D’apps or decentralised apps.
In the blockchain and crypto world this is a clear phenomenon and made for the first time headlines with https://www.cryptokitties.co/ . Yes, digital kitties that live on the blockchain.
For the rest of the world not so much. But the revolution of d’apps is none the less very real and the rest of the world will be acquainted with the concept more and more in the coming years. This is a revolution that is just beginning to take shape and the big players are moving their pieces in position but more on that later.
How is this going to happen and what will be the implications you might ask, let me explain.
So let’s first adres the how.
One of the company’s that is making real progress on this level is MetaMask https://metamask.io/ and they are growing at a rapid pace.
Currently they have over 5 million active users every month and are growing very fast. MetaMask is a crypto wallet and gateway that gives users a secure way to connect to blockchain-based applications.
Maybe you’ve seen some news on NFT’s or Non-fungible token. With these tokens you can link ownership to digital goods. For example you can sell a tweet for…… 2.9 million dollars 0_0 (source)
So how are these digital assets sold? Through NFT marketplaces for example: https://opensea.io/ and how do you bid on an NFT? Yes, you guessed correctly with apps like MetaMask you connect your wallet and can make an on-chain bid.
So what does this has to do with Google and advertising??
Imagine a world where you’r in control of your data and what you share with advertisers. And then imagine you are getting payed for every ad you see online instead of Google, directly in your connected crypto wallet without doing anything for it. Right there the middleman(Google) is cut out of the equation and the revolution is real.
Currently you need to add MetaMask as an extension to your Chrome browser (the biggest browser by market share). But one small competitor is trying to gain users with this very concept….Opera. https://www.opera.com/crypto
Now I am betting Google will not add a crypto wallet to their browser for this specific reason anytime soon. Adding a built-in wallet is like digging their own grave.
Here you see antitrust regulation fail. Google being the dominant ad player globally and having a browser share with Chrome of….64% is just an insanely powerful combination.
But Google is feeling the privacy heat from the European union and consumers. Tech companies like Apple are making changes to their Safari browser that limits tracking and recently further updates to iOS https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56831241.
With initiatives such as https://privacysandbox.com/ Google tries to counter. I think this might be a perfect storm that will be the first serious threat to the primary business model from Google’s ads.
Is it just me or am I the only one that’s waiting for a search engine that pays me in crypto while I’m using it…The amount of money that I would make…because you know I’m not…
smart… and lazy.
