As an aspiring digital marketer, I always try to find what the next big thing in the industry is. This is how I stumbled upon a “mysterious” blockchain technology called Web3. At first, it didn’t look like something worth investigating to me. After all, my digital marketing knowledge and skills consisted of classic training through platforms like Google, SEMrush, and Hubspot, which currently rely entirely on centralised web2 technologies. This was all I knew.
A few weeks ago, I found something that would change my view on the future of digital marketing forever. Up until this point, I had only known the term “blockchain” as something I would often hear my boyfriend mention when discussing cryptocurrency and whether it was a good time to invest or not.
Then came the blockchain ecosystem called the Internet Computer.
My curiosity got the best of me. A few hours later, I was already hooked.
It turned out that it was so much more than just a bunch of virtual currencies with funny names. I also realised that I had so much more to learn because everything was still so new to me. The future of the internet is right in front of us.
So I decided to create a dedicated blog, separate from my usual lifestyle blabbing, and get to work. My wish is to educate more digital marketers, as I dive into the blockchain universe myself. I am dedicating my project to people who find inspiration in innovation the same way as I do. Many interesting topics are coming up, so buckle up 🙂
But where do we begin?
Let’s start with the basics. What do we need to know about this technology? How it was created and what is its purpose? Can it change digital marketing? How exactly do we benefit from it? Let’s take a look at the long road to Web3:
At first, there was darkness: The invention of the internet.
In the 70s, the US needed to create a defence system that would control its nuclear weapons. This is how a system of computers, located across the country was created. The idea behind it was that if anything were to happen, the network would continue to be operational.
In 1990, the World Wide Web was created. It was one of the first applications created on the internet. Its purpose was to allow people to browse content easily.
Web 1.0: First Steps
Web 1.0 came with the introduction of web browsers such as Internet Explorer by Microsoft. They introduced a new way of internet browsing to the mainstream audience.
Fun fact: Web 1.0 was decentralised. It was powered by regular computers.
It was permissionless, so anyone could host their website in it. However, it was predominantly read-only. Only a handful of people were able to share content on it.
Web 2.0: The beginning of social media and creative freedom
The term Web 2.0 is used to describe the birth of services such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter, which allowed regular people to create and share content without any limitations. At first glance, this meant creative freedom and all the information you need at the tip of your fingers. Along with technological evolution, and the development of smart devices came the popularisation of digital advertising. This led to some of the most common issues consumers have with Web 2.0. The same platforms that gave us freedom, were also the ones that collect user data, purchases, and browsing history. With a simple click, that allows those platforms to collect our data, they can easily provide it to third-party companies that can then run targeted ADs or flood us with useless newsletters urging us to take some sort of action.
For a long time, pop-up ads were the main form of advertising on the Internet. The constant interruption of our browsing, and realising how annoying this form of promotion can be, has led to the creation of ad-blocker browser extensions. This, of course, reduced the revenue rate for all those advertising companies, which then started relying more on SEO, using clickbait titles, and spreading misinformation.
Is Web 2.0 really that bad?
Of course, Web 2.0 is not all that bad, as it provides many opportunities for development. It helped us realise what steps we, as online marketers, need to take to be successful in the long run. Google has become the primary source of information, constantly improving its algorithms and recognizing domain authority and relevancy over clickbait and spammy articles.
But what if we could own our data and benefit from it? What if we could choose whom we can share that information with and be the ones that sell it to advertisers, so we could receive real targeted ads, based on what we choose to share?
Of course, there are many more questions and potential issues that have arisen through the years, but our main focus would be digital marketing and how it would evolve within the next few years with Web3.
Web 3.0: The future is bright
So, here comes Web 3.0 and its aim to eliminate all those issues we touched on before and much more. To explain in a simpler way, web3 will make it possible for the consumer to gain ownership over their data, instead of having it stored on company servers like Facebook and Google.
Web3 applications run on blockchain technology, which guarantees more privacy, scalability, and security beyond what is currently available within Web2.
But how does blockchain technology provide more control over your own data? It incorporates token-based economics in the form of smart contracts.
Imagine this: You, as an online consumer, have your own purchase history. What if you could sell it to advertisers of your choice, and gain a small income for every time this information is used for targeted ads? This is fully possible with the development of web3. You can turn such data into a token of your own, and sell it using smart contract technology.
This is something that blew my mind the first time I understood how it worked. We will talk more in-depth on this topic in my future articles.
Where does the Internet Computer come into all of this?
The Internet Computer is the world’s first public blockchain running at web speed with internet scale. Its revolutionary technology, the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), empowers entrepreneurs and developers worldwide to build dApps, DeFi, pan-industry platforms, websites, NFTs, and enterprise systems while reimagining what is possible on the internet.
So, accessing decentralised applicatications, web pages, and social media has never been easier!
Most importantly, the internet computer provides you with the so-called internet identity, which eliminates the need for verifying emails, remembering passwords and usernames, and so on.
The internet identity is a unique code you generate, which you can use to access every dApp, website, or social media on the Internet Computer. Stay tuned for more information on that.
There are many different applications on the Internet Computer Ecosystem. The biggest social media platform on the Internet Computer is DSCVR. It’s a decentralised version of Reddit, where you can interact with your own community and grow your audience.
Another great dApp that caught my attention immediately is FLEEK – A decentralised web hosting platform. As a blogger, this naturally was something that I would like to know more about. I’m very curious how setting up a website there would be, so stay tuned for a dedicated series on that as well.
In conclusion…
The world is changing, and we should definitely pay close attention to how the Internet Computer is going to develop over the next few months. Make sure you follow my blog, as I’m planning to explore everything it has to offer and give you my honest opinion from a digital marketer’s perspective.
My advice is to join the DSCVR community, which is growing by the day. What’s cool about it is that currently there are over 40k users, all coming from different backgrounds. They all have one thing in mind – to help build a better and safer environment within the web3 world.
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