Beautiful Answer to Why Do We Need Blockchain
Asking “what problems do blockchains solve” is like asking “what problems does steel solve over wood?” You can make railways and buildings out of both. I mean take a bow Chris Dixon. I’ve always struggled with “who cares, just use a database” because I agree with that for most use cases. Now I have a good answer. A database works for your treehouse Adam, but we’re going to need something a little better if we have any ambition.
To expand on that, Chris makes the excellent point that hardly any innovation is done on social networks because these are owned by private companies. Twitter had so much innovation happening at the beginning before they locked all the developers out (this is a decade before Elon.) You can’t really build anything on Instagram or FaceBook because these companies could shut you down tomorrow. Not to mention they take all the profits. 30%, 70%, compared to 3% for credit cards for example. That’s a lot of money going to one company instead of a giant ecosystem.
Only 90s Kids Will Remember
The internet in the early days was so beautiful and chaotic. There were more than just 7 sites to visit. You could explore from link to link the entire internet the way you can only do on wikipedia these days. Anyone was free to build anything they wanted anywhere. Before the tech giants of today started accumulating power in their corporate networks. The kids of today only know the internet as the walled garden it is currently.
Network Design and the 3 Eras
It has to do with with the design of the networks. The small decisions that snowball into huge effects as the network grows. The first era Chris refers to as the “read era” from 1990 to 2005. Democratization of Information. Type a few words into a browser and read about anything you want. The next era is the “write era” from ~2006 to 2020. The publishing era, where corporate networks democratized publishing. Anyone can write (or makes videos, audios) and publish to mass audiences. The next era is the natural combination of the previous two, the “own era”. Anyone can become a network stakeholder, unlike before where it could only be a few shareholders, corporate affiliates and employees. This small change in the network has the promise of returning the internet to its dynamic, decentralized and open roots. As Chris says, “People can read and write on the internet. But now they can own.”
The Key Change in Network Design
The big change is in the dynamics of the hardware-software power relationship. Hardware exists in the physical world where an individual or a company controls it. With crypto the software “in all its expressive glory” is in charge. The hardware is replaceable. Think of Bitcoin miners or Ethereum validators. Compared to Google's or Facebook's servers for example. You can see the difference in power dynamics between hardware and software. So fcking HYPE! LFG!
Note: This is all just from the introduction. This is the ultimate hype book for anyone interested in Crypto. It's gets you SO EXCITED to see the future that can be built with blockchain technology.
