so let's say you're using a decentralized exchange that takes a small fee.
or a DAO payment tool that takes a cut of tokens.
why wouldn't you just fork the tool to use for yourself,?
4/
a few reasons *not* to fork smart contracts for yourself:
1) recreating front-end and updating code 2) recreating interface-level network effects, esp in marketplaces 3) looks bad to cut commissions from creators
but these *are* worth it to create a cheaper competitor.
5/
let's say you incur a 1% cut for using a service.
forking it doesn't just save you 1%... it lets you create a competitor to draw people with lower fees, say 0.25%.
so why wouldn't they use it?
why wouldn't you?
6/
tokens.
7/
tokens can let you govern a treasury of collected fees (as long as you're not paying them to yourself).
they not only invest you in the success of a product you use—they let you contribute to its direction as a builder.
tokens make you *want* a platform to succeed.
8/
go back to our earlier example.
you could fork a platform, create a competitor, and try to collect far fewer fees.
or you could collect a fraction of far greater fees by acquiring that platform's token.
which is the better deal?
9/
tokens are expensive to acquire, so it might seem better to fork a platform and just keep 100% of lower fees.
but what if you could *earn* tokens by contributing to building out the platform?
you no longer take on the risk of a new business, but share in this one's success.
10/
or what if a platform took fees from you, but minted you tokens to govern the treasury in exchange?
this is how @juiceboxETH works, and nobody has forked it.
using the protocol lets you own it.
11/
let's repeat that.
in web3, *using a protocol can let you own it.*
users become investors.
and become incentivized to see it collect fees from future users.
12/
the devil is in the details—and we don't have economic models yet for those details.
at what level are lower fees no longer compelling to switch to a new platform?
if token prices fall, does that create opportunities for forking?
13/
ultimately, there is no thing as a smart contract moat.
if opensea creates *the* smart contract standard for royalties used throughout the industry, then it's gotten massive network effects.
the most exciting part of the ethereum roadmap is the implicit recognition that financial transactions will be a very, very small piece of the data conveyed on blockchains
DAO governance is a pain, because we've been doing it the way we've always done governance—
taking time from our day to represent our opinion with votes that barely count.
but on-chain voting opens seven new types of governance:
1. Fork the Winners
who actually wins a vote?
depends on the metrics.
on-chain governance lets us retroactively reappoint winners based on new metrics: quadratic voting, vote decay, penalties for voting on multiple options, etc.
different winners emerge for the same contest.
2. On-Chain Identity
wanna see how often a DAO contributor votes? with others who share their goals? for a winning option?
this is what permissionless data enables.
on-chain governance records our work and preferences—so governance itself can penalize or reward contributions.