There is a trend that appears to be picking up steam of late.  It is something that was common in the traditional media world and is now entering the [cryptocurrency](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/cryptocurrency) world.

This trend has to do with information and segregating it.  What we mean by this is the idea of putting content behind a **paywall**.  

Most of us are aware of how this goes.  Go on a site like Reddit, [Coingecko](https://www.coingecko.com/en/news), or [CoinLogic](https://coin-logic.com/news-center/), see a heading of interest, click and get hit with the need for a subscription.

Naturally, this is something that can be very frustrating, especially if people have a yearning to learn.

The reality is this model must work since so many are doing it.  Information has value and entities, along with individuals, are looking to extract it.  Therefore, they put a [price](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-price) on said information.

This goes in contrast to the notion that **information wants to be free**.  Whether this is valid or not can be debated.  However, what is certain is that Hive is altering this completely.

<center>![image.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmST44gkpKMwcZD1BnFnGEvgfAH5jgKX8EsCSRRGzJWrJ4/image.png)
[Source](https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.0Yx0skN4X2y6veVpruEZgQHaD0)</center>

# This On Top Of Advertising 

We all know the primary business model when it comes to the [Internet](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-internet) is advertising.  This is what made the [social media](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-social-media) giants like Google and Facebook so valuable.  They were able to generate the [network effect](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-network-effect), which eventually became monetized through advertising.

Of course, this is not pleasant for the user experience.  Most of us know the frustration of watching a 30 minute video and having it pause 3 times for adverts.  Yet, that is how YouTube operates.

This is how these applications make money.  They decided to make their content free and then leverage the eyeballs for financial [gain](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-gain).

What about those entities that do not have a billion accounts?  Here is where paywalls enter the picture.

Those with content they believe has value are going to charge for it.  After all, this is a very old way of conducting business.  Newspapers, for generations, gave people the option of getting a **subscription** as opposed to paying for each edition.  There was a discount given to the former along with the perk of home delivery.

Much of this could be attributed to the fact there was a cost to create each copy of a newspaper.  Not only did the content have to be created, but it was run of on presses. 

The Internet brought the concept of digital into our lives.  Here there was no variable [cost](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-cost) associated with each new "copy".  Nevertheless, they still want payment.

Naturally, they did not turn their back on advertising.  Those who do pay are still hit up with adverts which, presumably, generates [revenue](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-revenue) for the site.

# Hive Disrupting Information Completely

[Blockchain](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/blockchain) was revolutionary in that it provided a way to have a [decentralized](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-decentralization) [ledger](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-ledger) which no single person controlled.  This was one of the innovations that [Bitcoin](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-bitcoin) brought to the table.

[Hive](https://leofinance.io/@crypto-guides/what-is-hive-crypto-hive) takes it one step further in that it allows long form text to be part of the ledger.  Thus, we are not dealing with [financial](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-finance) [transactions](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-transaction), similar to a [bank](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-bank).  The [data](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-data) housed on Hive looking similar to Facebook or Medium.

The disruption that we can see entering the picture comes from the combination of the base layer along with [Layer 2](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-layer-2) solutions.  When we analyze the impact of both [coins](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-coins) and [tokens](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-token), we can see how the old model is quickly made obsolete.

We like to toss the word community around.  However, this is very important in this context.  When communities are [tokenized](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-tokenization), they have the ability to become an [economy](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-economy).  Thus, those who are engaging in the creation of content are able to get rewarded.

Over time, as more communities form around this concept, the level of expertise in particular areas is going to rival the mainstream sites.  Using the Hive mind concept, there is no way a single journalist who is going to be able to generate information that rivals what 10 or 20 professionals or hobbyists can put together.

Thus, not only is the information available for free, the quality of it, in terms of the knowledge conveyed, is far superior.

Of course, we are remiss if we didn't mention the economic structure.  The ability to compensate based upon the Proof-of-Brain model, especially at the community level, is unparalleled.  Under this scenario, the community is effectively rewarding those producing the information.

This is the essence of [Web 3.0](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-web-3-0).  Here we are merging the [distributed ledger technology (DLT)](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-distributed-ledger-technology-dlt) with cryptocurrency to arrive at a completely new business model.

The other piece is ownership.  We have a community that is [incentivizing](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-incentivize) this behavior because it wants to add more value to the economy.  With the ability to [stake](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-staking), individuals have a [financial](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-finance) interest.  This means rewarding those who add what is deemed valuable is to the benefit of all.

Under this model, we see the need for paywalls eliminated.  In fact, this goes counter to what the community wants.  With the "attention-economy", these groups want eyeballs.  Anything that can attract readers, viewers, or users is desired.

This is akin to not only being a writer for the newspaper but also having an ownership stake. 

Here is another example of a business structure that Hive can disrupt.


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*The links found in this article can be found at the [LeoGlossary Main Menu](https://leofinance.io/@leoglossary/leoglossary-main-menu).  Optimizing content on Hive is important for growth by feeding in organic traffic to the different front ends.*
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If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.



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