Curious about how Web 3.0 will affect businesses? Wondering why your business should pay attention?
In this article, we’ll delve into the impact of NFTs, social tokens, and the Metaverse on creators, entrepreneurs, and marketers.
Related content: Why you should implement smarketing in your business – Academia de Consultores
💵 💰 Let’s talk about Cryptocurrencies
There are 21 million bitcoins and that’s all there will be. No more can be done, which makes Bitcoin a deflationary currency. This is why we see people who are beginning to understand how Bitcoin works rush to buy it; therefore, its price has increased in the last 10 years from one cent to $69,000 for one bitcoin. This trend is here to stay and is going to transform the world.
As with anything that transforms the world, marketers and business owners must adopt technologies and strategies early and integrate them into their business to reap the benefits faster and longer than those who wait. One of the benefits of Web 3.0.
Where does Ethereum and Cryptocurrency programming fit?
If we talk about the history and evolution of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin came first. So Bitcoin is purely a peer-to-peer payment system that doesn’t really do much else. It’s kind of a fancy version of PayPal based on a decentralized ledger that’s public and transparent, so anyone can see any transaction at any time. You don’t have to worry about money being sent from one account to another because everything is traceable on a public blockchain.
Even with just that, a number of customer service issues can be eliminated, whether in banking or retail, because it’s immediate and public to view every transaction. You no longer have to worry about such matters.
However, Bitcoin is pure currency. You can use it to make transactions, and other people can give it to you in a transaction, and that’s it.
Related content: Step by step to design your 2022 sales strategy
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum added programming to the cryptocurrency in the form of smart contracts. This addition transformed the coin into a trigger that would carry out statements, becoming fully programmable. And of course, if you understand some coding, you can see how that opens up a whole new world of possibilities that can be done with Ethereum.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which we’ll talk about in more detail a bit later, were an unintended consequence of smart contracts and the next evolution.
And this is the part where companies, especially anyone in a digital space, should really start paying attention. Because this isn’t just a money talk anymore; it’s not just about executing transactions. This is a decentralized “power to the people” system, and it is being done at low cost with a low barrier to access.
This decentralization also makes a big difference in the secondary market. The secondary market where we, as consumers, sell goods that we have already purchased. For example, we buy a book by an author or a record by a musician, and when we’re done, we sell it to another store or to a friend.
As of now, with most traditional currencies, that initial transaction within the main market is what the company would receive as income. The company would not receive funds from further sales in a secondary market.
Smart contracts help put an end to that by coding the transaction to begin with. You can have a set of codes that once the NFT is sold, the creator or company will immediately receive a certain amount of bitcoin. You can even break it up in the case of a team effort, like a band. Right now, much of crypto is envisioned in the space of the creative entrepreneur (artists, writers, and musicians), but the benefits are there for all business entities, no matter the niche.
So what it’s really about is that companies need to sit down and think about cryptocurrencies and the possibilities. Try to think of ways it can be used to make your industry more efficient, productive and responsible, another feature of Web 3.0.
Understand the difference between fungible and non-fungible tokens
You’ve probably heard the phrases fungible tokens, non-fungible tokens, and NFTs over the past few years., and especially in recent months. Now is a good time to talk about what these tokens are and the differences between a fungible token and a non-fungible token.
A fungible token is something that does not have a unique value. For example, when you pay cash at a store, the cashier doesn’t choose which dollar bill to take out of your wallet. All dollar bills are essentially the same, with no unique qualities between them.
Non-expendable tokens, on the other hand, have individual qualities; no two are exactly alike. Non-fungible tokens are elements of the blockchain and each one is unique. There could be multiple copies of it, each of which would have a unique identifier that can be traced on the blockchain. You can know exactly where the token came from and to which wallets it was moved or traded or even if it was bought and at what price.
Related content: Why is everyone talking about NFT? Everything you need to know
How companies can use NFTs
Right now, when people think of NFTs, they tend to think of artists and creative entrepreneurs because those are the industries that are most prominently covered by the media in association with cryptocurrency. But when we really start to believe in the possible applications of cryptocurrencies, it is about more than just digital art. You could be selling an entire digital experience, like a ticket, a membership, and more.
And indeed, by selling these experiences, you can continue to deliver value through NFTs even after the first transaction. This all goes back to that secondary market transaction we talked about earlier. If someone buys an NFT from you, such as a ticket, you can choose which experience of that NFT you will grant them access to, and you can continue to build on that in the future.
For example, you could post an ad that anyone with their NFT in your wallet would be the first to buy a ticket to your next event. And you would use what’s called an airdrop to apply that new experience to your NFT.
This means that creators have incentives to continue adding value because doing so drives a secondary market activity and keeps people buying, selling and trading these NFTs, while also generating revenue for the creator.
And again, because everything is on the blockchain, it’s 100% traceable and public, and in most cases, transactions are immediate. What this means is that there is almost no way to fake it.
That’s not to say that people haven’t tried it. Just like when people take someone else’s photo and try to put up a fake profile on social media. They are eventually caught. And now, for those who are at higher risk of someone trying to impersonate them or setting up a fake account, social networks have ways to verify those accounts to help everyone else know which account is real.
The blockchain works the same way, allowing creators to review transactions almost immediately.
Related content: Implement these trends to increase your sales in 2022 – Academia de Consultores
Where do social tokens come into play?
Social tokens, also called community coins or creator coins, are a form of cryptocurrency tied to the person or company that created them. Social tokens allow the creator to form an economy focused on their brand, giving their audience the opportunity to own a piece of your community.
The metaverse, cryptocurrencies and business
As we talk about things like cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and Web 3.0, they all come together to create a space that we now call the metaverse. This metaverse is where our digital reality meets our physical reality.
Some people are still skeptical about the impact the metaverse will have once it’s fully built, but anyone who has friends they’ve met on the internet can understand just how much overlap there is between our digital space and the physical reality around us.
In many ways, the metaverse, cryptocurrency, blockchain, Web 3.0, and NFTs are exploding faster than many predicted. But one thing is certain: they are here to stay. NFTs will soon be entrenched in our everyday lives.
You can imagine a world where your driver’s license is an NFT, where you’ll have digital proof of ownership over things, like your ID. And the best way to deal with it now, as a business owner, is to look at what’s to come and jump right in. It just starts. You will need to do some research, but in many cases, going through the process will also give you an idea of what you can do and how you can benefit your audience.
Did you like this article on how Web 3.0 will affect your business? Leave us your impressions in the comments 👇.