Web3 Education Can Help Creators ‘Own a Piece of the Internet': Nas Company Exec

Alex Dwek joined CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” to discuss the education technology platform Nas Company and how Web3 can help creators “make a living off the internet.”

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Updated May 11, 2023 at 4:31 p.m. UTC
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The future of Web3 is all about education, access and ownership, said Alex Dwek, chief operating officer at the education technology platform Nas Company.

The company, formerly Nas Academy, was started by mega-vlogger Nuseir “Nas” Yassin.

“We see Web3 as this amazing opportunity for creators to own a piece of the internet, [to] own a piece of something they create and [to] get long-term value for the contribution they make,” Dwek said on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover.” He was referring to the monopoly-like control exerted by social media platforms. Facebook alone takes in a quarter of all U.S. online ad spending, he said.

This piece is part of CoinDesk's Education Week.

“A creator can have millions of followers and billions of views but, still, social media platforms get the majority of that benefit,” Dwek said.

Palestinian-Israeli Nuseir Yassin, 30, has turned his viral vlogs, started in 2016 on Facebook, into a fledgling media empire on its own. The two-year-old startup has upwards of 50 million followers and recently raised $12 million in a Series B funding round. Via a partnership with e-learning platform Invisible College, it is looking to combine online education with the use of the internet as a way to enable “any individual to learn that you can make a living off the internet,” said Dwek.

The trend has been growing widely on social media, and creators are becoming aware the audiences they build on social media platforms can lead to other business ventures, according to Dwek. “It shouldn’t just be the biggest creators in the world.”

Headquartered in Singapore, Nas Company is looking to widen that access for creators including those “interested in marketing, operations, partnerships or want to get into the space to be an investor or part of the ecosystem.” It is gearing its efforts across different media rather than only focusing on developers, according to Dwek.

“If you empower those individuals [and] creators, no matter how big or small, to create something on the internet, then with the right mechanisms and incentives you can bring that value back to them,” he added.

The Solana-based platform will operate via a Decentralian non-fungible token (NFT) membership, and will give students access to courses within Web3 and crypto. Courses can range in price from $49 to $597 and can be paid by credit card or crypto.

In addition, once students complete a course, they have the option of selling back the Decentralian NFT in order to receive a return on their initial tuition payment. With the purchase of one Decentralian NFT students unlock 20 courses, with new courses added every month after, according to Dwek.

“You kind of own a stake in your education,” Dwek said.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Fran Velasquez

Fran is CoinDesk's TV writer and reporter.


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