Written by: Scott Noh
Blockchain technology, initially created to support Bitcoin, has gained significant popularity due to its potential to revolutionize various industries beyond cryptocurrency. Currently, Blockchain is being utilized in order to immensely improve the finance and healthcare industries and has extreme potential to benefit social networks as a whole. Blockchain technology has the potential to provide numerous benefits for the social media industry, some of which include increased security through decentralization, increased user transparency, and new modes of monetization for social media companies.
Social media and networks are among the most widely used digital platforms in our modern era; however, there have been countless issues surrounding the safety of private user information which the different social media companies hold. However, through blockchain technology, this issue can be alleviated, and users will no longer have to worry about personal information being exploited or exposed in a data leak or hack. Blockchain technology will allow for user data to be stored on a distributed ledger, decentralizing user information, which in turn means that user data is not controlled by a single entity on a single server. This will make it very difficult for hackers to hack user data.
Furthermore, storing user data on the Blockchain can increase transparency, allowing users to see where their own data is being used or sent to. The Blockchain is essentially an immutable digital record of transactions stored on public ledgers. As said above, the initial use case was to support Bitcoin so that Bitcoin owners could track the different transactions of Bitcoins as they changed hands within a network. However, bitcoin and virtual currencies are not the only types of assets that can be both tracked and traded on the Blockchain. User information could also be traded on the Blockchain. In theory, if a social media platform stores user information on the Blockchain, users will now be able to track how exactly their information is being used by seeing to whom their information is being sent. Additionally, social media operators and large corporations can now be held more accountable for misuse of user data as users will now have a clear idea of how their data is being used if blockchain technology is utilized within social media.
Not only can blockchain technology benefit the users, but it can help benefit social media companies as well. Blockchain technology can help provide new revenue streams for social media companies and influencers on social media. Social media companies can leverage blockchain technology and create new models of monetization by implementing tokenization. With the addition of tokenization features on different social media networks, it will allow users to earn certain tokens for adding to the network by fulfilling actions such as creating certain types of content or engaging more with other users on the social media platform. The idea is these tokens will be able to get traded on the blockchain exchange, and additionally, these tokens can unlock specific premium features for the users who have them.
Currently, blockchain technology is mostly being used in the art media industry, which includes platforms for comedians, musicians, and artists, such as photographers. One of the main companies leading the charge in implementing blockchain technology in social media is Bound. Binded is a Blockchain copywriting technology created for photographers. Photographers upload their photos, which are then kept in a copyright vault protected by a one-of-a-kind fingerprint that is maintained on a blockchain. Artists can share their work and monitor comparable photos in order to prevent copyright violations once their photographs have been submitted and safeguarded. Currently, more than 350,000 pictures have been saved and safeguarded on the Binded blockchain. Additionally, the company has implemented a feature that can copyright posts posted on Instagram. Every time a user uploads a photo to the social media platform, the hashtag #Binded is automatically registered.
Another platform that utilizes blockchain technology is Audius. The pioneer of the Web3 era of music streaming is called Audius. Within Audius, users can earn token rewards while listening to curated playlists, finding new up-and-coming artists, and sharing songs with friends. On the opposite end, Audius markets itself as a creator-friendly service, giving artists analytics and tools to increase audience connection so they can expand their platform while keeping creative freedom to themselves and not sacrificing it to major labels.
However, despite the countless benefits that blockchain technology can offer the social media industry, there are also many challenges connected to the integration of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is still a fairly new concept, and it is still in its infancy; as a result, scalability still remains an issue. It is known that blockchains are not efficient for storing extremely large amounts of data as they can be very expensive. For anything other than core ledger data and associated hashes, this isn’t a very scalable or effective way. Each time one wishes to read data, there are costs that might add up per terabyte on the chain per transaction. As a result, the huge volume of data created by social networks cannot be handled by the infrastructure already in place for blockchain technology. This implies that social networks built on blockchains would have slower processing and longer transaction times, which, in turn, might put consumers off from utilizing said social media networks.
Another issue that the integration of Blockchain technology with social media networks poses is regulatory challenges. Social networks using blockchain technology may run into legal issues because many nations have not yet regulated it. Blockchain technology also presents difficulties when it comes to adhering to data protection laws like GDPR, which mandates the right to be forgotten but contradicts its immutability.
Blockchain technology possesses the potential to significantly revolutionize social networks by providing increased security through decentralization, increased user transparency, and new modes of monetization for social media companies. However, the acceptance of blockchain technology by users, scalability issues with regulations, and other issues are only a few of the important difficulties that come with this. To enable the effective adoption of blockchain technology, social networks must traverse these difficulties and try to offer a smooth user experience. If social media companies can alleviate these issues, blockchain technology can play a very pivotal role in social media and revolutionize the industry as a whole.
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