ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way in which two blockchain-based platforms - Mycelia’s Creative Passport and Steemit - are emerging as examples of a particular paradigm of blockchain-based digital media commerce. Each demonstrates how such networks can generate revenue directly, through enhanced production and distribution systems, and indirectly, via an exponential series of connections.
Much has been said about how blockchain systems will increasingly do away with intermediaries - in other words, banks, royalty collection agencies, even lawyers and other third parties, etc. - thereby rewarding content creators with higher earnings for their endeavours through frictionless payment systems and smart contracting. However, what is clearly emerging is another form of the ‘Internet of Value, one that does not simply create more revenue by merely simplifying exchange protocols. Steemit co-founder Ned Scott suggests that, ‘It’s as though all the [Steemit] users are playing a social media game, and they’re earning points based on how well they participate’.
As network effects are increasingly leveraged as a means to create income, blockchain-based innovations, such as Creative Passport and Steemit, are emerging as an opportunity to rethink wealth distribution beyond the narrow frameworks that have hitherto dominated the Internet.
