Protocols as Minimally Extractive Coordinators — Placeholder

ou are always going to have centralized services in the mix, because it is just a fact that centralized companies make better user experiences than protocols do. I agree with that. I think the question is, do the network effects accrue to the company, or do they accrue to the protocol? In Web1, they accrue to the protocol, in Web2, they accrue to t... See more

The decentralization of clients within DeFi is somewhat straightforward given their relative simplicity — very little incentivization is necessary to get third parties to build independent and simple gateways (mostly in the form of websites) to such protocols. However, as web3 products and services become increasingly complex, with computationally ... See more

Web3 teams have an opportunity to learn from and improve on the strategy of commoditizing the complement. In this essay, we’ll discuss why building and commoditizing a product on top of a user-owned protocol offers maximum leverage to execute this strategy, with potential for stronger economic equilibriums that drive growth, and value, beyond that ... See more

Crypto-economic protocols allow for people to coordinate their economic activities without a centralized, rent-extracting party, and will help move these industries from corporate feudalism to meritocratic capitalism and freer markets.

In addition to conventional market dynamics, an overarching factor driving the evolution of decentralized networks is the tension between ideology, reality, and financial incentives.