Conversations about decentralized social media platforms continue to gain ground, with users becoming increasingly concerned about the centralized nature of traditional platforms and the potential for censorship. Even former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has publicly pushed for a decentralized alternative to Twitter.

Cointelegraph interviewed Rick Porter, the CEO of decentralized social media startup DSVR, about the potential these platforms have to change the way users interact and share information online. Porter said that decentralized social media platforms provide “the potential for users to own their content, their data, and make decisions about their monetization.”

Porter also believes that decentralized social media platforms can be profitable for both the platforms and the users. According to him, decentralized social media platforms can monetize and generate revenue through “tokens and digital assets that flow through them natively.” He explained:

“The fees on these transactions provide a great opportunity to upend traditional ad-driven social media monetization while providing users with an ad-free experience.”

The CEO mentioned that decentralized social media platforms provide the ability for individual creators to enable ads or monetize their content. “Essentially, this would replicate the ad revenue model pioneered by traditional social networks, while also giving content creators more choice, power, and revenue on the platform.” He also noted:

“The cryptographic component of decentralized social networks [media] It will enable more powerful and personalized ad technology that can take financial assets and transactions into account, giving users control of exactly how this data is accessed.”

According to Porter, Web3’s social media platforms will take product placement, influencer marketing and social advertising to the next level and further democratize it. Advertisers can use NFTs as a form of product placement, as well as a way to reward their most loyal customers. These advertisers will want to partner with relevant creators and communities, and Web3 adtech will enable these creators to prove that their communities are great for advertisers.

When it comes to the challenges facing decentralized social media startups, Porter shared:

“Building in chain is not easy. Web3’s social media platforms are built on stacks of new technologies with significantly smaller teams than the Web2 giants. From that perspective, it can be challenging to scale fast enough to meet user demands and serve every Web2 user with the level of features and refinement they want.”

Speaking on the topic of regulations within the decentralized ecosystem of social media, Porter said that “regulations are likely in place to protect user data and privacy or to prevent the spread of misinformation. It is healthy to have clear regulations that are generally agreed upon by society”. However, she stated that “technology generally moves faster than regulations, so it’s important to give users the tools and power to help regulate the platform and their own communities.” Porter believes that Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) can be a way to self-regulate and make decisions as a group, instead of leaving everything in the hands of third parties or powerful individuals.

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