How Social Media is changing the Web3 landscape

Following the fallout from the summer crypto crash, confidence in the world of cryptocurrency is taking an interesting split where some believe that the world of web3 is crippling and falling apart while others see much more potential in the future. 

Fortunately, those that are most confident about the future of web3 are also some of the most influential decision makers on the internet and the planet. Social media websites are slowly directing the momentum of web3 into their services by implementing new NFT products and integrating with cryptocurrency backed by companies like Binance. 

Reddit NFTs

Reddit NFTs have quickly taken the “Homepage of the Internet” by storm. Their collections have quickly become more common among users on the forum-based website, with many combining their avatars with non-fungible traits.

Even users who vehemently oppose NFTs and all-things crypto have been drawn to the new products because Reddit managed to provide the tokens in a fun and free way that mitigated extreme opposition against the new technology. 

In turn, this has turned Reddit into one of the leading marketplaces for NFTs and cryptocurrency, as well as a major onboarding location for new users opening up new wallets on the Polygon network which is more user-friendly for beginners and those with smaller liquidity. 

This isn’t the first time that Reddit has dabbled in cryptocurrencies either. Earlier in 2021, around the time that Doge and GME were both reaching massive valuations, the social media  company started creating a new cryptocurrency called Moons which was awarded to users on the r/cryptocurrency subreddit for being active in the community. 

Although Moons have largely held little use, it did provide Reddit with perspective on their users and their interest in cryptocurrencies in general. 

Twitter Acquisition

Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter has been one of the most covered topics of 2022 because of the consistent pushing and pulling between the company, Musk, and several court battles. 

Now that the company has finally been bought out by Musk and taken private, Musk’s interest in crypto is beginning to resurface on the platform with many wondering if Dogecoin will soon be involved. Following the buyout, Dogecoin has taken a rapid rise in value, nearly doubling in price over the final two weeks of October. 

Moreover, it has become clear that Binance has also helped fund the acquisition by providing $500 million towards the buyout, with the expectation that Twitter will become a central hub for cryptocurrencies and web3 support in the future with Elon Musk at the helm of the social media giant. 

Meta’s Regression

However, not all social media giants seem to be moving in the right direction. The situation at Meta is continuing to worsen with employees threatening a mass exodus. While Mark Zuckerberg has been enamored with the concept of a metaverse where people can meet in a massive virtual world, his employees and most of the general public have all agreed that it is a terrible idea not worth exploring further. 

Since Zuckerberg’s initial announcement of the metaverse in late 2021, valuations of the company have dropped significantly. This was compounded even further with the crypto crash and war in Ukraine that severely impacted both the crypto and traditional stock market. 

What does the future of web3 look like?

Regardless of how much further crypto can drop, many tech companies are considering blockchain technology a lot more seriously than many had originally thought. It appears that, after a year of planning and consideration, action is finally being taken to implement new features for social media and it’s working. 

As social media services continue to connect everyone in the world together, the platform for web3 communities to develop and become stronger is only becoming more realistic. With so many active users on Twitter, Meta, and Reddit combined, the adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is slowly beginning to happen among populations that may have never considered it in the past; and now that they are opening their own wallets we can only imagine how many new blockchain users there will be in the future.