Web 3 & The Curse of Solutionism

We’ll remember that building tokens that pump in price are easy, but building products that people actually give a shit about is just as hard, if not harder than Web 2.

And what’s top of mind for most users is probably more in line with "which filter makes my skin look better" than "how can I be sure nation states will not violate my right to personal privacy on this fine afternoon".

It's easier to convince people to use a product because it solves a problem they already have, rather than try to fundamentally alter their worldview by shoving The Sovereign Individual down their throats.

While your friends may occasionally react to a Huff Post article about Big Tech encroaching on personal privacy with an angry emoji, most users are compelled by convenience, not privacy.

Being decentralized / having a token does not absolve you from the requirements beset upon scaling a product people actually want to use.  In fact, the considerable frictions of using a crypto backend means it’s likely harder, as you must make up for the UX shortfall by delivering a product that’s 10x better than its centralized co

... See more

While most savvy founders are right to avoid “build it and they’ll come” thinking, the correct response is almost never “if it worked in Web 2, it will work in Web 3”. Copying mainstream consumer products may seem like a safe bet as the markets have been validated, but skeumorphism is not a go-to-market strategy.

In crypto’s early days, the low-hanging fruits were up for grabs. Ethereum didn’t need to think about every specific use case - it just needed to work.Uniswap and Aave didn’t need to predict the growth of DeFi, stablecoins, interest-bearing tokens etc. to know that trading and borrowing were foundational use cases.Opensea didn’t need to predict P2E... See more