Web 3.0 is like discovering the internet in 1996.
It’s one of the most exciting opportunities of our lifetime. Yet, because Web 3.0 is a tech revolution, it’s buried in hard-to-understand information. The biggest opportunity I see on Web 3.0 is the ability for writers to publish work and earn money from it. That’s my main focus right now.
I publish tweets regularly about Web 3.0. I realized yesterday it’s not obvious how to take advantage of the opportunity. I’m going to explain it in simple terms so you can get started today.
A 5th grader overview your grandma will even love
Web 1.0 was desktops connected to the internet. Web 2.0 was mobile phones connected to the internet with apps on them, including social media apps that allowed us to leave comments on content.
Web 3.0 is built on top of blockchain. Blockchain enables trust. With blockchain, the internet slowly transforms from centralized to decentralized.
A decentralized internet isn’t controlled by big tech companies. A decentralized Web 3.0 is owned and governed by the users. The users benefit when the network grows. The network doesn’t care what color your skin is or whether you’re based in a country with sanctions.
When you hear Web 3.0 it’s a code word. There are many technologies all competing to lead the internet revolution. The primary one is Ethereum.
When you hear the phrase “Web 3.0” it simply means “built on Ethereum.”
Let’s make Ethereum easy to understand.
You have us the internet users. We use apps on our phones. Those apps then connect to Ethereum. Previously, there were many layers that sat underneath the apps you use on your phone, like ‘the cloud.’ Not anymore. Ethereum replaces all of that and more. That’s the simplest definition of Web 3.0 I can give you. Love it?
How to write on a Web 3.0 platform
Social media/writing apps sit on top of Ethereum. This space is so new that many of the apps haven’t even been built yet. Hello, entrepreneurs!
Let’s explore the two big writing platforms.
A new version of social media not run by Zuckerberg
Bitclout isn’t actually built on Ethereum but that detail doesn’t matter. Bitclout wishes to decentralize social media, including for writers.
They learned from Bitcoin and Ethereum that tech could be built around communities and open data — rather than being built around billionaire’s egos, shareholders, and profit.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are designed to fix the centralized financial system that creates money out of thin air and pretends that increasing the minimum wage will have an impact on everyday people. When in reality, they’ll simply create more money out of thin air to offset the wage increases.
Bitclout seeks to fix social media.
The part that confuses writers is what Bitclout can do. Bitclout allows you to invest in your favorite creators. That’s just version one. Bitclout has launched a decentralized version of Twitter (see example here), although it’s hard to navigate and find writers you love.
There is also a decentralized version of Spotify and Youtube coming to Bitclout. The ultimate role for Bitclout is to allow writers to manage our followers, reputation, investors who give us money, and all of our content.
Let me oversimplify this concept. Imagine all of your audience and content sat on Bitclout. Imagine you share your content via a decentralized version of Youtube called Bootube.
So you’re publishing content each day and life is good. Then one day Bootube’s users decide to change the rules and restrict users like you who have a belief in green aliens. Well, you could simply move all of your content to another decentralized video platform that sits on top of Bitclout. That’s the power of Web 3.0. That’s part of the Bitclout vision.
As writers, we can join Bitclout, claim our account, and publish short pieces of writing on the platform. There’s one easy way to write on Web 3.0.
A blog you own with full monetization
The second Web 3.0 platform for writers is Mirror.xyz. Mirror is built on top of Ethereum and allows writers to publish, own, and earn money from our content. It’s still new so gaining access requires entering a writing competition to prove your skills. Don’t worry, this requirement will go away.
Mirror.xyz allows your article to become an NFT.
An NFT is simply a digital representation of your piece of writing. That may seem insignificant. It’s actually huge.
Once your article becomes an NFT, it is then registered on the blockchain forever as being created by you. Tokens are easy to split up, sell, buy, move, and put together again as a brand new piece of writing.
NFTs make your writing portable. Your writing is no longer handcuffed by big tech. You can move your writing from one platform to another without having to pay a freelancer from Fiverr to copy and paste all your articles, resize the images, add/remove article links, reformat them, etc. Does that not blow your mind?
Decentralized writing platforms transform your articles into portable tokens you can monetize. Read that again.
Making money as a writer with Web 3.0
- You can sell your article as an NFT.
- You can have your audience invest in you as a writer. Those investors can then get a dividend on the writing you publish.
- You can charge a subscription to access your articles as NFTs.
- You can put ads on your NFT and get businesses to pay you for access to your writing audience.
The opportunities to make money from writing on Web 3.0 are endless once your articles are NFTs that sit on a blockchain.
Bringing it all together
Writing on Web 3.0 simply means using a blockchain-enabled platform like Bitclout or Mirror.xyz that is completely decentralized and owned by the users. You can join both platforms today and start writing to feel the freedom of what Web 3.0 has quietly created behind the scenes for us.
There will be more decentralized writing platforms built on top of Ethereum. NFTs are here to stay.
Learn about Web 3.0 as a writer so you can make money from your work and never work a normal job again if you choose.
