A case for Web3 social media, and is Friend.tech a security?

The Web3 industry continues its mission to disrupt the World Wide Web, and social media is one of its primary targets. In the 34th episode of Cointelegraph’s Hashing It Out, host Elisha Owusu Akyaw interviews Ryan Li, co-founder of CyberConnect, about the concept of decentralized social media. 

Li kicks off the episode by explaining the rationale behind creating social media platforms running on blockchain. Li points out that Web3 social media platforms give content creators the confidence that they won’t be abandoned when the platform gets bigger or shifts its focus to ad revenue, unlike traditional platforms. This feature is built on top of a decentralized financial system, and the speculative nature of the space creates a strong case for SocialFi.

Li also highlights updates in recent years that have shone a spotlight on decentralized social media applications. Developments like the addition of account abstraction by CyberConnect and new gamified ways to increase engagements on SocialFi platforms have created some buzz around the sector.

A decentralized social media platform taking the space by storm recently is Friend.tech. The platform became the most used decentralized application on Coinbase’s Base network after recording revenue of 10,663 Ether (ETH), with total value locked of over 30,000 ETH in less than two months. Despite the growth, the platform has attracted critics, and Li shares an interesting opinion about the platform, describing it as a security:

“However, when you say if it’s a security, I would kind of say it might be because the price of a key, even though it’s trading against a battling curve, it’s not trading with another person.“

Beyond decentralized social media, Owusu Akyaw and Li discussed how the latest changes at major platforms like Meta and X (formerly Twitter) affect adoption. Li explains that X’s new monetization strategy and Meta’s seemingly unsuccessful experiment with Threads may catalyze Web3 social media adoption. According to the CyberConnect co-founder, users are likely to make a move due to a single feature they love and stay because of the infrastructure they find.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashing It Out with Ryan Li, co-founder of CyberConnect, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or TuneIn. You can also check out Cointelegraph’s full catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.