Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.It’s never not going to be funny that after years of hype about crypto-metaverse-subscriptions disrupting web2 incumbents, the backstop to Twitter’s sudden implosion was volunteers recreating Usenet with RSS.
Vidar Hokstad / Galaxy Bound@bkeegan The funny thing is I can *maybe* see some narrow usecase for crypto in making sidestepping horrible payment services for a more decentralised web if you squint just right. But the focus is all wrong if anyone starts out with worrying about the monetisation mechanism instead of worrying about figuring out how to solve all the human/social problems first...
Ashton@vidar @bkeegan I used to think that, and I’ve changed my mind.
A lot of the friction with payments comes the moment you hit the traditional banking system, because preventing access to USD is a big part of America’s anti-crime and foreign policy apparatus. And unfortunately, a lot of people want to use USD. The way around that is to make a whole new currency, but people don’t want a new currency, they just want to send small amounts of the currency that they have.
@Ashton @bkeegan The thing is, from having done multiple startups, the hardest thing about even far less challenging things than social networks, is getting a product fit. Even *with* all of those payment issues - and it's gotten far simpler since I did my first startups - figuring out payments is much simpler for most startups than getting a product fit.
Worked for a VC for ~5 years, and when people focus on payment tech it tends to suggest they're focusing on the wrong thing; few exceptions.