Before talking about web3 and so-called "mass adoption", let's look back a bit more into the history of content monetization:

From the rise of the Internet in the early 21st century, online advertising has been the main way to monetize, and we can see that traditional Web2 giants such as Google, YouTube, etc. are using this profit model; in recent years, with the further growth and enrichment of Internet creators and content, subscription system and paywall model such as Patreon, Medium, etc. have gradually emerged; And with the improvement of blockchain infrastructure and the emergence and rise of NFT, the payment and distribution of content on chain has become possible.

If we look into the development of Google, Facebook's initial online advertising model for nearly a decade, we can find that with the increase in input (cost), but the increase in penetration is not so significant and effective. And the later subscription model has created a situation where the strongest is always the strongest, and most of the profits are monopolized by platforms and channels such as Netflix, spotify, etc., and the revenue that creators can get is minimal.

So, what kind of improvements and changes can Web3 bring to content payment and distribution? Web3 enables many individual creators to financialize their works through very simple steps, which not only emerges new possibilities in content monetization and creates new user behaviors (mint, collect), but also brings a new paradigm in distribution channels and digital corroboration.

About Paragraph

Paragraph is a "onchain publish" platform, creators can truly own content as a digital asset: posts and media on the onchain are owned directly by web3 identities (e.g., accounts on Ethereum or other blockchains), while content is stored publicly and permanently in Arweave.

Web3 also gives creators new interaction and revenue models: for example, minting posts into NFTs, rewarding subscribers with tokens, enabling perpetual royalties, and tipping creators. And the on-chain stack enables developers to build directly on the content layer and create more novel experiences based on Paragraph. The procedure does not need any permission. Further features on top of the on-chain content platform include embedded subscriptions (e.g., utilizing the Frames in the Farcaster client), categorizing and analyzing content, spam-detection algorithms, training AI models based on open-source data, and more, all of which are interoperable and retain built-in economic components. Such a product has the potential to grow into a distribution and traffic channel, which would be of great value. And the token economy would also serve as a great incentive on the user and product side.

Specifically for the team, its founder Colin has many years of Google and coinbase development background, the team has become one of the top projects in the Base ecosystem with only three Coinbase engineers, which is very typical of the Silicon Valley team, and the acquisition of Mirror has been completed this year and will be followed by a merger of products. We have seen Fred Wilson, USV's partner, as well as the Variant Fund and many web3 investors choose to migrate to Paragraph to publish insights. Although web3 consumer adoption is still in its early days, as a crypto fund we will actively explore and experiment with all kinds of possibilities for MASS ADOPTION.

Before talking about web3 and so-called "mass adoption", let's look back a bit more into the history of content monetization:

From the rise of the Internet in the early 21st century, online advertising has been the main way to monetize, and we can see that traditional Web2 giants such as Google, YouTube, etc. are using this profit model; in recent years, with the further growth and enrichment of Internet creators and content, subscription system and paywall model such as Patreon, Medium, etc. have gradually emerged; And with the improvement of blockchain infrastructure and the emergence and rise of NFT, the payment and distribution of content on chain has become possible.

If we look into the development of Google, Facebook's initial online advertising model for nearly a decade, we can find that with the increase in input (cost), but the increase in penetration is not so significant and effective. And the later subscription model has created a situation where the strongest is always the strongest, and most of the profits are monopolized by platforms and channels such as Netflix, spotify, etc., and the revenue that creators can get is minimal.

So, what kind of improvements and changes can Web3 bring to content payment and distribution? Web3 enables many individual creators to financialize their works through very simple steps, which not only emerges new possibilities in content monetization and creates new user behaviors (mint, collect), but also brings a new paradigm in distribution channels and digital corroboration.

About Paragraph

Paragraph is a "onchain publish" platform, creators can truly own content as a digital asset: posts and media on the onchain are owned directly by web3 identities (e.g., accounts on Ethereum or other blockchains), while content is stored publicly and permanently in Arweave.

Web3 also gives creators new interaction and revenue models: for example, minting posts into NFTs, rewarding subscribers with tokens, enabling perpetual royalties, and tipping creators. And the on-chain stack enables developers to build directly on the content layer and create more novel experiences based on Paragraph. The procedure does not need any permission. Further features on top of the on-chain content platform include embedded subscriptions (e.g., utilizing the Frames in the Farcaster client), categorizing and analyzing content, spam-detection algorithms, training AI models based on open-source data, and more, all of which are interoperable and retain built-in economic components. Such a product has the potential to grow into a distribution and traffic channel, which would be of great value. And the token economy would also serve as a great incentive on the user and product side.

Specifically for the team, its founder Colin has many years of Google and coinbase development background, the team has become one of the top projects in the Base ecosystem with only three Coinbase engineers, which is very typical of the Silicon Valley team, and the acquisition of Mirror has been completed this year and will be followed by a merger of products. We have seen Fred Wilson, USV's partner, as well as the Variant Fund and many web3 investors choose to migrate to Paragraph to publish insights. Although web3 consumer adoption is still in its early days, as a crypto fund we will actively explore and experiment with all kinds of possibilities for MASS ADOPTION.