Exploring the Future of Web3 Social Web: Building a User Base from Scratch

In today's digital age, the development of decentralized Social Web faces a series of challenges. This article will explore how emerging technologies and trends address these issues, with a particular focus on three key aspects: user acquisition, identity management, and revenue models.

Social Web and Cold Start Problem

Emerging social platforms often face the cold start problem, which is how to attract users without an existing user base. Traditional methods rely on strong marketing strategies, such as Threads attracting 100 million users in just 5 days. However, this approach is often difficult to sustain, and once users leave, the social graph built by the platform disappears as well.

Web3 proposes an innovative solution: separating the social graph from applications. This means that even if a certain platform disappears, its social graph can still be utilized by other applications, greatly simplifying the launch process for new platforms.

Using Public Chains as Open Social Graphs

Public blockchains can be seen as a type of Social Web. The on-chain activities of users, such as transaction history and asset holdings, form a primitive social profile. Some projects are exploring the use of this data to build social networks, such as Debank and 0xPPL. However, the limitation of this approach lies in the fact that blockchain data is primarily designed for financial applications, which may be insufficient to support rich social functionalities.

Build a Dedicated Social Web Protocol

To overcome the limitations of public chain data, some projects are developing specialized Social Web graph protocols. Platforms like Lens Protocol and Farcaster abstract the basic elements of social interaction, such as posting, commenting, and sharing. These protocols provide developers with the infrastructure to build social applications, allowing the social graph to be utilized by other developers even if a particular application disappears.

Designing Decentralized Social Media from Scratch

Some projects choose to completely redesign decentralized social media. For example, DeSo is building an L1 blockchain focused on social applications, optimizing "posts per second" rather than "transactions per second". Bluesky and Mastodon, on the other hand, adopt different decentralized approaches, such as server systems or open-source protocols.

This approach allows for more refined control and optimization, but it may be disconnected from the existing Web3 ecosystem. The key issue is whether these solutions can truly decentralize the social graph and attract a diverse range of applications and development teams.

With the continuous development of technology, Web3 Social Web is exploring new ways to break through traditional models. Through innovative social graph management and decentralized design, these platforms are laying the foundation for the future social media ecosystem. However, whether they can truly address the cold start problem and achieve sustainable development remains to be seen.