Blockchain Has Bigger Fish to Fry
/ Abbey Titcomb / 10.19.2018 /
The most frustrating response to me excitedly describing a new decentralized app that just launched / we’re designing is:
The MCOM site includes some background on the FishCam:
A hyperlink enriched description of the fish in the tank:
Oh, and a link to the homepage of the creator, Lou Montulli. Including this picture. Legend.
The Economist put it best:
From Amazing FishCam to Google, we’ve seen the worldwide establishment of the Internet and how it’s fundamentally changed business and life around the globe.
In 2018, 57% of news media users go to digital sources and are more likely to turn to an aggregator (Google News, Apple news etc…) than to a newspaper site. One in four college students are enrolled in online courses. Arab Spring, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and other social movements driven by social media have all impacted, changed, and disrupted our government.
In truth, “useless” early apps were the catalyst for unprecedented change that has defined how our society works today.
Dani Grant and Nick Grossman from Union Square Ventures describe these early “GeoCities”-era catastrophes as a necessary turn in the so-called app-infrastructure cycle. In short (be sure to read the whole article here), the cycle is built upon the observation that apps inspire infrastructure, which in turn, enables new apps that inspire more advanced infrastructure — and so on. Lying underneath the lack of usability of early web apps was inspiration for the infrastructure of an entirely new digital world that enriches our connections, interactions, and communications.
In the current “blockchain” era, we find ourselves in another turn of the app-infrastructure cycle. In 2018, we can buy and breed digital cats (Cryptokitties), own virtual land in a VR universe (Decentraland), and stream pay-per-view adult content (Spankchain) — all through decentralized apps (dApps) powered by blockchain technology. The usage and “purpose” of these dApps are endlessly critiqued just as the early web pages of the Internet were.
All of the stupid web pages, simple home-pages, and useless bulletin boards, were the catalysts to the mass adoption to the internet. Just as the mindless dApps, crypto-collectibles, and utility coin networks will be the catalysts to Web 3.0 and blockchain technology.
At the early days of this entirely new technological revolution , we need to hold tight to the chaotic creativity and innovation that lies underneath the perceived “uselessness” and “silliness” of the budding app ecosystem. We need to set a standard for transparency to filter out the “bullshit” (because there’s a lot of it) - but stay open and curious about what those are building around us. We should embrace innovation and creativity or else we curb and constrain our imagination for what the future can be. These stupid dApps, networks, and tokens are ultimately the seeds to a — yes, decentralized — but more importantly, a more equitable, diverse, and resilient future.