2/ For context, this list comes from a research process I was a part of for this article by @kjer which argues that owners of centralized networks have an “extraction imperative” that does not exist in decentralized, tokenized networks. https://t.co/FC3vcx6jhN
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
4/ @andrewchen echoes the idea that ‘network effects’ actually refers to a set of different loops where something gets more valuable as the number of people interacting with it increases. https://t.co/DEdqTam44B
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
6/ @cdixon visualized the process by which platform monopolies begin to extract rent from their community (as well as compete with once-complementary businesses) as an S-curve in his essay “Why Decentralization Matters” https://t.co/1hL5RtS68E
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
8/ Freed from the rent seeking of centralized network owners, tokenized networks start to take on some interesting properties. In 2016, @FEhrsam explained how the network incentive of getting in early offset the fact that networks get more valuable later.https://t.co/H6tfEQeQLw
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
10/ Building on this work, @mikekarnj wrote about how, in the context of open source blockchains, the primary source of defensibility are the network effects that relate to how invested people are in the community. https://t.co/xaaf6ZnIHj
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
12/ To me, however, the most exciting implication has to do with the very structures of human organization available. In this piece, @NTmoney argues that bitcoin/crypto may herald the “Slow Death Of The Firm” https://t.co/lQbgpoBRp6
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
14/ This idea was beautifully fleshed out by @m2jr in his piece “Crypto Commons.” I think his articulation of ‘Governance Markets’ – "a medium for people to be rewarded for enforcing decentralized “governance” at scale" – is particularly important. https://t.co/0AQPfrEI6X
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
16/ Still, network effects and money *are* fascinating, too. While it was beyond the scale of the article we were working on, there is some great network effect theory around crypto and the long-term store of value.
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
18/ @kylesamani built on many of these ideas and argued that not only are network effects and competitive moats misunderstood, but that it is more or less too early for the real powerful network effects to have kicked in. https://t.co/z0LGPiFbEk
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
20/ Finally, an even more recent piece from @TobiasAHuber argues that, whether or not the ultimate winner is bitcoin, it’s highly likely to be a single winner-take-all / winner-take-most scenario. https://t.co/MzwimpC7N9
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
21/ If you’ve hung in this long, you’re likely to agree that network effects have a fascinating place in our discussions of blockchains and cryptoasset networks. What’s missing from this list? Who else is talking about network effects in crypto?
— Nathaniel Whittemore (@nlw) July 20, 2018
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