This is the second of a two-part post that started on the Medium platform back in old Web 2.0. In How to Use Web 3.0 (part 1), I laid out the Read-Write-Own feature of Web3 that sets it apart from Web 2.0. Here in Web3, we have total ownership of everything we create, including all the data that relates to what we do and any assets that we decide to pick up along the way. This all contrasts with Web 2.0 where big organisations control the platforms where we create our content and therefore claim ownership of it as well as the lion’s share of if not all the profits attached to the value it creates.
https://medium.com/@stranskey/how-to-use-web-3-0-part-1-6ddaa11e8b9
Whereas Medium was the perfect place to leave Web 2.0 because it is a centralised platform that only shares the profits it accrues from the content hosted on its site with the actual content creators, Mirror is the perfect place to enter Web3. Mirror is a decentralised and user-owned, crypto-based publishing platform for writers that offers the perfect analogy for explaining what Web3 is as well as the perfect toolbox for helping you learn how to make the most of it. This is where you will take your first formative steps into the great big worldwide Web3 that is waiting for you.
OK, so all this talk of ownership and sovereignty might sound a little confusing. Sure, you can understand that Facebook owns all your data and makes money off it, but what will it mean for us to own it ourselves. Well, first there is no room for censorship as nobody controls the platform. We’ll get more into blockchains later on, but for now, all you need to visualise is that the blockchain is a central entity that cannot be changed but only added to. All new data needs to be validated before it goes onto the chain and then once it is there, it stays there. Those validators don’t belong to any single organisation either, sure there are people developing the blockchain’s tech, but they are different from the validators who could be anywhere around the world. The blockchain then is immutable, meaning you have total sovereignty over your social identity, and it cannot be shaped to suit some corporate agenda.
Beyond this sovereignty comes ownership. As well as having complete control over how your social identity is represented you are also able to own everything it creates and take ownership over assets you desire and have the means to acquire for whatever reason. As you’re in Web3 right now, we can use this very post, your very first step into Web3, to explore how this works.
Back in Web 2.0 on Medium, I have to put my article behind a paywall and sign up to Medium’s Partner Program before I can earn money from the value it creates. Medium determines this value and decides how much money to distribute to me and all other writers who have abided by the terms and conditions of the Medium Partner Program. That means if I want to help you learn all about Web3 in Medium and earn from it, I would only be able to help people who could pay to read my content and even then, a corporation would be making more money off my content than I would. So far, so very Web 2.0.
Here in Web3, I can attach my blockchain wallet (don’t worry, we’ll go into these in greater detail later on) to Mirror and then turn my post into an NFT (again, don’t worry we’re going to get to all of this). This creates a token that goes into my wallet that says I own this post. If you look at the top of the post, you’ll see a Collect NFT button and various metrics relating to how many people have collected this post into their collection and how much they’ve paid for it. This means I own this post and I am directly offering it for sale to you and everybody else who reads it. Would you like to buy your first NFT? You could do it right now!
OK, so I get it, why would you want to buy this post when you’re already reading it? Well, that’s up to you but there are multiple reasons people will want to buy NFTs and we will get into them all later. Taking this post as an example, they could be sentimental reasons, like wanting to remember your first steps into this brave new worldwide Web3 or they may be business reasons as you may think that as more and more people come into Web3, the value of everybody’s first steps will go through the roof. Who knows? The key to remember here though is that I am talking directly to you about ownership of content that I’ve produced. We can do business ourselves without having to jump through hoops put there by a tech giant who will take a huge cut of our transaction for the privilege. You can do this with whatever you feel like creating too.
Another thing we can do here very easily is create something together. Mirror allows us a very simple way of doing this, which will illustrate some of the possibilities Web3 offers quite well. So, you understand that I’ve created this post, which is an NFT I am selling it as a way to profit from my work. Well, how about if I want to produce something a lot more ambitious that will require too much time for me to devote without any sort of payment? What if I want to create something that will be extremely valuable, but I can’t do on my own? In either of those cases, the cryptography aspects of Web3 allow us to securely and efficiently crowdsource the resources needed to pull off such an ambitious project while ensuring that everybody who contributes to it has fair ownership of it.
https://twitter.com/BoredApeYC/status/1455194570669576197
Let’s do that right now, shall we? You’ve probably seen those monkey NFTs, right? They are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. You’d probably like to know how to try and do something similar, wouldn’t you? For the purposes of this exercise, I will try and do something similar. I am going to develop a collection of 10,000 NFTs all centred around the same concept and then make them available to mint to anybody who wants one. As we’re taking our first baby steps into Web3 together, the concept can be babies instead of monkeys. This is way beyond my level of expertise but I’m a researcher by trade and all the information I need to pull it off is out there. It is a big task though and I’ll need funds to make sure all the jobs I can’t do get done.
Below you can see the Mirror Crowdfund I’ve set up to fund the process of developing the Baby Steppers Creche Club concept and artwork, as well as all the technical development that is needed to turn the art into NFTs. I’ll then document the whole process from start to finish and publish an in-depth guide that you can use to create your own NFTs. On top of that, although it will remain a public good, I’ll turn that in-depth guide into an NFT in which all contributors to the crowdfund will have a proportional stake. Again, we’ll go deep into NFTs later including what makes them valuable, but for now, this is just a simple exercise that covers tokenisation, smart contracts, and collectivisation in Web3.
You can click on the crowdfund to learn more information about the project. You can also click here to learn more about Mirror’s crowdfunding tool. I’ll just say here real quick, however, that the point of this exercise is not to get rich, it is to learn about the dynamics of shared ownership that can exist on Web3. That’s not to say we won’t get rich, crazier things have happened, but it is to say that isn’t what we’re selling here.
https://dev.mirror.xyz/llJ_AboiDJwB_ZAFz-CXU7fL2p8v5Wz6MjfluLafewQ
You see how easy that was. We all just contributed to the creation of an NFT collection. What we could have done, and maybe could do next time is add a layer of governance onto the project, rather than just seeking funding and assigning ownership. You see, project tokens can also be used to express democratic will about how a project should be run or indeed what it should be run for. Here, though, we are getting into the realm of DAOs or Decentralised Autonomous Organisations, if you want to unpack the acronym, and we’ll come back to DAOs later. Again, though, DAOs represent another exciting way that Web3 doesn’t just offer you a way to be a passenger online, but rather an active participant.
Anyway, we’ve come a long way with just a couple of baby steps so we’ll leave it there for now. If you’re excited about an internet that isn’t dominated by giant corporate behemoths but don’t understand some of the other stuff we’ve talked about here, then you have found the perfect entry point into Web3. We can push on from here together. Here we are going to walk through everything you need to know about:
• Web3 and how to be a part of it
• Cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin)
• Blockchains (like Ethereum)
• NFTs (trust me they are so much more than jpegs)
• The metaverse
• DeFi (Decentralised Finance)
• DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations)
• And much much more…
Here is where you learn all you need to know to become a fully-fledged Web3 citizen, sovereign of your own social identity and comfortable interacting with blockchains. As your steps become strides, you’ll be able to own and trade cryptocurrencies easily and understand the ever-expanding DeFi space that will enable you to leverage your financial position in ways that simply have not been accessible to most people before or even possible at all. You’ll have a solid grasp of NFTs and be able to see how they will revolutionise ownership of everything and not just digital assets and you will understand and be able to participate in exciting, efficient and secure means of decentralised governance. Honestly, we are just getting started.
The first thing you’ll need though will be about what is and how to use a blockchain wallet and so that is where we will go next.