralised ‘build-your-own web3 companies’ emerging, is it really decentralised?
Lastly and most importantly, the excessive digital noise will be incomprehensible.
Imagine yourself as a content consumer visiting different platforms to get your daily dose of content from your favourite creator. It sounds like an exhausting task, right? now imagine having to pay for that content each time? (The price would be what the creator perceives the value of the asset to be worth) Would you pay $1000 for a 10-minute video or $25,000 for a blog?
You wouldn’t right? — Disclaimer: this isn’t even mentioning those without an audience.
My point isn’t to bash the concept of decentralisation.
However, we are not kids anymore. We know how the internet works. This isn’t a new concept that we are all getting to grips with. Personally, I think the notion of decentralising content is a way to live vicariously through the web 1.0 epoch. In other words, nostalgia.
For more thought-pieces like this, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, as I actively tweet about the Web3 space.
Also, please support me by either commenting/clapping if you found this article useful.
Please remember this is still a premature space — the information I use today, may be expanded on tomorrow with new sources of data, etc. So please take it with a grain of salt.
