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If youâve hung around the Web3 space for a while, you probably have heard of the term âinteroperabilityâ.
Interoperability this, Interoperability that. How about we âinter-ruptâ the conversation and peel the layers on this concept.
Through repetition and context, Iâve been able to understand what it means for myselfâŠand hopefully I can explain it to you! Letâs see how others explain the concept first.
Lisk explains the concept from a technical and blockchain POV:
Great example with e-mail being interoperable!
Jon Radoff (CEO of Beamable) mentions interoperability from a wallet and asset POV:
Not only can blockchains be interoperable, but the digital things that you own can be interoperable as well!
We even see the concept of interoperability in healthcare:
Holy crap this is a pretty deep explanation, with all the levels. The person who created this framework for healthcare must be into Web3 as well đ
TPan you just made me more confused. Sorry! Hereâs my ultra-diluted definition:
Interoperability is taking two items and having them operate together.
WaitâŠthatâs it? IMO, yes. Sometimes, the simplest explanations are the best. Though the above definitions and contexts are more accurate and detailed, itâs just having two things âoperateâ together in some way.
Whatâs nice about the broad definition that Iâm making is that weâre able to abstract the concept of interoperability and realize that this is already happening in our everyday lives.
Before we get into some everyday examples, whatâs helpful is understanding that there are different levels of interoperability: Platform, Brand, and Product.
It ainât a TPan piece if there arenât any examples!
Layer Zero - The âplatformâ in this case is blockchains, but LayerZero is building out an omnichain interoperability protocol đ.
I donât think Iâm qualified to explain much more than thatâŠbut letâs just say in the future it wonât matter what blockchain youâre doing __________ on, itâll just happen.
Personally, I want to dig into Layer Zero more, thereâs a lot of excitement around what theyâre building. Maybe a Dive for another day.
As a marketing and growth guy, this is one of my favorite ones. Letâs take one of the biggest piece of gaming news to come out last week: Dragonball Z partnered with Fortnite to create playable characters.
This image really sums up what brand interoperability could look like:
In what universe would Naruto, Goku, Darth Vader, and Rick end up in the same place? Fortnite, thatâs where.
Seeing this in action gets way more ridiculous, I mean Goku with a lightsaber?! đł
bro how the actual fuck is fortnite real LMFAOOOO
There is a pretty strong overlap between Brand and Product interoperability, but a good example for a product would be for video games:
Same platform, same brand, and a new console (product) that is backwards compatible with many older titles (product).
Thinking back on my piece on Derivatives and Metas, many of the examples I provided illustrating the concept of derivatives are also great examples for interoperability:
Memes: A version of platform x product interoperability. The theme (platform) of the meme stays the same, but the content (product) of the meme changes.
Music: Remixes, covers, acoustic versions of a song are variations of brand and product interoperability.
Fashion: Collaborations are brand x product interoperability.
Letâs take this one step further and Iâll stop.
Ideas are interoperable.
Iâm practically an interoperability conspiracy theorist at this point đ
But seriouslyâŠif we have an idea and share that âWhat ifâ to someone else, the idea itself is interoperable in a sense.
Hereâs a chart explaining this framework. Itâs far from perfect and there are overlaps, but it helps me to go from an interoperability conspiracy theorist to a thought leader.
Thatâs how it works right? You make a diagram and call yourself a thought leader?
Have you ever had an idea? If so, hereâs my idea: subscribe or share this!
Alright, letâs stop thinking so high level and get to some more practical and recent examples of interoperability from recent headlines:
Sandbox recently announced their Alpha Season 3 event:
Instead of just staring at your jpegs, you can now play with them in the metaverse!
The Sandbox is one of the largest metaverse platforms and is only open for users to during these Alpha Season events.
Starting tomorrow, Sandbox will be open with a large variety of experiences and quests. When users complete the quests, theyâll have the opportunity to participate in raffles and win SAND (currency for the Sandbox ecosystem.).
In addition to NFT projects, the Sandbox is partnering with other brands and notable individuals:
As a beta tester in Genies, itâs been fun to see what the digital avatar (and much more than that) company is up to. Yesterday they had a fun announcement:
The music video shows Quavo and Takeoff (two big rappers) dancing and rapping to one of their recent singles, âHotel Lobbyâ. Iâm a sucker for the pop rap sub-genre, so I enjoyed listening to this song in addition to the Genies integration.
A few hours ago, Genies announced another music video with Alison Wonderland, a DJ.
It seems that the Genies partnership with Warner and Universal Music are starting to materialize đ. More thoughts Iâve written on virtual influencers if youâre interested.
Earlier today, Ready Player Me announced a $56 million Series B fundraise, led by non other than a16zâs GAMES FUND ONE (I wonder why they chose all caps, it feels like I need to yell at someone after typing that).
What do they do?
So as a hypothetical, letâs say you have that Goku skin from Fortnite, awesome! Youâre flying around blasting people to bitsâŠbut you can only do that in Fortnite.
What if you could take that Goku skin you purchased and use it in 100 other games, metaverses, or environments? Thatâs what Ready Player Meâs platform is enabling.
Along with a16z, they have a lot of big names that have joined in, from both Web2 and Web3:
Great, they have the warchest. Do they have the network? I think soâŠ
Ah the infamous âTPan so what?! My takeaways are that you are an interoperability conspiracy theorist and you like pop rap.â
Weâre still âearlyâ when it comes to to interoperabilityâŠbut the sun is shining and the planted seeds have sprouted and are growing quickly with the fertilizer mix that is funding, brand interest, and consumer interest.
Going back to the concepts shared earlier, Sandbox, Genies, and Ready Player Me are platforms that are building the foundation for the consumer-facing fun stuff that is brand and product interoperability.
This isnât the end all be all. There are also a lot of unanswered questions and topics related to this (monetization, scalability, legal rights, etc.).
However, I think in the coming months, weâll start to see some of those questions answered as we see rich examples of interoperability across platforms, brands, and products that used to be what-ifâs.
See you tomorrow. Time to think of some more conceptual conspiracy theories!
Collect this post as an NFT.
