Blockchain & Web3

Using blockchain technology consciously

Web3 ideas like NFTs and cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology. Many marketers still need to familiarize themselves with this topic area and learn the most important Web3 terms. Because the principle that you have to understand a platform in order to optimally use it also applies in the new Web3. A fast-growing community has formed around these new technologies in recent years, which is open to new and innovative ideas and offers great reach potential. It’s therefore essential for marketers to understand how blockchain can be used for effective Web3 marketing and how the various Web3 topics are connected.  

What is a blockchain?

In simple terms, the blockchain is a decentralized database that links data together in encrypted blocks. Its forgery-proof data structure means the data transactions are mapped in a chronological, traceable, and unchangeable way, and without a central authority. In this way, datasets can be regulated more directly and efficiently with the aid of blockchain technology, as there is a seamless data record as a basis. The blockchain database is also called a ledger or distributed ledger.

Someone who wants to make an online payment, for example, is usually reliant on a trusted third party – such as a bank. The bank processes the transfers as a central authority and ensures that the transferred amount arrives at the recipient’s account and that the amount is deducted from the outgoing account. No money is generated or lost during the transaction.

Direct payment from sender to receiver (peer-to-peer) without a third party is not so easily done online. Since an electronic transfer has no physical components such as banknotes, it is difficult to prove that the money has actually been sent to the recipient(s). Blockchain technology solves this problem and allows secure peer-to-peer transactions using cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

When paying with cryptocurrencies, all transactions are automatically checked for legitimacy by all members of the blockchain and recorded in a ledger. The amount of the transfer and the wallet numbers of the sender and recipient are stored in it. This makes the transactions traceable without the actual persons behind the transaction being identifiable, since just a wallet number is stored – privacy is thus protected in the best possible way.

NFT – non-fungible token

Blockchain technology offers the benefit that the datasets cannot be changed. It thus offers the necessary security to be able to operate digital currencies, for instance. Trading valuable digital objects is also based on blockchains: The NFTs (non-fungible tokens) developed with them serve as certificates of authenticity for digital artifacts. They are extremely popular, for example, in the trade of digital art. Marketers should familiarize themselves with the basics of NFTs to ensure that they use them correctly for brand building and marketing.

Web3 ideas like blockchain make for a better Internet

Web3 is an umbrella term for numerous ideas and technologies aimed at creating a new Internet. Prior to this, there were other stages of development of the Internet: Web1 and Web2.

The first stage of the Internet, called Web1, was characterized by corporate websites and a professional nature. With Web2, private end users joined in and conquered the net for themselves with blogs, private websites, and social media platforms. 

We are currently at the transition from Web2 to Web3. So there is no official definition of what Web3 really is. However, it is generally associated with even greater networking, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Such technologies are intended to make the Internet more decentralized and thus more democratic. Web3 is therefore a complex of ideas and technologies that is constantly changing and evolving.