Share this page!

balajis.com Profile picture
Twitter logo
12 Mar, 5 tweets, 2 min read
The meme economy will become real.

- Meme creators will make NFTs
- Timestamps give proof-of-first
- Memegen partially goes on-chain
- Memetic spread is more traceable
- Memers become millionaires
- Risky art becomes uncensorable & monetizable
- Art moves outside regime control
If you’re building this, reply here and/or DM. Space is moving fast, working products preferred! Suggestions:

1) Focus solely on memes, just like Giphy focused solely on gifs.

2) Clone as much existing memegen-type UX as you need, your initial innovation may be mostly backend.
@Cryptanzee @BitcoinMemeHub @RonenV, figured you might be interested in this thread.
Memers can monetize privately.

- use real names, pseudonyms, or be anonymous
- persistent pseudonyms are distinct from anonymity
- digital sigs allow persistent pseudonymity (eg “Satoshi”)
- on-chain tracking will eventually be at creator discretion, via view keys or equivalent
The concept of view keys comes from Monero originally, I think. The idea is selective on-chain visibility of transactions.

So there are choices between “everyone sees it” & “no one sees it”. Over time there will be fully granular on-chain access control. electriccoin.co/blog/explainin…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with balajis.com

balajis.com Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @balajis

balajis.com Profile picture
12 Mar
Glenn and @Snowden were early advocates for encryption to defend human rights against abusive corporations & states alike.

Satoshi was a pioneer in the use of encryption to stop seizures by the same corporations & states.

These are two halves of the same worldview. 🧵
They coincide exactly, because the private keys to *publish* online are the same as the private keys to *transact* online.

The same censorship-resistant blockchain design that prevents seizure of private property also prevents states & corporations from silencing your voice.
When you digitally sign and broadcast a transaction to a blockchain, it is sometimes referred to as *publishing* a transaction.

With the right design, this gives you pseudonymous, verifiable, uncensorable communication and transaction. Free speech and free markets in one stroke.
Read 4 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
8 Mar
Blockchains are much easier to search index than the open web, which is in turn easier than closed social networks.

And GPT-3 can generate better-than-search results on the fly.

So, it sounds cliche, but “blockchain and AI” really are a long-term pincer attack on Google Search.
Why are blockchains easier to index than the web? They have a single canonical endpoint & all records are in the same format. Just need to keep chain tip fresh.

Far easier than crawling the menagerie of web pages.

Which is in turn easier than getting full Twitter API access!
Why can GPT-3 (or sequels) generate better-than-search results?

It also takes a search index as input (Common Crawl), but it doesn’t just present you 10 blue links.

It does the synthesis for you, and may eventually be able to do it offline just with learned parameters.
Read 5 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
7 Mar
v1: the free market
v2: there is always a marketplace operator, whether Airbnb or USG
v3: the free market in markets
When you build a two-sided marketplace or scaled social app, you take on many roles of a government.

Indeed, setting parameters for millions is also a kind of policy making, enforced digitally rather than physically.

But the feedback on error is exit/wallet, more than ballot.
Today, digital punishments like deplatforming are controversial because they are done arbitrarily, by private actors, outside color of law.

Tomorrow, pre-agreed digital punishments may be considered more humane than physical punishments, as more & more state functions go online.
Read 7 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
6 Mar
Disagree. By associating money with a private key, you give a literal incentive for every user to keep the key (a) private and (b) available at all times.

That’s the fundamental issue that previous PKI schemes didn’t solve at the individual level.
If you pin a post-it note with your private key to your computer, that’s available but not private.

If you write it down & keep it in a safe place whose location you forget, that’s private but not available.

So, for individuals, private AND available key storage is nontrivial.
Another way of putting it: private and available key storage for individuals is *expensive*, especially in attention terms.

Pre-crypto PKI could incentivize *organizations* to keep their keys private and available, but not individuals.

Cost wasn’t worth benefit. Till crypto.
Read 5 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
3 Mar
Alignment of interests, for the win.

NFTs let us expand tech-style financing into way more areas: art, music, movies, games. And not a moment too soon, as the legacy culture has lost the plot.

Create risky, pseudonymous art. Make money. Become cancel-proof. What’s not to like?
Note: I am well aware that movies and music have established financing models, & many games are funded by tech investors 🙂

But the secondary markets & degree of monetization that NFTs open up will transform those sectors and see much more in the way of tech dollars pouring in.
Btw @TheStalwart is of course right that this was not a long-standing concern of many of the new entrants to the market.

But so long as NFTs will be around for a while (and they have been in gestation for 4+ years), economic alignment will lead to more lasting future alignment.
Read 5 tweets
balajis.com Profile picture
24 Feb
The defi matrix

As each asset class goes on-chain, it can be stored in a digital wallet. And it can be traded against other such assets. Not just cryptocurrencies, but national digital currencies, personal tokens, etc.

We’re about to enter an age of global monetary competition.
The defi matrix is the table of all pair wise trades. It’s the fiat/stablecoin pairs, the fiat/crypto pairs, the crypto/crypto pairs, and much more besides.

Uniswap-style automatic market making for everything. Every possession you have, constantly marked to market by ~2040.
More liquidity, less currency?

This is an interesting point. Cash doesn’t make you money. In fact, it can lose you money in an inflating environment.

Reliable, 24/7 mark-to-market on everything is hard — but if achieved, means less % of assets in cash.
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @balajis has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @balajis!

Read all threads by @balajis