This is a summary of the op-ed “The True Value of Web3: You Can Take Your Toys and Leave” by Leah Callon-Butler, published on CoinDesk on May 23, 2024
Roblox has built one of the biggest empires in gaming off the backs of user-generated content (UGC). Despite this, the game-making platform has yet to offer its creators any meaningful ways to profit from their creations. Parents of its mostly 13-and-below player base have even come together to file a class-action lawsuit in response, framing the relationship between Roblox and its players as exploitative. These situations are why the Web3 community has been so passionate about digital property rights; centralized platforms don’t give the creators who populate them with content the freedom to truly own their creations and take them wherever they wish.
In the op-ed “The True Value of Web3: You Can Take Your Toys and Leave,” Emfarsis Director Leah Callon-Butler went over the ways Web3 aims to offer creators a more equitable relationship with the platforms that host their content. Leah cited Farcaster as an example, framing its Farcaster Channels feature as a Web3 facelift of Reddit’s subreddit model. Here, community leaders can take real ownership over the networks they build and preserve these achievements onchain.
The challenge for Web3 games that encourage or facilitate the creation of UGC, like The Sandbox, Pixels, and Pirate Nation, is to design incentives that encourage communities to stick around and reinvest in the virtual economies they participate in long-term.
“Web2 platforms like Roblox capture value using moats that stop users from getting out. Web3 platforms like Farcaster allow users to come and go as they please, offering unprecedented autonomy, liberty, and freedom for citizens of the internet.”
In the context of Web3 gaming, where the switching costs are basically zero, the challenge isn’t just in onboarding, but in retention. Although there is still no clear consensus on how to achieve this, whether through fully onchain design or open models, players will soon realize that the true benefit of Web3 is found in transferring value seamlessly.
Read the full article here: “The True Value of Web3: You Can Take Your Toys and Leave” by Leah Callon-Butler. Published May 23, 2024 on CoinDesk.