My simple mental model

web2: engagement first, monetization second

web3 monetization first, engagement second
and because in web2 the monetization sometimes went awry, the ideal outcome is web2 & web3 layer on top of each other bringing out the best in each
I should have said at the top, Josh is a pioneer of web2 and has balanced, good-faith take on web3.

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More from @cdixon

11 Nov
Good thread 👇

Letting users own their social graph & switch services *while taking your network with you* is one of the core public services web3 can deliver.

This is how email works and there is no reason all social services can’t work this way.
I believe we already have all the necessary infrastructure.

The key is judicious division of what goes on-chain vs off-chain to guarantee user ownership of critical data while minimizing gas fees and maximizing scalability.
web1 maintained strong decentralization of web (http) and email (smtp) all via DNS. If a hosting provider behaved badly you could just switch your domain to point to a new IP and you didn’t lose any data or your position in the network.
Read 5 tweets
9 Nov
The reason I like the phrase “computers that can make commitments” is that it expresses the full generality of the blockchain app design space.

cdixon.org/2020/01/26/com…

(I realize it hasn’t caught on yet - I think it will eventually :))
There is nothing inherently financial about blockchains. Finance happens to be a design-rich subdomain, because blockchains can make commitments about scarcity, ownership, immutable code, etc.
But you can also make other kinds of commitments. For example, ENS makes commitments around how its namespace works and is governed.

You can’t have a situation like this with DNS where a private equity firm tried to control the entire .org tld icdsoft.com/blog/the-org-c…
Read 7 tweets
8 Nov
Why gm?

global community- it’s a friendly grounding ritual across different time zones

authentic community with positive sum mindset that genuinely likes each other and uses memes to signal

Symbolic of high clock speed & info density wrt to code, ideas, culture, and memes.
Also a good rule of thumb is faster clock speed wins.

Why Twitter ate news and why web3 will eat culture.

Related: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
Credit to @pmarca here
Read 4 tweets
8 Nov
Certain categories of web2 websites and apps fall into a usability-monetization death spiral. 🧵
Relying on ads and monetizing at low CPMs, the incentive is to add ever more intrusive ads to increase click rates.

User experience degrades, requiring more intrusive ads, in a downward cycle.
News sites, cooking sites, games, music, Q&A, travel, and many other web2 categories that didn’t figure out subscriptions or high-CPM business models fall into this trap.
Read 9 tweets
8 Nov
Facts:

Modern blockchains are fully programmable computers that enable new classes of applications.

PoS blockchains (basically all new blockchains) don’t consumer excess electricity.

More info:

a16z.com/2018/02/10/cry…

a16z.com/crypto-startup…

cdixon.org/2020/01/26/com…
If you read a news source that says otherwise, I’d strongly recommend going direct to primary sources.
The energy use of PoW systems (Bitcoin, Ethereum today before near-term switch to PoS) is more nuanced, but I recommend this essay from Square to understand the pro-PoW argument:

squareup.com/us/en/press/bc…
Read 4 tweets
27 Oct
DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) are beginning to have real impact on the adoption of web3 products. @FWBtweets is one of the most promising, so I’m excited to share that @a16z crypto is investing in $FWB and joining the community. a16z.com/2021/10/27/inv…
DAOs are internet-native, global collectives that share resources, build products, and work together toward common goals. This breakthrough method of organizing communities and funneling creative energy is accelerating innovation in web3.
History shows that good things happen when conditions are set for passionate, brilliant people to collaborate on shared ideas. It also shows that disruptive innovations often start with hobbyists coming together to tinker on their shared interests.
Read 4 tweets

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