The evolution of the internet and social media has birthed a new subclass of earners called content creators. This emerging class of online content creators is changing the way newer audiences consume information. It is also creating a hitch within them when it comes to monetizing their work.
Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies can change the game for content creators. Cryptocurrencies could empower content creators by using decentralized technology that can bring about much-needed transparency in ensuring creators get paid without the involvement of petty middlemen taking exorbitant cuts setting them towards empowerment and autonomy without compromising their work.
Monetizing online content creation is a sure pathway to get paid doing what you love, Youtube being the godfather and the ideal revenue model for successful content creators. Getting paid from the contents you post on the video-sharing platform is what sets it apart from other streaming sites. Similar revenue models such as Medium too follow the same suit where you can get paid to blog.
However, those outside of developed economies, this seamless way of monetizing content is much more limited. For starters, due to the lack of accessible financial systems, many simply don’t even have a proper home internet connection, let alone accept online payments. Many still prefer to stay connected via a smartphone rather than through their laptop or computer.
The vast majority of people in these developing nations are still unbanked. They prefer using cash over having a debit/credit card. In this situation, Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies are a sure-shot way of filling this void.
Quality Over Censorship?
Creators demand unlimited freedom to produce their possible content in the truest form. This can be a problem for centralized platforms with their agendas and rules and controls. In a world transiting towards free-spirited open-mindedness, there is a need for platforms allowing creators their ultimate freedom amid accountability.
Blockchain platforms can offer this, where creators can go about producing their business unheeded. A decentralized content platform with an attached incentivization program solves this. The end result might be opening up to a more diverse and higher quality of content.
Moreover, if you are a content creator with an edgy taste or ‘unpopular opinions’, who is at the risk of being de-platformed (due to growth in online censorship) over your unique individuality, then cryptos are definitely your new best friend.
Fighting centralized censorship, accepting unbanked content creators is one of the powerful ways cryptos can help in decentralizing the internet.
Time To Bid Goodbye To The Good Old Revenue Model?
Like any work, it can only be sustained if sustainable, hence monetizing is a lifeline to content creators. Advertising is largely how online content creators get paid.
Consumers have to sit through the advertisements and consume the content while the creators get paid a fraction of cents. If you want to be those content creators ‘who made it’, it means you need to pump up on your views, all the while producing your content cheaply to keep higher margins and quickly to pull up on the views.
If you feel the internet today is mostly filled with low-quality content, then you are right because it is what the monetary model is of today.
The internet is mostly filled with low-quality content with a boisterous display of advertisements. Contents produced these days are under the revenue model- produce cheaply and quickly.
Although a logical revenue model, it’s also an incentive mechanism that has produced some unfortunate results. Next time, when you are browsing the internet and terrified by some cringe-worthy videos, it’s not a millennial vs gen z vs boomer content. It’s the revenue model of the internet.
Alternative Platforms: A win-win For Everybody?
Consumers, for instance, look for alternative models over the traditional route to look for the thrill. Patreon is a decentralized platform where fans can fund creators directly. It’s a win-win situation for everybody: fans get the higher-quality content while creators can make more than their advertising chunk.
Steemit, is the perfect example of a decentralized platform that uses Steem blockchain to reward publishers and curators. A blogging and social networking site, users need not hesitate in regards to the question of censorship.
Brave browser allows users to reward sites they like using BAT token while removing ads. This empowers content creators in getting rewarded directly through the users.
Every unique content creators post would be recorded on the decentralized platform along with the impressions they gather such as likes and comments. Creators would have the proper transparency into knowing the impact they are making and be rewarded for it.
Final Thought
The bridge between crypto and fiat is what can change the minds of creators to fully adopt an alternative payment method. The majority of the content creators have to live on fiat currency. Until proper systems are set up in the ease of crypto to fiat, it is harder to see creators adopt otherwise.
Mostly, a regulatory issue rather than a technical one (such as KYC, AML), the good part is that systems are already working on in solving the problem. It is just a matter of time, when creators embrace cryptos and the liberation it can bring.
