The VC firm Variant recently released The Ownership Economy - A primer on the state of Web3.
Variant defines the ownership economy as:
"... the products and services that will define web3—and the next generation of the Internet—are those that transform users into owners. We call this the ownership economy."
The essay points to crypto tokens (also called social tokens) as the main method of transforming users into owners.
Crypto tokens are a form of cryptocurrency. Because of this, they have many features that make them a better choice than traditional equity for sharing ownership. Key quote from the essay:
"Tokens have a richer and more frictionless design space. They can be distributed programmatically, with the potential to reward participants versus those who buy-in; they are effectively free to deploy, and they can transfer value in the same way we transfer information—instantly, to anyone, anywhere in the world."
So, in theory, anyone who uses a digital product or service could buy, or be given, crypto tokens that provide ownership in the product or service - or at least some form of participation in the value created by the product or service.
We've covered several examples of how this works in prior articles:
- What are Social Tokens (also called Creator Coins) and Why You Should Care covers how creators use tokens to engage, build, reward, and monetize a community of fans and customers - and provide a way for the fans to benefit from being a fan financially.
- The Rise of Crypto Clubs covers how tokens are being used to create new member-owned social and business organizations. And because the members are also owners, they benefit financially if the organization has financial success.
The hope of the ownership economy - and Web 3.0 - is that the financial rewards generated by the Internet will become much more decentralized and democratized.
In more simple terms, instead of VCs and company founders becoming billionaires while users get nothing, the wealth created by goods and services will be broadly shared with users.
This is hardly the first-time technology democratization claims like this have been made. So far, these claims have failed to materialize.
And although the four words most wrong in forecasting are "this time is different," this time could be different.
The essay's primary focus is to educate startups and founders on potential ownership economy opportunities.
The essay chart below (click to enlarge) shows the wide range of firms currently working in this area.

Many terms in addition to "the ownership economy" are used to describe how technology is empowering new ways for people to become entrepreneurs or solopreneurs.
These include the passion economy, the creator economy, the empowerment economy, the freelance economy, and - of course - the gig economy.
But no matter what you call it, it's clear technology is creating more opportunities for people to become self-employed and owners.