Market hot spots emerge in endlessly. From DeFi to NFT to GameFi, we have witnessed many once-hot sectors. However, SocialFi doesn't seem to be getting much attention. But in fact, despite the lack of a big bang, the SocialFi conversation never cooled off. Now, with Twitter being acquired by Musk (social media can quickly promote the implementation of Web3, which is one of the reasons why Musk acquired Twitter), the concept of SocialFi has gradually attracted more attention. In fact, much of the reason SocialFi remains viable has to do with its nature as a traffic hub.

Play-to-Own is a new concept derived from GameFi and now applied to SocialFi: socializing (reading, singing, creating, etc.) in exchange for revenue. So why should we care about SocialFi?

1. SocialFi is a combination of social networking, web3.0 and finance. It provides rewards and benefits to users by marking social influence. Users have the benefits of creation on the platform, and their creations on the platform will not be exploited by the platform's monopoly.

2. SocialFi emphasizes the attributes of DeFi compared to pure blockchain + social.

The SocialFi project builds the "Lego" of decentralized finance based on smart contracts. Multiple high-quality projects have created a new generation of SocialFi platform that integrates social, financial attributes, and digital NFT transactions.

3. There are various forms of mining in SocialFi, including social mining and content mining with strong social attributes, as well as liquidity mining with DeFi attributes. Project users can conduct content mining through content creation and social mining through effective and high-frequency social interaction.

In addition, some SocialFi project tokens can also be used for liquidity mining.

Therefore, I temporarily investigated 3 SocialFi projects that are still in the mature stage, and also prepared for self-study.

Phaver

Phaver is a "Share to Earn" social media platform based on the Lens protocol. This Web3 social media platform allows users to own their data and generate revenue streams by publishing and sharing content.

What impresses me most is that Phaver’s gameplay is very innovative: content staking/content mining, which allows users to use their tokens to vote for their favorite content. If the posts selected by users reach consensus and become popular, then users will also You will be rewarded for helping discover high-quality content, and the authors of high-quality content will also receive rewards. Subvert the traditional centralized content distribution and screening mechanism.

In terms of token design, many products simply encourage behaviors such as post/like/retweet/comment/check-in, etc. The phenomenon of currency overproduction is serious, and currency holders are accustomed to mining, raising and selling, forming huge selling pressure capabilities. Phaver allows different users to have different mining efficiencies through the level system, nft pass cards, etc., forming a gamified social gameplay. On the one hand, it meets everyone's needs for socialization and sharing, and on the other hand, the rewards brought by socialization are also incredible. According to accurate predictions, people can obtain high returns only by contributing to community construction, and it is no longer simple token farming.

FaceDao

FaceDAO is a Web3 decentralized social platform built on Ethereum. FaceDAO has two major highlights worthy of attention:

FaceDAO pioneered the use of human faces as the login threshold. Here, a face = private key + DID (decentralized identity) is the ticket to Web3 and the carrier of all data. FaceDao creates a unique “ID card” for users on the chain, instead of the numerous APP accounts in Web2 that can be applied for repeatedly.

The second step is to let users participate in platform governance decisions. In order to improve the efficiency of autonomy, FaceDAO introduces the role of moderator, which is voted by all registered users. Moreover, the Mod appointment period is only 30 days. Once the time is up, it will be re-elected.

This approach is very similar to the POS consensus mechanism, taking into account decentralization and efficiency, and adding cycle limits prevents the occurrence of monopoly or corruption. Regarding the project mechanics, it is the same as other Socialfi projects. You can get a certain amount of rewards every day on FaceDao by visiting, publishing posts, liking, receiving likes, receiving comments, voting in elections, being elected, passing/rejecting proposals, etc.

After reading the reward mechanism, the author also found that there are some consumption mechanisms in the application: special interactions such as pinning one's own content, private chatting with friends, etc. will consume part of the project tokens. I think this is one of the highlights of the FaceDao economic model. There is both a reward mechanism and a consumption mechanism, which realizes the internal circulation of the economy, avoids unrestricted flow to the secondary market and reduces the value of tokens, and provides strong support for the platform to further build a sustainable ecological route.

Pixie

Pixie is a full-featured platform for Web3, a cryptocurrency-based photo and video sharing social network with the concept of SocialFi, which is the Web3 version of Douyin and Instagram. Similarly, users can earn cryptocurrency PIX through creation, and tokens can also be consumed and burned through economic activities, including official NFT purchases, NFT second-hand transactions, advertising, or camera film consumption, etc.

Although Pixie's economic mechanism forms a closed loop, the algorithm for project incentives and social interaction is unreasonable, resulting in low quality content and social interaction. There is no reasonable mechanism to restrict the quality of creators' content. A large number of users form alliances and praise each other in order to obtain rewards, resulting in the proliferation of low-quality content on the platform.

Therefore, how to incentivize high-quality content and effective social networking, improve the token reward algorithm, and optimize the value capture model need to be solved urgently. Summary Overall, the SocialFi field is still in the stage of accumulating momentum, and more and more large Web3 companies and institutions entering this market are paying attention to it.

With the expectation of a bull market in 2023 and the Bitcoin halving in 2024, the entire cryptocurrency industry will expand again, attracting more outsiders to enter the market. By then, a huge circle that cannot be ignored will be formed, and the social needs based on this circle may directly detonate SocialFi. Until then, all we need to do is look for opportunities, take root in them, and wait for the big explosion to come.