Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet

Platforms, like the iPhone, enable new applications. New apps make platforms more valuable.

This is the platform-app feedback loop.

a modern iPhone has more than 15 billion transistors, compared with a 1993 desktop PC, which has only about 3.5 million.

The laws of physics allow us to shrink transistors, the smallest unit of computing machinery, and therefore pack more computing power into smaller volumes.

Moore’s law states that the number of transistors that can fit on chips roughly doubles every two years.

Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the center. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.

A common tactic social networks use to get content creators to promote more content is to let creators achieve a certain scale of audience, and then to adjust the algorithm so the creators no longer receive the same levels of attention organically.

The second way for a social network to maximize revenue is through promoted content.

Social networks can maximize revenue in one of two ways. The first is to grow the network. The most effective way to do this is to create a positive feedback loop where more content leads to more users, and more users leads to more content.