1/ Dapps are experiments in incentivizing new behaviors. Those dapps trying to replace centralized services have to create benefits that outweigh the immense costs of leaving current, dominant networks. To do this, we have to start by asking the right questions.
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— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
3/ Experiment: can we translate the human impulse to collect and the psychological reward of ownership translate to digital goods, even when there is zero marginal cost of replication? https://t.co/VKaXdcRvXm
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
5/ This last one has me particularly interested. A dapp meant to replace a centralized service is making an argument that the incentives it offers and the new value it creates are greater than the loss of leaving the mainstream network. That’s bold in the attention economy.
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
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1. Are the costs of the centralized service meaningfully high to a large group of users?
2. What aspects of the user experience require parity for those users to switch?
3. What additional value add (beyond eliminating centralized costs) are required to grow the network?— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
9/ Looking at things through this lens, certain categories of “costs" that come with participating in centralized networks are going to be more able to convince users to switch than others, with privacy on one end of the spectrum and real $$ costs on the other.
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
11/ On the other hand, when network effects monopolies cost users actual money, there is more opportunity. The proportion of Amazon sales from 3rd parties just keeps going up, but so too do their transaction fees, squeezing margins. That feels disruptable. https://t.co/47JGFLIXFR
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
13/ It’s also worth noting that there is likely to be even more of a difference between most Dapp’s crypto-native early adopters (who may truly care about privacy, etc) and their prospective mass audience than in previous consumer products (who likely don't).
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
15/ Summing up: companies that are creating decentralized versions of centralized services are running experiments in incentives. To have any chance of success, those incentives have to outweigh the costs of switching away from major networks.
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
16/ Still, it’s early days and there are lots of reasons to be optimistic. Which of today’s centralized services do you think has the most potential to be disrupted? What types of activity won’t be possible until dapps get them right? https://t.co/9BQAWRR1Qz
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 27, 2018
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