Web3 and changes in the attention economy

There has been a fundamental shift in the source of value in our economy.

In previous models, the source was labor. In today’s knowledge economies, it’s attention and ability to act. This new paradigm is why Web2 companies value personal data so much – with knowledge understanding, then prediction, then action. By understanding consumers, companies can advertise and can get customers to take action.

And make no mistake, the customer is in a state of Continuous target marketing if they use Web2.

Social media, apps, and even browsers are constantly collecting data to influence decisions. Every web search, every social media post, every email is mined to collect data points. Since most of our lives have moved to the digital world, there are now countless possibilities data collection. Algorithms can map likes, dislikes, values ​​and more to create complete virtual profiles, which are then sold to third-party data brokers. These companies often operate in a regulatory gray area and they make it difficult to opt out.

Data, identity and the ‘why’ of consumer behavior

The consequences of this are huge. This profile or virtual identity does not include the old standard data points. It goes beyond who you are as a consumer – it defines what kind of person you are. It doesn’t just define What? you do, it’s quantifiable why do you do what you do.

And your turn? A large part of the so-called free will can be bought by the highest bidder. Advertisers can pay directly for the behavioral effects they seek because they can now measure results. Tim O’Reilly was right about the fact that we solved the Wanamaker Problem: The old adage that half of your marketing goes to waste; you just don’t know which half. But we haven’t dealt with the inevitable corollary: the better the marketing, the less autonomy each of us seems to have.

It paints a very outdated picture. In a previous post, I discussed how whoever owns your data owns your decisions and here’s why. In the digital world, your data is friendit’s your domain online. Web2 actively limits our choices by strategically limiting our choices; Cambridge Analytica It is not the first and won’t be the last to harness the power of this newly found data.

It’s a complex issue that leads to Web2’s incentive structure. We have built a digital world around “you as a product”. All the free, cheap and convenient apps we’ve developed to rely on are perfect examples of this. These apps have infiltrated every aspect of our lives, from work to socialization – and the companies behind them know it. They have no incentive to change existing systems.

Better identity control

Addressing these and other problems is the driving force behind Web3. In one Web3 is owned by users, you own your data. You can control who sees it and what gets done with it, but more importantly, there’s potential for you to begin to have greater control over algorithms and better ensure that your personal data is truly privateonly you can access, whether it’s email, DM, or archived files.

It starts with a decentralized identity or a self-sovereign identity (SSI). In current web models, our digital identities are owned by our third-party devices and/or applications. This makes it difficult to manage our data because it is used and exploited by so many different sources. With a decentralized identity, our digital identity resides in our wallet, a single source and users control who sees what.

For example, when we register anything on the web, we have to create an account. This is true for everything, whether you’re signing up for a mailing list or making a purchase. Every time you sign up for a new account, you must provide personal data to confirm your identity. In the United States, the average email address is link with 130 accounts. There is no way to track your data when it is spread like this. With a decentralized identity, you can control the outflow of information. By using a decentralized identity in the wallet, users can ensure that the only relevant information is shared and used for authentication purposes only.

Beneath these decentralized identities (and they can be any name and don’t need to be associated with friend unless needed) we can build a decentralized data and content world that runs as the foundation layer of Web3. Whether the messaging app, the project management tool, the next Instagram, or the next Yelp, the content may be owned by the user, and the algorithms may have a better chance of working for the user. instead of advertisers. You can get started with a free “human” domain at https://hmn.domains and start building your digital kingdom.

In the end, apps and advertisers will have to work for you.

Leonard Kish is the co-founder of Cortex application.