- TEDxSDMIMD Mysuru
- September 2024
In 2024, Nadja Bester delivered a TEDx talk at SDMIMD Mysuru revealing three critical truths about the attention economy and digital identity, showing how they shape power, value, and human freedom in the digital age.
Watch Nadja’s TEDx talk here: TEDx SDMIMD Mysuru – Nadja Bester
3 Critical Truths for Digital Identity in the Attention Economy
What keeps you up at night? For Nadja Bester, the answer has always been the internet—not as it exists today, but as the hidden system shaping our collective future.
In her TEDx talk, she unpacked the internet’s evolution from Web1 to Web2 and now toward Web3, asking whether this digital world empowers us or exploits us.
Her conclusion: the internet is at a crossroads, and to navigate it wisely we must recognize three critical truths about the attention economy and digital identity.
Truth #1: Control is not ownership.
Governments and platforms often claim we have “control” over our data.
Regulations such as the GDPR in Europe or the CCPA in California offer rights to consent, delete, or modify information.
Yet Nadja explained that none of these frameworks grant true ownership. When you upload a photo to Facebook, the platform owns it—even though you can still view or share it.
Ownership means the economic right to decide how data is used, whether to monetize it or keep it private. Without ownership, users remain powerless in the digital economy.
Truth #2: Attention, data, identity are currency.
Nadja revealed how the attention economy works: every like, scroll, and click generates value, but not for the person creating it. Platforms turn attention into data, and data into profit.
At the same time, identity—the collection of digital footprints that make us who we are online—becomes a commodity. Our most intimate details are repackaged and sold back to us in the form of targeted ads, subscription services, or algorithmic recommendations.
As Nadja emphasized, “Your attention, your data, and your identity are being given away for free, while platforms make billions from them.”
Truth #3: Web3 offers an alternative path.
Despite the imbalance, Nadja argued that hope lies in the next evolution of the internet: Web3.
Built on blockchain, decentralization, and self-sovereign identity, Web3 is designed to restore agency. In this new paradigm, users could choose to monetize their health data, gaming statistics, or shopping insights—or keep them private.
Platforms like Brave browser reward users for their attention; Ocean Protocol allows individuals to sell their data directly; and decentralized identity systems let people prove facts (such as being over 18) without oversharing personal information.
Web3 is not just a technical shift; it is a social contract where individuals reclaim the right to own their attention, data, and digital selves.
Throughout her talk, Nadja drew on her own journey—from psychology student and early digital marketer to global speaker and blockchain entrepreneur. She showed how her personal crossroads mirrored the world’s: just as she once chose a new path to protect her child’s future, society now faces a choice about the future of the internet.
Will we remain products in an exploitative system, or will we step into a new digital era where people—not platforms—hold the power?
The Future of the Attention Economy
Her message was urgent yet hopeful. The internet is not fixed; it is a design space.
By recognizing these three critical truths, we can build an internet that honors human dignity. Nadja ended with an invitation:
“You are at a crossroads. Everyone else is going one way—but it’s not working. Maybe it’s time to choose another route.”
— Nadja Bester
Want to book Nadja as a speaker?
Nadja Bester is an award-winning founder and internationally renowned keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator.
Topics Nadja typically speaks on
Blockchain, NFTs, SocialFi, token economies, and how founders, investors, and communities are shaping the next internet economy.
- The evolution of Web3 and decentralized participation
- NFTs, SocialFi, and new ownership models
- Token economies and value creation in digital worlds
- Startup innovation and fundraising in Web3
- Investment trends and the future of digital assets
Digital identity, self-sovereignty, and why attention and engagement are the true currencies of the online world.
- Why attention is the new currency
- Data ownership vs. data control
- Self-sovereign digital identity and privacy
- Engagement models that reward participation
- The psychology of online reputation and trust
The intersection of AI, blockchain, and emerging technologies — ethics, disruption, and how convergence redefines human potential.
- AI + Web3: where intelligence meets decentralization
- The ethics of emerging technologies
- Creative disruption: how AI changes human potential
- The risks and opportunities of convergence
- Future interfaces between humans and machines
How technology reshapes psychology, behavior, and collective futures — from digital selves to cultural transformation.
- How technology reshapes human behavior
- Digital selves and the evolution of identity
- Cultural transformation in the age of decentralization
- The psychology of innovation and adoption
- Designing futures: from uncertainty to resilience