New ways to collaborate, distribute values, and preserve your identity.
The media loves to write about Crypto and Blockchain during the day, but the dissemination is often one-sided and not very beneficial for the technology. No one is now in doubt that this technology in its current form is being abused by criminals, has high energy consumption, and opens up for speculation on crypto-value.
Still, there is a whole world of possibilities that are often left out. Blockchain technology has kick-started a number of trends, and I want to explore these trends from a business and product development perspective.
Blockchain – Trends and new Business Models
The trends below play well together and form the basis for Web 3.0 – a new way of price dialogue and delivery. These will bring some changes to the existing business model in the future and it will be important to keep an eye on them.
1. Taking a Token
The first trend I want to mention is that we distribute value: a token. Tokens are a way of representing something digital – the time and attention of an object, property, or person.
Tokens can be unique (non-fungible tokens), such as a specific item, such as a car with a specific car number, or a cinema ticket with a specific location. These tokens can only be one of them and cannot be broken into smaller pieces. The tokens can also be the same, for example, 1 Norwegian krone, which is always equal in value and can be divided into smaller pieces – øre.
You will find tokens everywhere in the world of blockchain. Ether and cryptocurrency are examples of tokens that already exist on the blockchain. But the potential is limitless – physical or digital assets, a right, and identity are just a few examples. Tokens can be exchanged for each other or other values and services and in this way a separate commercial ecosystem is formed.
2. Data Ownership Changes
Another trend that is now growing rapidly is a change that owns data. Today’s Internet is highly monopolized and dominated by private players. Users have no control over what has been collected about them and how this data is used. Today, companies collect and own most of the data, but in the future, it will become more and more common for the user to keep, store and control their data. The entrance can also be withdrawn in the event of mistrust.
With this change, today’s business models have quickly become outdated, as the focus shifts from the organization to the other person. Companies are required to build new products based on “borrowed” data, often with zero-knowledge evidence below. These products have to find a balance between revenue for the company and value for users. It will be easier for users to bring in their data and switch to a competitor if the balance gets too low or the user sees signs of abuse.
On the way to full implementation of this trend, the most conscious users have already had the opportunity to protect themselves against too much data collection. Today, both are search engines (eg: Startpage, DuckDuckGo) and browsers (ex: Tenta, Brave, Tor) that provide users with high security and security with anonymity online.
3. Fair Business Model
With access to multiple users, some organizations become accumulators of user data and market insights. Their function would then be to mediate communication with the user (for example news and advertising) or to act as a data marketer, that is, selling data about their users. These can both generate good revenue for these companies and provide low value for users who have provided their data. We have great confidence in Norwegian players and the Norwegian market, but the Internet has no boundaries and what applies to Norway does not necessarily apply to the rest of the world.
Blockchain, with the option of micropayments in crypto/tokens, makes it possible to reward users for sharing their data or spending their time and attention. Today, it is organizations that benefit from showing advertisements, but in the future, the user will also receive a share of the payment. The Bat – Basic Token Integrated Token in the Token Browser is an example of such a reward.
In addition to advertising, users may be paid by headhunters to interact, receive spam, or choose to sell their data on the computer marketplace (ex: date, Gibson, streamer). It would be easier to pay to create value and produce content such as blogs, videos, pictures, etc., which are distributed on particular platforms (eg: Opus, CingularDTV, Everpedia).
4. Integrated Payments
It is relatively easy to integrate payments into crypto and tokens in web solutions. And it is also free to offer companies direct payment in crypto, there is no need to share the percentage of transactions with external payment services. The challenge and the reason why more systems do not use it today is that there are very few people who are crypto for P2P and escrow payments, and the value of cryptocurrency is very volatile.
There are now several versions of “stable coins” – cryptocurrencies that hold a constant value over time. The value of some of these is tied to traditional currency / fiat-like. USD, EUR, or NOK. It is easy to see that static coins play a key role in being able to offer secure payment for web systems and increase user adoption of blockchain.
5. Global decentralized identification
Today there are many services where you can log in with an account from social media, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The need is absolutely real – you do not want to create hundreds of accounts, one for each service you use online. The challenge is that now it is social media that controls the entrance to your identity on external services. If one of these media is shut down, or blocks your account, you will be banned from all services where you used social media as a login or will have to spend time reconfiguring them to another login method.
Today, there are several initiatives within global decentralized identity. It is the user himself who becomes the owner of the identity, and no one can block or remove it. It can work on all systems around the world and is often connected to a smartphone. Sport, Civic, and Sovrin are the most well-known solutions that have come a long way in their implementation.
Thank You…!
