How The TEA Project is Meeting the Changing Landscape of Web3
A recent article, The internet is on the verge of the next fundamental change, raises some critical issues on what the next generation of the internet will look like. In this post, we look at a few of the points the author has raised and explain how the TEA Project is ideally positioned for these emerging trends in Web3.
Web 2.0 Needed Centralization to Scale
The article points out that advertising was the business model that arose to fund the infrastructure costs of Web 2.0. Programmatic advertising allowed businesses to easily scale into and out of ads, while content drove engagement and stuffed consumers’ browsers full of advertising beacons.
In Web3, advertising will no longer be the prevailing business model as user data will not, by default, be housed by centralized servers. Rather than data being centralized and owned by the platform companies, we will see more dApps where users own the user data. This doesn’t seem like a big ask, but it’s rare to find a centralized service (think of the most popular email service providers like Gmail or Outlook) that allows its users to keep their data local and private.
The TEA Project recognizes the need for data privacy as an emerging concern for Web3 dApps. Our solution is simple: instead of sending data to the data center as is done in the cloud, the TEA Project ushers in a new paradigm where encrypted code travels to meet encrypted data. You can imagine a scenario where TEA-embedded devices (such as a router) exist in the home that acts as a secure Web3 gateway for each home.
This setup empowers users to privately hold their data and only allows selective trusted applications to interact with it locally in the home. This new “code travels to the data” paradigm unlocks an excellent potential for users to monetize their data under their control. Users’ freedom to monetize their data in Web3 also establishes an alternative to advertising as the underlying economic model for the emerging Web3 internet.
Tokenization Gives More Financial Benefits to Web3 Users
Another change we’ll see moving from Web 2.0 to Web3 are the economic incentives given to users of these emerging platforms. The article goes on to say:
Cryptocurrencies fuel operation of Web3 and — through cryptoexchanges — can be bought and sold using traditional currency. This allows Web3’s users to essentially pay their own way for using Web3 services and own equity in those services.
We’ve thought long about how users can easily own equity in TEA network dApps. Imagine going to a store in a local mall and being impressed enough to want to invest in the company. The current financial system makes this very hard. First, you have to check if they have even have a stock. But most businesses aren’t big enough to issue stock, so you’ll be required to be an accredited investor and fill out many forms if you want to invest.
The TEA Project has made investing in its dApps (called TApps on our platform) very simple. Each TApp has a token, and users can invest in a TApp’s tokens to own equity in a TApp and enjoy dividends whenever the TApp is used.
Here’s a further explanation of how the bonding curve works for our TApp tokens:
And here’s a getting started guide for how to invest in the testnet versions of these tokens in our latest testnet epoch:
DAOs for Web3 Governance
Another hallmark of Web3 is a reliance on DAOs for governance to democratize the rules by which platforms operate. DAOs use smart contracts to enforce the transactional governance mechanisms, which are done algorithmically rather than through a traditional board of directors as is typical with corporations.
The TEA Project DAO is an excellent example of how DAO governance works algorithmically to further the project’s objectives. The TEA Project’s treasury is actually controlled by code to monitor how busy/idle the miners are on the network. New CML, which are NFTs that act as mining licenses on the TEA network, are issued and put up for auction if miner utilization passes a set threshold. This is done to put some slack back into the system as more TApps are released and need the hosting services of decentralized miners.
The TEA Project is currently in testnet as we gear up for our mainnet launch. Be sure to join our Telegram to learn how you participate in our young project.
