Social media has taken over almost every aspect of our lives - enabling us in so many ways and causing concern in others. Social media platforms are the modern-day metaphorical town square where people take part in the battleground of ideas on a global level. It has spurred new business models, ways of communicating and opportunities.

In web3, web2 social media platforms like Twitter and Discord do much of the heavy lifting with facilitating discourse and coordination in the space. Despite popular belief that everyone in the web3 space is hyper-focused on decentralization, the popularity of many arguably centralized layer one blockchain solutions prove otherwise. Moreover, there seems to be no end to the use of web2 social media platforms even amongst web3 echo chambers, yet.

So, one may ask why do we need a decentralized social media platform?

For one, you don’t need a Netflix docuseries to tell you that the revenue generation model employed by web2 companies centers around the gathering and sale of user data. You know what they say, if you are not paying for it, you might be the product. Moreover, web2 social media companies often come under heavy scrutiny over their content moderation. This could lead to instances of de-platforming, suppression and arguably, in some instances, violations of people’s right to free expression. Additionally, creators who bring value to these platforms see minuscule amounts of the value as the platform owns the content on their platform and reaps most of the value generated.

Strikingly, these platforms have not innovated on how they provide ways for creators to provide different experiences for their audience. Web3 technologies enable creators to not only own their content but allow for audiences to own parts of the creator’s creations and unlock experiences previously unimaginable with web2 social media platforms. Hence why what So-Col is building is so exciting!

So-Col is short for Social Collectibles and is the all-in-one decentralized alternative to all your web2 social media platforms. They just raised a $1.75M seed round, co-led by DeFiance Capital and Animoca with participants, including some of the most significant backers in the space.

So-Col’s approach is distinctively web3, which can be seen through their marketing headstart through the viral pot-stirring but proof-of-concept validating ‘IreneDAO’. Although not everyone may have been on board, it showed the power of combining creators, web3 and social media.

The platform will allow creators to manage and engage with their community through utility NFTs (known as collectibles on the platform). So-Col is powered by Starkware technology who they are working on deploying their own instance of StarkEx. StarkEx is Starkware’s layer-2 scalability engine on Ethereum that allows for a greater onboarding, payment, and transaction experience for users. Moreover, they are working on their own decentralized ID (DID) protocol that will allow for creators to bridge their web2 social media to web3.

“We believe that DIDs will play an important part for integrating the various platforms within the social, gaming, and metaverse space, and we are excited to support SO-COL’s positive moves in this direction”. — Yat Siu, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands

Since fundraising, the project has begun project-native community building, onboarding early adopter creatives and more.

Why I find So-Col exciting is because it unapologetically pursues the creation of new forms of engagement and experiences for both the creator and audience. With the backing they have, the technology they are building on top of and the web3 native savvy community building they are capable of, So-Col stands to be a very powerful project.

People have long been using social media differently around the world to different ends, many of the use cases may seem foreign to many living in western-centric bubbles. For example, vendors in Southeast Asia have long been using platforms like Facebook and LINE to employ different eCommerce strategies. These individuals are content creators in their own right and some have massive followings. Many of these vendors do hour-long live streams with music, dance and sometimes have gimmicks of their own. I can imagine these vendors leveraging web3 technologies through So-Col to better engage their community and develop different experiences and more value.

On the web3 end of things, I think Play to Earn/GameFi/NFT Gaming Teams and Guilds would love to use such a platform. Many founders and managers of these teams and Guilds are full-on content creators making a variety of content daily and often have massive audiences due to the hype generated by these games. I believe So-Col and the tools it would come with would be perfect for these creators. As managers and founders are constantly looking for ways to add value to their communities and further engage their audiences, So-Col collectibles could be an integral part of this.

Safe to say, So-Col is a very exciting project. There is so much demand for a decentralized social media platform that is authentically leveraging web3 technologies to change the experiences creators can provide and how audiences are able to engage. I’m here for all of it and look forward to seeing how the So-Col team rolls out their platform as well as which partnerships they will make. For now, I just have one question… wen So-Col?

Thanawat (Tommy) Thomas // SabaiSquared

Website - Twitter - Instagram

MPhil/PhD Law Candidate at Birkbeck, University of London, researching regional human rights protection in Southeast Asia. Founded Anspar, a NFT applications marketplace and Three Pillars Gaming, a blockchain-gaming focused e-sports team.

Social media has taken over almost every aspect of our lives - enabling us in so many ways and causing concern in others. Social media platforms are the modern-day metaphorical town square where people take part in the battleground of ideas on a global level. It has spurred new business models, ways of communicating and opportunities.

In web3, web2 social media platforms like Twitter and Discord do much of the heavy lifting with facilitating discourse and coordination in the space. Despite popular belief that everyone in the web3 space is hyper-focused on decentralization, the popularity of many arguably centralized layer one blockchain solutions prove otherwise. Moreover, there seems to be no end to the use of web2 social media platforms even amongst web3 echo chambers, yet.

So, one may ask why do we need a decentralized social media platform?

For one, you don’t need a Netflix docuseries to tell you that the revenue generation model employed by web2 companies centers around the gathering and sale of user data. You know what they say, if you are not paying for it, you might be the product. Moreover, web2 social media companies often come under heavy scrutiny over their content moderation. This could lead to instances of de-platforming, suppression and arguably, in some instances, violations of people’s right to free expression. Additionally, creators who bring value to these platforms see minuscule amounts of the value as the platform owns the content on their platform and reaps most of the value generated.

Strikingly, these platforms have not innovated on how they provide ways for creators to provide different experiences for their audience. Web3 technologies enable creators to not only own their content but allow for audiences to own parts of the creator’s creations and unlock experiences previously unimaginable with web2 social media platforms. Hence why what So-Col is building is so exciting!

So-Col is short for Social Collectibles and is the all-in-one decentralized alternative to all your web2 social media platforms. They just raised a $1.75M seed round, co-led by DeFiance Capital and Animoca with participants, including some of the most significant backers in the space.

So-Col’s approach is distinctively web3, which can be seen through their marketing headstart through the viral pot-stirring but proof-of-concept validating ‘IreneDAO’. Although not everyone may have been on board, it showed the power of combining creators, web3 and social media.

The platform will allow creators to manage and engage with their community through utility NFTs (known as collectibles on the platform). So-Col is powered by Starkware technology who they are working on deploying their own instance of StarkEx. StarkEx is Starkware’s layer-2 scalability engine on Ethereum that allows for a greater onboarding, payment, and transaction experience for users. Moreover, they are working on their own decentralized ID (DID) protocol that will allow for creators to bridge their web2 social media to web3.

“We believe that DIDs will play an important part for integrating the various platforms within the social, gaming, and metaverse space, and we are excited to support SO-COL’s positive moves in this direction”. — Yat Siu, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands

Since fundraising, the project has begun project-native community building, onboarding early adopter creatives and more.

Why I find So-Col exciting is because it unapologetically pursues the creation of new forms of engagement and experiences for both the creator and audience. With the backing they have, the technology they are building on top of and the web3 native savvy community building they are capable of, So-Col stands to be a very powerful project.

People have long been using social media differently around the world to different ends, many of the use cases may seem foreign to many living in western-centric bubbles. For example, vendors in Southeast Asia have long been using platforms like Facebook and LINE to employ different eCommerce strategies. These individuals are content creators in their own right and some have massive followings. Many of these vendors do hour-long live streams with music, dance and sometimes have gimmicks of their own. I can imagine these vendors leveraging web3 technologies through So-Col to better engage their community and develop different experiences and more value.

On the web3 end of things, I think Play to Earn/GameFi/NFT Gaming Teams and Guilds would love to use such a platform. Many founders and managers of these teams and Guilds are full-on content creators making a variety of content daily and often have massive audiences due to the hype generated by these games. I believe So-Col and the tools it would come with would be perfect for these creators. As managers and founders are constantly looking for ways to add value to their communities and further engage their audiences, So-Col collectibles could be an integral part of this.

Safe to say, So-Col is a very exciting project. There is so much demand for a decentralized social media platform that is authentically leveraging web3 technologies to change the experiences creators can provide and how audiences are able to engage. I’m here for all of it and look forward to seeing how the So-Col team rolls out their platform as well as which partnerships they will make. For now, I just have one question… wen So-Col?

Thanawat (Tommy) Thomas // SabaiSquared

Website - Twitter - Instagram

MPhil/PhD Law Candidate at Birkbeck, University of London, researching regional human rights protection in Southeast Asia. Founded Anspar, a NFT applications marketplace and Three Pillars Gaming, a blockchain-gaming focused e-sports team.