Why crypto

What we’re seeing in the unbundling of publishing, including the rise of Substack newsletters, is people inherently trust other people more than faceless institutions. This is as true in publishing as it is in finance. Facebook has become a symbol of all that is wrong with the current state of digital media. The heart of crypto is establishing trus... See more

The return of scarcity. One of the defining features of digital media has been limitless supply. Media has long been premised on scarcity -- look at the Upfronts -- in order to drive higher pricing. Take the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Yes, it’s strange to see adults spend tons of money on cartoon primates. But what BAYC points to with its NFTs is that i... See more

It also makes intuitive sense that we’d have digital money that’s programmable. We'‘re programming everything now; mRNA is basically running a program on the cellular level. Many of the current problems in the digital economy -- lack of trust, misaligned incentives, controlling gatekeepers, treating audiences as a resource to be exploited -- arise ... See more

Moving from audiences to communities. Memberships and subscriptions hold the promise of closing the gap between media brands and their audiences. When your audience is your customer, you tend to provide better services. The advent of tokens and decentralized autonomous organizations would seem to represent the next step. It is logical for a communi... See more

The rise of Web 2.0 was heralded as an advancement by not just allowing people to read and write content and do transactions but to connect with each other in new ways. That gave rise, eventually, to Facebook and other social networks, along with a raft of “sharing economy” companies that peddled a fantasy of building community at the heart of busi... See more