The Web 2.0 User Generated Content (UGC) model is one in which contributors play a central role: without them, there would be no content, and therefore no audience to monetise with advertisers. With a few exceptions (streamers, influencers, etc.) who make a living from monetising the views they generate or from product placements, Web 2.0 contributors-creators get a share of the value that is not very favourable to them, most of it being captured by online platforms. What's more, they have no control over the rules for sharing value and how they evolve. The many criticisms made of this model have led to the emergence of alternative solutions in which contributors, and more generally users, own their creations, whatever their nature (see “Is there a third path?”). While these alternatives are not necessarily new, they are enjoying renewed interest – or visibility – thanks to the recent promotion of the Metaverse, and the constant development of technologies and computing power.

In this model of digital owners, exchanges (sale, rental, donation) of objects, virtual spaces, or data, between users themselves or with brands, would be enabled by blockchain technologies [[["Blockchain is a technology for storing and transmitting information that is transparent, secure, and operates without a central control body. It is a database that contains the history of all exchanges between its users since its creation. It is secure and distributed: it is shared by its various users, without intermediaries, so that everyone can check the chain’s validity. There are public blockchains, open to all, and private blockchains, where access and use are limited to a certain number of players. A public blockchain can therefore be likened to a public, anonymous, unforgeable accounting ledger. As the mathematician Jean-Paul Delahaye writes, we need to imagine 'a very large notebook, which everyone can read freely and without payment, on which everyone can write, but which is impossible to erase and indestructible’” CNIL, « Blockchain »: https://www.cnil.fr/fr/definition/blockchain#:~:text=La%20blockchain%20est%20une%20]]], smart contracts [[[A smart contract is an intelligent computer protocol capable of automatically verifying and executing predefined operations or instructions (negotiation, execution, termination, etc.). They are based on blockchain technologies to guarantee their integrity and inviolability.]]], and NFTs [[[A digital token, fungible or not, is a unique digital asset (an avatar, the avatar's head or even an avatar's hair), which is issued and exchangeable on a blockchain network. Tokenisation works as a flexible legal mechanism through which people can define the digital and physical properties of programmed rights. Non-fungible digital tokens can be used for a variety of purposes: membership (closed communities can provide memberships in the form of NFTs to reflect the scarcity of seats in a closed club), loyalty (equivalent to accumulating points), ticketing (a ticket in the form of an NFT guarantees its uniqueness and authenticity), identification of digital or physical goods (NFTs can be attached to physical items to ensure their traceability and transparency), voting, etc.]]]. This promise, of which there are many examples to date, enables the creators of content and experiences to control their properties (authentication, transfer), their rights, and their values. By registering a token in a distributed blockchain-type register, which is considered to be tamper-proof, the existence and uniqueness of the token can be guaranteed, making the exchange of digital services and goods more secure and easier. In addition, it recreates one of the characteristics of the physical economy within digital spaces: scarcity at the root of value, which gives rise to a great deal of speculation.

User engagement is at the heart of digital sociability models. However, those that have been built to date, on user-generated content (UGC) platforms, have all come up against the 1/9/90 rule: 1% of users produce the content, 9% comment on it and 90% consume it. Engagement is therefore relatively limited.

Some people recommend rewarding metaverse users for their engagement, using digital tokens. These would offer rewards that could be monetised inside or outside the universe being played, or even outside the Metaverse. This gamification [[["Gamification consists of incorporating codes and mechanisms associated with the world of video games to sectors for which they were not intended”. Beedeez, « Gamification : tout ce que vous devez savoir », 10 May 2022: https://www.beedeez.com/fr/blog/tout-ce-que-vous-devez-savoir-sur-la-gamification]]] of engagement already exists in the world of video games with the play-to-earn model. This model rewards players according to the actions they carry out in the game, depending on their nature, frequency, or intensity. The rewards come in a variety of forms: points, items, money (often cryptocurrencies), etc.

The key to the model lies in the value placed on a player's involvement: the more they engage in a game, the higher the rewards, and the more value they create for other players and the game itself, whether through objects created in the digital environment for the benefit of the collective, through the acquisition of skills that can help others, through reaching a new level and therefore being more competitive, or through acquiring a new object and reselling it.