Less trust, more truth: Implications and design choices for business models and platform ecosystems in the age of Web3

Abstract

Business model literature, while insightful, primarily focuses on the Internet and Web 2.0 contexts. The emergence of pioneering digital technologies, especially the Web3 anchored by blockchain, necessitates reevaluating business model paradigms, particularly those of platform business models within related ecosystems. This study delves into blockchain's unique affordances, investigating how they mold novel Web3 business model patterns and integrate into specific platform ecosystems. We scrutinize the characteristics, trajectories, and synergies of value creation and capture. Using a mixed-methods approach involving 171 interviews and a subsequent sample of 126 Web3 ventures, we delineate a taxonomy of Web3 business model dimensions, clustering emergent decentralized platform ecosystems into pertinent archetypes. Our theoretical model delineates how blockchain affordances influence these configurations, emphasizing the dynamic between a platform's nucleus and its fringes. We highlight Web3 platform design choices leaning towards data sovereignty, emphasizing how the degree of blockchain integration within platform governance—leading to information symmetry and platform disintermediation—transitions digital trust to what we term as digital truth.