Proof of X

I’m more optimistic about Strava for Learning.

When new social networks emerge they have to introduce new proof mechanisms to differentiate themselves from existing incumbents.

The creative proof-of-work is just pretext and helps to boost your post. What’s more important are the additional proof mechanisms that social networks provide. In the case of Instagram those are photos and location tags.

A related product I’d love to see is Strava for Reading. Unfortunately, I think it’s unlikely that we will see a product like I described anytime soon. The world’s largest bookstore, most popular eBook reader, and biggest social network for books are all owned by a company that has very little competency in design and user-facing product innovation... See more

Another app that would be interesting is a social investing app.

Social networks are therefore not only signaling distribution (and amplification) networks – they also allow users to prove their signaling messages.

While the activity of learning itself might be hard to quantify, you can measure the outcome of learning: knowledge

Instagram is essentially “pics or it didn’t happen”-as-a-service.

Strava, on the other hand, introduced an entirely new proof mechanism: Proof-of-physical-activity. By using your phone’s GPS sensor (or a 3rd-party fitness tracker), users can actually prove how much and fast they ran or cycled. In contrast to Instagram photos, Strava’s proof mechanism is a lot harder to fake (though there are exceptions).