By Dominic Klopsch – Co-Founder TIVAN Consulting
The next big thing will start out looking like a toy!
This is one of the key messages from Clay Christensen’s “disruptive technology” theory and Chris Dixon, General Partner at a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), is known for having adopted this message. For those unaware, Chris Dixon is not just anyone but probably one of the most influential and important people in the global crypto and Web3-Space. Co-heading „a16z crypto“, he oversees the Web3- and Crypto-investments of one of the largest VCs, with investments in Web3-giants like OpenSea, Yuga Labs or Solana Labs.
1️⃣ The first era of the internet was mostly about open protocols which where decentralized and governed by communities.
2️⃣ The second era saw the rise of siloed, centralized and massively powerful services such as Google or Facebook (Meta).
3️⃣ Now, we are the brink of moving into the third era of the internet, dubbed Web3, which is supposed to combine the decentralized and community-governed approach via Blockchain with the more advanced and native user experience of Web2. The hope of many in this space is, that we can take back power from large conglomerates and enable a new economic model where everyone can participate and benefit, regardless of social or geographic background. However, this is still a long way to go…
So what do we make of this?
People trading images of apes on the internet, others making fun of it by „right-click-saving“ and many more just trying to understand why communities such as goblintown.wtf where able to create massive revenues by a community speaking gibberish on Twitter.
To bystanders, all of this seems ridiculous and frankly, I get it. But if you think of the intro „The next big thing will start out looking like a toy“ this might make more sense:
? It’s the natural way of people engaging with a new technology in a fun way. You should not underestimate the power of these „fun-driven engagements“ as they cause people to dive deeper into what’s possible and what the future might look like and suddenly, it’s not all fun and games anymore but it makes people start companies, develop innovative approaches and thereby create real impact!
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