This economy already exists in one form, and is quite sucessful, look at point cards: grocery stores give "points, airmiles, creditcard rewards.
All of these could be replaced with a blockchain equivalent, which would let the provider create a "free" reward structure, which could evolve into an appreciating asset.
Pros of this approach over traditional rewards, likes, point systems:
- The token infrastructure exists, and is becoming more user friendly all the time, look at SMT's.
- The token would cost the company almost NOTHING to implement.
- The company would be the holder of the tokens at first (like a pre-mined crypto), meaning they have all the wealth that comes with the new token, and if it appreciates could be a huge revenue source.
- The company could benefit from the security of blockchain, because these companies always have your personal info, and they therefore have to have security, and are always at risk of being hacked, which exposes them to lawsuits from the user base. Blockchain would secure our personal data in a way that would avoid, legal expenses when breachs occur, as well as security costs to secure the data on some central server.
Very interesting, and VERY likely, I simply cannot imagine a future where blockchain isnt completely ubiquitous. It will be as woven into our daily lives as the internet is today.