A new social media revolution: Combining the scarcity of NFTs with viral content
As the world embraced the lockdown protocols over the past two years (due to the COVID 19 pandemic), social content became even more popular. New records were set as to the number of hours an average person spends on social media. According to an online video viewer survey by Statista across selected countries, in August 2020, 27.2 percent of online viewers consumed more than 10 hours of video content every week.
Following the massive growth of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, viral posts are creating trends across the globe, as creators find themselves “trending” in tens of countries for a single post, video, or picture. Still, only a fraction of these creators actually gains any significant monetary benefits from their content - with centralized platforms capturing the vast majority of the value generated.
One blockchain project, Melon, aims to change this by combining the power of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and viral content to ensure creators earn directly from their output.
Big data challenging monetization of viral content
Since the first NFTs were launched in 2015, the usage of these digital assets has been limited to art, collectibles, music, and more recently, profile pictures. However, NFTs offer a much wider spectrum of authentication of digital assets by verifying ownership on the blockchain. What if you could authenticate a piece of social content that lives forever on a blockchain, so this asset becomes tradeable as a rare NFT?
Launching at the end of 2021, Melon aims to create a new class of digital assets - viral NFTs - which turns social posts seen by millions of people into rare and limited edition NFTs. The more viral the original content, the more rare and valuable it becomes as an NFT.
By launching a creator and fan-friendly NFT platform, Melon hopes to bring the power of the decentralized web to the masses. Melon will allow any creator to monetize their viral social content by turning them to NFTs, which represents the ownership of the videos, images, and posts that broke the internet.
As of November 2021, Melon has grown its platform to over 100 top influencers across different social platforms. Some of the top influencers ready to launch their NFTs on Melon include: Omar Bolden (NFL star athlete), Don Benjamin (Instagram influencer with over 2 million followers), Liane V (famous creator across YouTube, Instagram, and Tiktok), SwagboyQ (over 20 million TikTok followers), and many others. This crop of top influencers commands an audience of over 300 million followers across social channels, who can now connect with their favorite creators in new ways.
Unlike other NFT platforms and marketplaces, creators on Melon are carefully handpicked to ensure “top quality content remains the priority, and to provide the best-curated experience for fans,” a statement from the team reads.
The Melon platform will allow creators to truly own their content, free from the control and restrictions of centralized companies, develop new ways to interact with their fans, and monetize their content how they see fit. The platform also enables cross-chain transfers of assets, meaning users will be able to transact on multiple web 3 platforms seamlessly.
Finally, Melon wants to give creators and fans a unique NFT experience by bringing viral social content onto one platform. This will act as a gateway for newbies to enter the metaverse, where creators and users create digital assets they can share and trade across this new, decentralized web.
The team will soon launch its native $MELON token, an ERC-20 standard token that is interoperable and community-driven. The token will minimize the fees paid to mint and transact NFTs on the platform, provide governance rights to its holders, and offer membership status to the Melon DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) so that users get to own the platform themselves.
According to the Melon team, the first creator drop is expected to launch this December, with the $MELON token launching shortly thereafter.
Final words
With the rise of social media and NFTs, especially over the past couple of years, innovative platforms such as Melon will be at the forefront of a new Creator Economy. Decentralized web platforms will transfer the power from big data companies directly into the hands of creators and their fans. Future generations will enjoy a more open and decentralized experience with full ownership over their content and data, thanks to the groundwork of trailblazing web 3 players like Melon.
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