A common narrative in the Web 3.0 community is that we are in an infrastructure phase and the right thing to be working on right now is building out that infrastructure: better base chains, better interchain interoperability, better clients, wallets and browsers.
The rationale is: first we need tools that make it easy to build and use apps that run on blockchains, and once we have those tools, then we can get started building those apps.
But when I talk to founders who are building infrastructure, I keep hearing that the biggest challenge for them is to get developers to build apps on top.
We are not in an infrastructure phase, but rather in another turn of the apps-infrastructure cycle. And in fact, the history of new technologies shows that apps beget infrastructure, not the other way around. It’s not that first we build all the infrastructure, and once we have the infrastructure we need, we begin to build apps. It’s exactly the opposite.
Value creation is a big problem in Crypto:
– DApp user numbers are low
– Staff cutbacks are happening
– Projects are folding
Why? Basic economics. Projects are not acquiring and retaining users who inject more value into these projects than they cost to run.
You don’t need to raise millions and spend years building a product.
You can find out very quickly if there is a market for your product:
- Build a web page
- Explain the product
- Allow for pre-registration
- Buy Google ads
If nobody registers then nobody wants your idea.
Crypto people love to make things complicated:
- Complicated products
- Complicated models
- Complicated solutions
Complicated doesn’t sell. Hence why so many Crypto products are not acquiring and retaining users. Hence why so many are collapsing.
Go and read the story of Webvan, or Pets.com to understand the problems of the dot-com bubble in the 2000s
What can be built on these blockchains which makes them a better option than a database on AWS?
Crypto will have one too, it could be Bitmain, EOS or some other project.
The factors will be the same:
– Too much money raised
– For a non-existent market
