Hey, it’s Kesh 👋

Can you imagine a world where your Gmail account could only email other Gmail accounts?

What if some websites only worked on Google Chrome but not Safari?

That would make the internet unusable. The reason email addresses and websites are so ubiquitous is because they are interoperable. That means they are like plug-and-play puzzle pieces.

To make technology interoperable, we need to build on the same foundation. We call this foundational layer “protocols.”

All email providers build on the SMTP protocol.

All websites are built on the HTTP protocol (that’s why all websites start with http or https).

Blockchains are a new type of protocol. It gives us the ability to OWN digital things (like our social media contacts and other data).

The problem

Right now we use a lot of non-interoperable platforms on the internet. For example, Twitter is a short-form messaging service. Kind of like text messaging, right?

But text messaging is built on open-source protocols so I can text anyone I want.

Twitter uses its own proprietary tools. In other words, it’s not a protocol. They own all the data (accounts) on their platform. And they can shut them down whenever they want.

If Twitter were turned into an open-source protocol, the landscape of social media options would look just like emails and web browsers.

Let’s make this concrete, here’s how social media built on blockchains would differ from today:

You join “Chirp” a web3 Twitter clone.
After using Chirp for a while, you realize that it’s showing you boring/irrelevant content. Or maybe it’s showing you rage-inducing content.

Then you find a new service called “Birdy” and it’s another web3 Twitter clone. Except on this platform, they have a much better algorithm to sort your news feed. They even let you pick which algorithm you want to sort by.

On Twitter, you couldn’t leave because your entire network was there too. If you leave, you’re abandoning your network. But on Web3, your network is on the blockchain, which means you can switch from Chirp to Birdy and still be able to communicate with your network. Why? Because of interoperability. They’re both using the blockchain protocol.

Until now, it wasn’t possible to build social media into a protocol.

That’s why we have a fragmented tech industry that tries to keep you in its ecosystem at all costs.

Why is it taking so long?

Just look at Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. They all came out around 2004-2006 but the tools used to build them were created in 1993-1996. It took 10 years to build social media platforms.

It took another 10 years for social media to become mainstream. There’s a lag time between inventing new tools and having mainstream products.

Right now we’re in the early stages of Web3. Blockchains, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts are tools. In the last 3 years, new industries like Decentralized Finance, Blockchain Games, and NFTs were born.

But most people don’t know what an NFT is or how it works. Even fewer people have heard of Decentralized Finance. So they can’t imagine a future where it will be valuable. By the time it’s made obvious to the average person, the 1,000x opportunities will be gone.

What we don’t have yet is a “killer app” that will make crypto obvious to everyone. But that app is coming … and you’re already ahead of the game if you’re here now.

So why don’t we have it already?

Because blockchains are SLOW and EXPENSIVE. Doing simple things on a blockchain costs money. You can’t build a Twitter clone if it costs you $20 per tweet.

The bitcoin blockchain can only do 7 transactions per second (TPS).

Ethereum can only do 30 TPS.

But that’s nowhere close to what we need. For reference, VISA can process 24,000 TPS.

At 30 transactions per second, demand vastly outstrips supply … which makes each transaction super expensive.

We need to make blockchains faster in order to drive down costs.

For an in-depth review of the tradeoffs that blockchains make to increase speed, watch this video on blockchain islands and bridges.

Actionable Tips:

Just like in 1999 when we had the dot com bubble, it was pretty hard to pick out the Amazons of the world. Most of the “dot com” startups failed by 2004. Crypto isn’t any different. In fact, it’s much worse because anyone can make up a coin and build a slick marketing campaign around it.

So what you need to do is cut through the noise:

• Learn the building blocks of Web 3 (blockchains, smart contracts, etc) All of this is included in the starter course that comes to your email when you sign up for The Crypto Bootcamp newsletter.

• Play with the tech and see if you can understand what’s happening behind the scenes. You can go to https://decentraland.org/ and play the crypto game for free.

  • Bonus points if you can find the casino in the game and win some bets.

  • Check out the marketplace and notice how you can buy items for your avatar (but instead of the gaming company selling you the item like Fortnite does, it’s other people selling their items … kind of like eBay for digital goods)

It’s important to remember that Web3 is huge (like the internet is huge) so don’t overthink it. Just explore the areas that are the most fun for you.

Don’t chase the money, chase your curiosity.

That’s it for this week!

If you liked this, do me a solid and forward it to someone who would be interested in learning about Web3. It’s the best way you can help grow The Crypto Bootcamp!

Thanks,
Kesh