OpenSea Raises Money, Bans NFTs; OpenSea’s Value; Crypto’s Aggregators

In web3, the promise is that a user can retain ownership and control over their data. The dominant narrative goes: “The gatekeepers of web2 have taken your data and used it against you! Now it’s time to fight back!” Such argument from web3 enthusiasts is met with A LOT of resistance as data effectively becomes a currency that can be leveraged by a ... See more

These successful companies in most cases weren’t true platforms, but aggregators, locking in demand and exerting central control.

Payments and identity are attractors for wealth, power, centralization, and all the problems that come along with those things.Aggregators emerged at the intersection of these attractors, and broke the evolutionary loop of technology, leveraging network effects to fend off componentization and freeze the evolutionary landscape in place.Now into thi... See more

Kevin Werbach, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust,” said that while “granting strong ownership rights directly to users” could potentially shift the balance of power, none of web3’s promises are guaranteed.