Finding feasible paths for migrating Web2 to Web3 traffic from Twitter, Binance, and Ethereum

1. Web2.0 to Web3.0: A traffic migration
1.1 Standing on the shoulders of Web2.0
We are standing at a fork in the road of Internet development, a period of both opportunities and challenges.
Looking back, Web 1.0, which began in 1989, consisted of static content and only realized the function of information display but lacked interactivity; the evolved Web 2.0, although it realized user-generated content and diversified interactions, fell into the dilemma of "lack of personal rights", and the storage and ownership of data were controlled by giant companies.
Now, Web3.0 has proposed a new narrative: to subvert Web2.0, such as breaking the financial hegemony of Wall Street and breaking the data monopoly of Web2 super platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
But this does not mean that Web3.0 and Web2.0 are in opposition and separation. Right now, we are in the mature stage of Web2.0 and the embryonic stage of Web3.0. This is a time point where the two are intertwined. The technology and traffic of Web2.0 have reached their critical peak and inevitably entered a period of stagnation. At the same time, the concept of Web3.0 has emerged but there is not enough technical support and traffic support.
In such a slightly chaotic period, if the budding Web3.0 wants to achieve the ideal of decentralization, freedom, equality, and user-centeredness, it must obtain support from Web2.0 and stand on the shoulders of Web2.0 to achieve a breakthrough.
1.2 The Essence of Transfer: Traffic Migration
The key to the development of Web3.0 is the migration of traffic. This experience has been verified in the process of our transition from Web1.0 to Web2.0.
The success of DeFi Summer is because its speculative effect attracted a lot of external funds and traffic, while NFT and GameFi further lowered the threshold for attracting external traffic based on DeFi Summer. But compared with Web2.0, these are just a drop in the bucket. Metaverse games, which were once highly anticipated, have only a fraction of the daily active users of mainstream Web2 games after the tide receded. The traffic resources owned by Web2.0 happen to be the most scarce of Web3.0, which means that if Web3.0 wants to go further, it must stand on the shoulders of the giants of Web2.0 to absorb more traffic. In other words, we can also regard the essence of the transfer from Web2.0 to Web3.0 as a migration of traffic. From the core spirit of Web3.0, all pursuits are based on "people", and users are the most critical link. "He who gets users gets the world" is still the truth of Web3.0.
Therefore, below I will discuss in depth the "feasible path for migrating Web2.0 traffic to Web3.0" in conjunction with specific projects.
2. A feasible path for migrating Web2.0 traffic to Web3.0
2.1 Possible paths for traffic migration
2.1.1 Features: Low threshold, real demand and speculation
The process from Web2.0 to Web3.0 can essentially be seen as a process of conditional traffic migration. How can this traffic migration be successful? The key lies in the users, so we need to think from the user's perspective: Under what conditions are we willing to join this great migration? First of all, this traffic migration must have a low threshold. The complicated usage steps are undoubtedly less attractive to users who are accustomed to the Web2.0 operating system. Most users cannot perceive the technical reforms in the backend, so the usage threshold of the frontend is an important factor in determining customer acquisition traffic. The most reasonable model in the early stage of Web3.0 development should be that the usage threshold is infinitely close to that of Web2.0, and the technology is steadily iterated.
Secondly, it must be based on real needs. Remember, users do not need simple copies of mature Web2.0 applications such as Web 3 Uber, Web 3 Twitter, and Web3 LinkedIn, but more crypto-native new things based on real needs.
Finally, it needs to be speculative. Currently, the most successful application of Web3.0 is still asset rights confirmation. Taking Bitcoin as an example, this is also a consensus that cannot be overturned. The most popular one is the wealth-creating effect brought by DeFi, NFT, etc., which is an important factor in attracting large-scale Web2.0 users. When the gold rush of Web2.0 is over, people will definitely flock to the wealth wave of Web3.0.
2.1.2 Twitter, Binance, and Ethereum
However, judging from the current development status of Web3.0, there is no product/project that can trigger a low-threshold, real-demand, and speculative traffic migration. Therefore, we can only try to find opportunities for success in the high-traffic areas of Web2.0 and Web3.0.
Why should we look for opportunities from the existing traffic high ground of the two? Because only when the strong join together can the effect of "1+1>2" be achieved.
Therefore, the author will focus on finding feasible paths for traffic migration from Twitter, Binance and Ethereum. The largest traffic of Web2.0 is concentrated on social platforms, but not all social platforms are friendly to Web3.0. Twitter can be said to be the super traffic platform closest to Web3.0 after being acquired by Elon Musk. On the one hand, it is because of Musk's own support for cryptocurrency, and on the other hand, part of the funds for the acquisition of Twitter came from Binance.
As the largest traffic platform under the Web3.0 chain, Binance not only owns the industry's No. 1 exchange, but also has entered the public chain and built an ecosystem around BSC. Its ambition is obvious. Ethereum is the current traffic ceiling in the original ecology of Web3.0. The success of DeFi has laid a solid financial foundation for it, and NFT and GameFi have further consolidated its ecological barriers. With the flourishing Layer2, Ethereum will have stronger scalability to accept and absorb more external traffic. 2.2 From Twitter to Binance/BSC
It is a consensus among many people that Twitter will fully embrace Web3.0 in the future, and the fundamental reason for this consensus is its new CEO: Elon Musk. First of all, Musk once bought a large amount of BTC in the name of Tesla, and mentioned Dogecoin many times on his Twitter, which shows that he is very open and friendly to Crypto; secondly, when completing the acquisition of Twitter, Musk accepted help from Binance and CZ, which left unlimited room for imagination for the cooperation between Twitter and Binance.
CZ also publicly explained the six reasons why Musk acquired Twitter:
Support freedom of speech, which is a prerequisite for monetary freedom;
Musk is a powerful entrepreneur, and with him at the helm, Twitter will continue to grow into an influential platform for everyone;
Twitter has huge untapped value and does not yet have a suitable business model. Musk and Crypto can unlock innovative business models without selling user data.
Binance is happy to help with Web3 integration and is the largest liquidity provider;
I use Twitter a lot, invest in the products you use (not financial advice);
Binance wants to help solve the problem. Eliminating robots has always been my wish. In addition, adding edit buttons, paying for blue Vs, and paying for post comments are also appropriate ways.
Combined with the public Twitter 2.0, although the Payment column is still blank, Musk has said in a Twitter Space that he can foresee that BTC, ETH, and DOGE will have a future, and Twitter will launch a crypto wallet in the near future. After Musk acquired Twitter, Binance's first big move was to launch the Bluebird Index, a comprehensive index composed of three cryptocurrencies: \(BNB, \)DOGE, and $MASK. The attitude behind it is self-evident.
2.2.1 Financial Payment
Twitter will definitely launch its own payment function in the future to achieve financialization, and payment tools and payment currencies will be the most important entrance for Twitter traffic to enter Web3.0. Therefore, the feasible path here is: Twitter users can access more Web3.0 applications by using low-threshold wallets that allow access, and use cryptocurrency for Twitter subscriptions, rewards, etc.
Payment tools: Trust Wallet, new Twitter wallet
Twitter Blue has introduced an NFT avatar feature for its subscribers. Currently, the wallets supported by this avatar feature include Argent, Coinbase Wallet, Ledger Live, MetaMask, Rainbow and Trust Wallet.
Trust Wallet was acquired by Binance in 2018, and its subsequent development has been fully supported by Binance. As a multi-chain non-custodial crypto wallet, Trust Wallet already supports 65 blockchains and over 4.5 million crypto assets (including NFTs), and has over 50 million users worldwide.
The key to Trust Wallet being a perfect traffic portal is its built-in DApp browser. Users can interact with other Web3.0 DApps without exiting the Trust Wallet App or connecting to a desktop device, and no additional registration and login process is required. This feature greatly reduces the threshold for new users to use Web3.0 applications. Payment currency: $DOGE, new Twitter coin
Musk has publicly expressed his love and support for DOGE more than once, so every price fluctuation of DOGE is more or less related to Musk. So if Twitter will definitely take the paid path in the future, what is the best payment currency (currently Blue verified is still charged in US dollars)?
Maybe DOGE.
First of all, as one of the most successful memes, DOGE is highly speculative, and the myth of DOGE getting rich quickly is the best narrative to attract attention. Secondly, DOGE has the clear support of Musk, a global top influencer, and the one who is close to the water gets the moon first. Finally, it is worth mentioning that DOGE's own reward culture coincides with Twitter's future path. Whether it is developing long videos to incentivize content creators or reshaping the blue V certification, it is inseparable from reward payment.
Can Musk choose to re-launch a Twitter coin? Yes, but please don’t ignore the regulatory issues. After the incidents of LUNA and FTX, regulation has become an issue that the entire Web3.0 industry cannot ignore. As smart as Musk is, he will definitely not take the initiative to cause trouble for himself.
2.2.2 Dapp
Twitter is one of the most important promotional platforms for Web3.0 products and has gathered many Web2.0 and Web3.0 celebrities. With the exposure of the Twitter platform, more traffic can be captured into Web3.0. Therefore, the feasible path at the Dapp level is: Twitter users discover Binance ecosystem Web3.0 Dapps that are attractive enough for them to use through the promotion of Web3.0 projects and KOLs.
So what is a Dapp that is attractive enough for users? This goes back to the three characteristics discussed above: low threshold, real demand, and speculative nature.
Take the once highly successful StepN as an example. As a Web3.0 GameFi application, it built various complex concepts of Web3.0 into the running and fitness game, lowering the threshold for use while attracting a large number of Web2.0 users with the concept of "Move to Earn". According to Dune data, StepN reached a peak of 700,000 monthly active users in May 2022, thus ushering in the era of X2E. Binance's latest IEO project Hooked Protocol also continues StepN's thinking, setting up different incentive mechanisms and dual-token models in its Learn to Earn Dapp "Wild Money", and focusing on the Southeast Asian market. Without discussing whether Wild Money's data is true, its product design is fully in line with the habits of Web2.0 users, which means a low threshold; the incentive mechanism for answering questions and staking mining is relatively rough but has a certain speculative nature; as for the real demand, you can say that learning Web3.0 is a native demand, or it can be said to be a pseudo-demand. In the final analysis, Hooked has not started the flywheel of learning, so that user stickiness is too low and the sustainability of the entire product is not strong enough.
MagicSquare is also a Binance project that continues the above idea. As a multi-chain, community-driven Web3.0 discovery platform, it combines the application store function of Web2.0 with the DAO mechanism of Web3.0, and helps users obtain better quality crypto products through a community-led review mechanism. MagicSquare has designed a Use to Earn mechanism to bind the interests of users with the interests of the platform. Ordinary users can get rewards just by downloading and using DAPP. Users can get corresponding rewards according to their ranking, that is, Karma Score. Karma Score is used to track all activities of users during their use of Magic Square, such as likes, comments, downloads, voting, challenges, transactions, pledges, etc.
In addition, users can also use MagicID to quickly access all applications that have been reviewed and approved by the community with one click, achieving low-threshold usage.
In addition to attracting user traffic, the Magic Affiliates referral program also provides a Store platform for high-quality projects to attract more traffic. Users can also receive rewards while promoting high-quality projects. 2.2.3 DID
As a social giant of Web2.0, Twitter's identity login system still uses the traditional account and password login, but what if it chooses to connect to Web3.0's DID?
Thinking in this way, it seems that we can find a feasible traffic migration path: Twitter combines with the DID project of Web3.0, allowing users to log in through Web3.0 decentralized identity and returning control of data to users.
Therefore, SpaceID has become a BSC native DID project that we have to pay attention to. As a domain name service provider invested by Binance Labs, the current number of domain name registrations exceeds 320,000. According to the project's official website, SpaceID has integrated 52 applications, including DeFi, NFT, wallets, metaverse, SocialFi and other tracks and multiple public chains. Lifeform is another DID project invested by Binance Labs. Unlike other DID projects, the 3D virtual human avatar creation system developed by Lifeform allows users to freely create the virtual avatars they want, and the system operation is infinitely close to Web2.0 products, and the threshold for use is very low.
Compared to most other flat NFT identities, the 3D avatars launched by Lifeform are more native to the metaverse. More importantly, Lifeform's avatars not only support Web3.0 application login, but also support Web2.0 products such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and TikTok, which undoubtedly increases user appeal.
From the Lifeform Eco listed on the official website, we can see that Lifeform also hopes to build its own ecosystem, and the virtual life game with the goal of "Live to Earn" will become an important part. 2.3 From Twitter to Ethereum
Ethereum is not only the place with the most traffic in Web3.0, but also the place that can accommodate and retain the traffic from Web2.0 the most, so it is very likely that Twitter's traffic will go to Ethereum. And the feasible migration path can still be found from financial payment, Dapp, and DID.
2.3.1 Financial Payment
Following the feasible path proposed above: Twitter users can access more Web3.0 applications by using low-threshold wallets that allow access, and use cryptocurrencies for Twitter subscriptions, rewards, etc. We still need to focus on wallets that Twitter may access.
Among them, MetaMask is undoubtedly the most noteworthy giant in the Ethereum ecosystem. As one of the indispensable applications in the Ethereum community, the Little Fox Wallet is the center of all interactions between users and blockchains in the world of Web3.0. After the successive updates of the Swap and Bridge functions, Web2.0 users have more room to explore Web3.0 with MetaMask. But obviously, MetaMask is not very low-threshold, and the long string of mnemonics and wallet addresses is not very friendly to novice users. So the mnemonic-free wallet will be another focus of our attention. Thanks to the long-term development of new technologies such as secure cloud storage, MPC and smart contracts, account abstraction has a richer design space. Take UniPass Wallet, which is compatible with all EVM chains, as an example. It is a smart contract wallet solution that uses MPC technology to support on-chain Email social recovery. Users directly use email and password to register and log in to their accounts without using mnemonics and private keys.
Users can also set up guardians using their emails, and when they need to recover their accounts, they can easily do so by asking their guardians to submit their emails appropriately. All operations are low-threshold for Web2.0 users.
2.3.2 Dapp
At the Dapp level, since Twitter already supports NFT avatars, the easiest connection point between Twitter and Ethereum is the NFT Marketplace. So the feasible path here is: Twitter users can trade NFTs through the NFT trading market that allows access.
Although there are many NFT trading markets, the centralized Opensea still has the most users. Opensea supports cryptocurrency payments and credit cards to purchase NFTs, which is undoubtedly a low threshold for Web2.0 users, and this may be the reason why Twitter chooses Opensea in the future.
But in terms of speculation, the decentralized NFT trading market is obviously more competitive than Opensea. X2Y2 and LooksRare are willing to share platform fee income with their token holders, and Blur's airdrops are also rewarding users. The potential value they bring to users may become the key to attracting more users. According to Dune's data, Blur, X2Y2, etc. are catching up and jointly eroding Opensea's market share.
2.3.3 DID
We have already made it clear in the previous article that there is such a feasible path: Twitter can be combined with the DID project of Web3.0, allowing users to log in through the Web3.0 decentralized identity and return the control of data to users. In this way, Twitter can be a part of the user's decentralized identity (DID), and Twitter data can also be used to build the user's entire identity system.
ENS, recognized by Vitalik as the most successful non-financial Ethereum application to date, is not only a simplified mapping of blockchain addresses, but also a unique on-chain user business card. It can be connected to social platforms such as Twitter for personalized display, and ultimately build a low-threshold on-chain and off-chain unified user identity identification system. Web2.0 users no longer need to remember lengthy blockchain addresses, but only need to use the simpler ENS domain name as a social business card and payment gateway.
Another thing worth noting is Lens Protocol. This is a native social protocol for Web 3.0 built on Polygon (EVM compatible). Unlike domain name systems such as ENS, Lens is a more low-level meta-protocol with content and communication expansion capabilities. Lens NFTs all social relationships within the ecosystem to form a social graph, and gives functional modules composability through self-built protocol standards. This means that once Web2.0 users enter Lens, they can decide whether to share the social content and relationships of applications within the entire ecosystem, and take control of the data into their own hands.
Dune's data shows that the number of monthly active profiles of Lens has hit a record high, and the number of wallet accounts has exceeded 100,000. As a project backed by the Aave team, Lens is still in the internal testing phase, but many projects have emerged that are worth trying, such as: Phaver, Lenster, ORB, LensFrens, etc. Finally, when it comes to Twitter, we have to mention Mask Network. Mask is a middleware that helps users seamlessly transition from Web2.0 to Web3.0. Using Mask, you can freely send encrypted messages and cryptocurrencies on Twitter, interact with decentralized applications, and complete decentralized file uploads and storage. Mask Network can be said to be a two-way connection point for Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 with extremely low barriers.
As one of Mask Network's investment portfolios, RSS3 advocates returning content ownership to users based on real usage needs. When a user uses an RSS3 ecological application, an RSS3 file is created and associated with the user's Ethereum address, Twitter and other information, thereby collecting Web3.0 chain information and Web2.0 information that complies with RSS standards. All information storage is decentralized. In this way, the power to select content and content ownership are returned to the user.
3. Summary
Starting from Twitter, Binance, and Ethereum, we explored the feasible path for migrating traffic from Web2.0 to Web3.0. We believe that this path has one or more of the following characteristics:
Low threshold: Low threshold is a prerequisite for Web2.0 users to enter Web3.0 on a large scale.
Real needs: Users do not need replicas of mature Web2.0 applications, but rather new crypto-native things based on real needs.
Speculation: Speculation and potential wealth creation are important factors that can attract a large number of Web2.0 users.
Combined with the product planning of Twitter 2.0, it can be seen that financial payment will be one of the key points of Twitter's future development, and payment tools and payment currencies are the key entry points for Web3.0 to capture a large amount of traffic. From this, we can find such a feasible path: Twitter users can access more Web3.0 applications by using low-threshold wallets that allow access, and use cryptocurrencies for Twitter subscriptions, rewards, etc. Based on this path, on the one hand, we need to pay attention to wallets with lower thresholds such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Unipass, which have become wallet giants, and on the other hand, we also need to pay attention to Doge, which has its own reward culture and is closely related to Musk.
As one of the Web2.0 platforms with the most traffic, Twitter is not only the most important promotion channel for Web3.0 products, but also the intersection of Web2.0 and Web3.0 celebrity traffic. This means that at the Dapp level, Twitter users can find sufficiently attractive Dapps through the promotion of Web3.0 projects and KOLs to officially enter the door of Web3.0. Sufficient attraction means "low threshold, real demand, and speculative". In the short term, since Twitter has introduced the NFT display function, the NFT trading market will have a greater chance of success in cooperation with Twitter; but in the long run, BSC native applications such as MagicSquare may have the opportunity to replicate StepN's past success.
Decentralized identity will be one of the most valuable assets for Web3.0 users. Twitter users can obtain decentralized identity as a feasible path to enter Web3.0. Twitter users can use domain name projects such as ENS, SpaceID, and Lifeform to obtain on-chain identity badges, or use projects such as Mask Network and RSS3 to control and own Twitter data. They can also use Lens Protocol to build a low-threshold on-chain and off-chain unified user identity identification system.
Although there is no Web3.0 native product that surpasses the mature Web2.0 applications, the migration of Web2.0 traffic to Web3.0 is an irreversible trend and future. The feasible path for traffic migration will definitely be achieved by Crypto Native products.