Monetizing Web3 Relationships as Tradable Social Graph Assets
In the shifting sands of Web3, social relationships transcend fleeting interactions, evolving into tradable social graph assets that savvy users can tokenize, trade, and profit from. Imagine owning a slice of your network’s value, where every follow, collaboration, or endorsement accrues real economic weight on the blockchain. Protocols like Lens and CyberConnect are turning this vision into reality, digitizing connections that were once locked in centralized silos. This isn’t mere hype; it’s a structural pivot toward user sovereignty, where monetize relationships web3 becomes not just possible, but programmable.
Decentralized social graphs dismantle the Web2 monopoly on data. Platforms such as Facebook harvest your connections for ad revenue, leaving you with likes and zero equity. Web3 flips the script. By anchoring identities and relationships on permissionless blockchains, users mint Profile NFTs or relationship tokens that capture relational value. Lens Protocol exemplifies this: creators mint profiles as NFTs, curate followers into lists with access perks, and collect fees on content mirrors across dApps. CyberConnect complements it by plugging social data into any app, fostering composable networks where your graph travels with you.
Tokenizing Connections: From Followers to Financial Instruments
The mechanics are elegantly simple yet profoundly disruptive. A social graph, at its core, maps nodes (people) and edges (relationships). In Web3, these edges become relationship tokens blockchain, ERC-721 or ERC-1155 assets encoding strength, recency, or mutual value. Mint a token for a key collaboration; trade it as your network grows. Developers monetize via primary sales of graph slices, secondary royalties on resales, or token-gated communities, as outlined in Sequence. xyz strategies.
Web3 social graphs natively integrate payments into every interaction: minting content as NFTs, swapping tokens, and tipping. (Jakub Rusiecki, LinkedIn)
This nativity blurs social and financial rails. Tipping a post? That’s a micro-transaction strengthening your graph edge. Following an influencer? Opt-in to a token that appreciates with their clout. Subsocial’s model takes it further: space owners price ad slots in crypto, turning community hubs into revenue streams. Yet, verticalization looms, per masonnystrom. com, as protocols specialize – one for professional networks, another for fan economies – streamlining user experiences without sacrificing interoperability.
Crypto Social Speculation: Betting on Human Capital
Enter crypto social speculation, where graphs become speculative playgrounds akin to prediction markets but for relationships. Traders wager on a creator’s network expansion, buying tokens tied to follower growth or engagement velocity. It’s SocialFi on steroids: stake on your connections yielding DeFi returns, farm rewards from graph liquidity pools. Coinmetro highlights how Web3 ownership lets users profit from contributions, blending staking with social yield.
Hashtag Web3 envisions this as the future of online identity – resilient protocols where censorship can’t sever your value. Crypto. com’s report spotlights decentralized graphs powering Web3 social, from identity verification to personalized feeds. Creators issue tokens for exclusive access, licensing their influence like digital real estate. Hyathi Technologies notes users reclaim control, owning data outright rather than renting it to corporations.
some sunday thoughts about onchain attention economy on base and fundamentals of inflynce:
internet has always been about attention. web1 gave us information, web2 gave us interaction, and web3 gave us ownership but none of these solved real question: whose attention is real, and how do we value it? or who will define value? every one of us online is farming: attention. that attention can be tokens, incentives or just pure social dopamine (which is itself biggest incentive for influencers).
on the other hand, infofi is really underrated topic, everyone thinks infofi = yapping / spamming. no. i know i didn’t explain inflynce properly to everyone, maybe couple of times in spaces and by commenting others.
we started to build inflynce with these questions:
– who is doing what on @farcaster graph
– who is making real noise?
– how a fresh account can advertise / shill his/her contents or mini apps? (we couldn’t find a way in beginning)
– who will define an account’s value?
answer was inflynce protocol. inflynce protocol consists of following 2 elements:
– mindshare score (fuel of entire system)
– attention coordination layer (powered by mindshare score)
attention coordination layer has 3 elements:
– inflynce hub (public advertisement tool step1)
– inflynce quests (coming soon, public advertisement tool step2)
– inflynce ads (coming soon, b2b advertisement tool)
after inflynce, social influence became liquid asset on base and attention became something could bought and sold. we call it distribution 2.0.
most important part of inflynce, we gave creators power back. now they are earning 80% of revenue directly. on facebook or twitter or google ads, they don’t earn anything when they engaged with ads itself.
how inflynce hub works?
– users/creators/founders choose a post to boost it and copy url
– open inflynce mini app, click boost page, it’s middle button on bottom
– you need to top up min $5, what does it mean? it’s standard approve function, you give spending rights to our contract, which can spend money behalf of you, when you created a boosting campaign
– click my boost tab on same page then click create a new boost, choose engagement type, only like, only recast or both of them. paste your url, then click create, it will cost $0.25 to create, we’ve added this for both preventing spammers and protocol revenue. then it’s live.
– payments are based on users’ mindshare (who amplified campaign content), so they can’t say this is my value, we measure their mindshare score and campaign owner is paying based on their social influence power.
how calculation works on inflynce hub:
– cost per recast and like = mindshare × 100 × base multiplier
– if you create a recast + like campaign, a user with 0.40% mindshare will cost: (0.40% × 100 × 1) × 2 = $0.80 per recast and like, additional 10% of this cost is charged as a protocol fee, it means cost for campaign owner will be $0.88
– to prevent low engagement and protect campaign owner’s budget, users below 0.01% and 0.005% mindshare earn fixed $0.005 per recast and per like
– if users’ mindshare is under 0.005%, they don’t earn anything
some tips about launching a campaign:
– first of all if you didn’t use ads in web2, you may expect instant conversion rate based on engaged users. which will never happen, human behavior is not fit for that. in tech world we call it user acquision cost and it’s pretty high based on location/category/age etc
– 2 important things: content and consistency
– content is really important, if you just write long text, a few people may read it, your content should be baller, short text and cool image/video or your mini app link (still banner of it, is very important)
– consistency. if you just spent $5 and expect 100 new users to mini app, it’s not realistic. to give some example in web2 ads, they are spending lost of money for presence and brand awareness. it’s same in here because we’re still human in web3 :d you need to spent your budget with consistency to achieve something
– min spending should be $20 for only recast task to get high engagement, as there are different users from different continents, your boost should stay there for max. awareness.
– spend $20 on twitter and then spend on inflynce, check difference, you will understand.
some success stories:
– poolfans uses inflynce hub actibely, they were #1 app at finance category on base app, now #3
– farpixel used inflynce hub actively, they were #100 app on farcaster, they hit top #15
– tower ecosystem uses inflynce hub actively, they are #1 app at social category on base app
– cobuild started to use inflynce hub recently, they are #1 app at finance category on base app
– perfect pie acquired their first 760 users by spending only $220 in 10 days, which makes uac = $0.30. it’s too low compared to web2 giants
it’s a public tool for everyone, i would highly recommend go and try with a small budget and of course it will feel like boosted, that’s the whole point of advertisement, you need attention and you are paying for it.
it’s distribution 2.0 / a new native way of web3 ads on @base.base.eth 🟦🟧
Navigating Risks in the Tradable Graph Economy
Opportunity abounds, but discipline tempers enthusiasm. Graph tokens introduce volatility tied to human whims – a scandal tanks value faster than a bear market. Sybil attacks, where fake accounts inflate connections, demand robust oracle verification. Regulatory fog lingers: are these securities? Yet, the upside captivates. BlockApps underscores Web3’s direct crypto payments revolutionizing creator monetization, while Hanif Olayiwola on Medium touts tokenization for incentivizing participation.
Portfolio managers like myself see parallels to diversified assets: allocate to blue-chip graphs (established influencers) alongside high-beta emergents (rising creators). Blend technical signals – graph density, edge turnover – with fundamentals like creator output. This tradable social graph assets market, nascent at $X billion in tokenized social TVL, mirrors early DeFi’s explosive growth potential, provided liquidity pools deepen and oracles sharpen.
Discipline here means sizing positions judiciously – no more than 5% of a portfolio in any single graph token, diversified across verticals like professional networks and creator economies. Technical analysis evolves too: visualize graph centrality with tools akin to TradingView overlays, spotting clusters ripe for speculation. As liquidity matures, expect AMMs dedicated to social pairs, where relationship tokens blockchain swap seamlessly against stables.
Monetization Models: Turning Graphs into Revenue Engines
Concrete paths to profit vary by role. Creators curate premium lists on Lens, charging entry fees or revenue shares from mirrored content. Followers buy in early, flipping tokens as influence compounds. Developers layer dApps atop CyberConnect, earning protocol fees from graph queries. Sequence. xyz details proven plays: primary sales of tokenized assets, perpetual secondary royalties, and token-gated subscriptions. Picture a collaboration NFT between artists – its value accrues with joint virality, tradable on marketplaces like OpenSea.
Key Monetization Strategies
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Primary Sales: Mint and sell NFTs representing social graphs, like Profile NFTs on Lens Protocol, enabling initial revenue from user-owned identities.
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Royalties: Earn perpetual fees on secondary resales of social graph NFTs, as supported by protocols like CyberConnect for ongoing creator income.
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Token-Gating: Restrict access to premium content or networks using NFT ownership, fostering exclusive communities in decentralized social graphs.
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Subscriptions: Offer recurring access to enhanced social features or data via token payments, integrating seamlessly with Web3 wallets.
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Tipping: Enable direct micro-payments or tips in tokens for interactions, natively supported in Web3 social graphs for instant value exchange.
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Licensing: License social graph data or connections to dApps, allowing developers to build personalized experiences while compensating owners.
Subsocial pushes boundaries with priced community slots, owners auctioning visibility in crypto. This verticalizes the stack, as masonnystrom. com predicts, birthing niche protocols for DAOs or fan clubs. SocialFi amplifies via Coinmetro’s lens: stake graph tokens for yields, farm liquidity rewards mirroring DeFi. Creators bypass intermediaries, receiving direct crypto as BlockApps describes, while Medium’s Hanif Olayiwola champions token issuance for fan incentives.
Hyathi Technologies captures the ethos: Web3 hands users the reins to their digital footprint, no more data serfdom. Jakub Rusiecki nails monetization’s seamlessness – payments woven into follows, mints, tips. Crypto. com’s deep dive affirms decentralized graphs as Web3 social’s backbone, fueling identity and feeds.
Speculation Strategies for the Savvy
Diving deeper into crypto social speculation, treat graphs like options on human capital. Long-term holds target enduring networks, say a venture partner’s Rolodex tokenized for evergreen access. Short-term flips chase hype cycles – buy pre-launch influencer tokens, exit on peak engagement. Risk management borrows from my FRM toolkit: VaR models adapted for graph volatility, stress-testing against deplatforming events.
Hashtag Web3’s vision rings true – permissionless protocols forge resilient identities, immune to bans. Lens shines with portable profiles; detach your graph, plug into new dApps without rebuilding. CyberConnect democratizes this, letting any app tap rich social data for tailored experiences. Together, they spawn markets where speculation drives discovery: undervalued connections surface via arbitrage, much like meme coins unearthed alpha.
Web3 principles let users own their content and profit from their contributions. (Coinmetro on SocialFi)
Challenges persist – oracle fidelity for engagement metrics, UI friction slowing adoption. Yet traction builds: Lens boasts thousands of profiles, CyberConnect powers apps with millions in TVL. Verticalization accelerates, spawning specialized graphs for gaming clans or research circles, each with bespoke tokens.
For investors, blend speculation with fundamentals. Scout creators with high Klout scores – not just followers, but weighted influence via mutual endorsements. Deploy capital in pools offering graph-backed yields, akin to covered calls on relationships. My mantra holds: diversification tempers the wild swings of social markets.
The Horizon: Graphs as the New Alpha
Web3’s promise crystallizes in monetize relationships web3 paradigms. No longer passive consumers, users architect value from connections, trading slices of their social capital across chains. Lens and CyberConnect lead, but expect rivals verticalizing further – professional graphs for LinkedIn refugees, cultural ones for global tribes. As oracles refine and DEXs specialize, tradable social graph assets could eclipse NFTs in volume, unlocking trillions in latent relational wealth.
This evolution demands nuance: speculate boldly, but hedge rigorously. Early movers will reap outsized returns, their portfolios woven from tomorrow’s densest networks. In Web3’s grand design, your relationships aren’t just links – they’re ledgers of lasting value.
