Before we get started, here’s a note: this series was written to shed light on the past, the evolution and the present form of the concept everyone keeps talking about: InfoFi. I can already hear you asking, “Who are you to write about InfoFi?” Fair question. I no longer think about the what or the how. Now, my mind circles only around two questions -also core of InfoFi itself- who and with whom? I owe my understanding of how vital these two questions are to Jim Collins. He gave me a whole new perspective. So, who am I? For years, I’ve explored different ecosystems, communities and projects within the SocialFi space. Today, together with my partner Jie, I’m buildingInflynce Protocol within the Farcaster ecosystem, aiming to reshape attention economy there. We’ll get to that part soon enough. But first, let’s look back at that old digital desert where this story really began. Enjoy reading.

Today, we stand on a massive digital stage where trillions of bits move every second and wallets, profiles and algorithms compete fiercely. Just thirty years ago, this entire scene was wrapped in complete silence.

The first seed of the internet was planted during America’s Cold War era in 1960s: ARPANET. Contrary to popular belief, ARPANET wasn’t designed to withstand nuclear attacks. As its director at the time, Charles Herzfeld, put it: “The main goal of ARPANET was to make it easier for geographically separated researchers to access limited computing resources. It wasn’t a military necessity. If it had been, it would have faced major criticism.” So, the core idea was simple and clear: research communities would share data quickly over a common network, using resources efficiently. Once this technology spread into civilian life, it sparked a completely different revolution. Information would break free from library shelves and travel at electric speed. Exciting, isn’t it?

In 1989, at a desk in CERN, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee completed the missing piece of this potential: World Wide Web. Berners-Lee had a clear vision: a universal, connected information system. Combining lessons from his Enquire project with Ted Nelson’s hypertext idea, he built the backbone of the web as we know it today: HTML, URL and HTTP.

Looking back, the early years of Web1 feel like a barren desert. Pages were static, each site looked like a picture frozen in time. There was no interaction, users were just a reader. But even that was a big revolution. Encyclopedias, newspaper archives, library catalogs - for the first time, they all fit on a screen, ignoring physical limits.

In 1993, the release of the Mosaic browser made it possible for everyday people to access the internet for the first time. Then came Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer... The web broke free from academic circles and stepped into the lives of the masses, turning into an investment boom that history would remember as the “Dot-Com Bubble.” From 1995 to 2000, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and investors on Wall Street felt like they were living through a gold rush. One idea, a domain name, a few HTML pages and suddenly, you had a multi-million-dollar valuation.

The tragic mascot of Pets.com, the abandoned delivery trucks of Webvan and countless founders who were billionaires only on paper. The desert suddenly turned into a virtual gold mine. But the infrastructure wasn’t ready yet: internet speeds were slow, payment systems were insecure and user behavior wasn’t mature enough for such complex digital services, it was too early for clicks.

So what happened? In 2000, the Nasdaq collapsed. The dot-com bubble burst. Companies vanished. Employees were left jobless. Capital froze out of fear. There was a massive fire, but from its ashes, something survived: the core protocols, widespread internet access and the foundation for the next big wave.

What remained from the dust: lasting value

The survivors of the dot-com crash are still cornerstones of today’s digital world: Amazon, eBay, Google. These companies stayed alive because, even during the bubble, they managed to meet real user needs. They fueled a revolution in e-commerce, a revolution in search engines and built algorithms that act as a compass in the vast ocean of online data.

Web1 marks the first phase of humanity’s collective migration to the digital realm: books, newspapers, academic papers - all gathered on servers and opened to everyone. But back then, the internet was still seen as a publishing platform, not a community space. Information flowed, but ideas weren’t debated.

Lessons for the next wave

The big legacy of Web1 carries two timeless lessons to this day:

• Distributed information sharing is possible without relying on centralized infrastructures.

• Sharing information alone creates value, but without sparking interaction, it can’t build a sustainable economy.

This very legacy prepared the stage for Web2: Age of Interaction.

Users would no longer be just readers but also creators. Static pages would give way to dynamic feeds. But this new order brought along its own giants and its own system of exploitation. The second part of the InfoFi series will focus exactly on this story: social age, the heart of interaction.

Picture a desert: silent, endless, barren. Then, the first canals were dug, the first oases formed. The canals carved into the dot-com desert became the rivers that fed the information age. But who really benefited from these rivers? And who got lost in the sandstorm? That’s the first question of InfoFi. To find the answer, we’re setting off toward the Social Era.

See you again next Sunday.

Before we get started, here’s a note: this series was written to shed light on the past, the evolution and the present form of the concept everyone keeps talking about: InfoFi. I can already hear you asking, “Who are you to write about InfoFi?” Fair question. I no longer think about the what or the how. Now, my mind circles only around two questions -also core of InfoFi itself- who and with whom? I owe my understanding of how vital these two questions are to Jim Collins. He gave me a whole new perspective. So, who am I? For years, I’ve explored different ecosystems, communities and projects within the SocialFi space. Today, together with my partner Jie, I’m buildingInflynce Protocol within the Farcaster ecosystem, aiming to reshape attention economy there. We’ll get to that part soon enough. But first, let’s look back at that old digital desert where this story really began. Enjoy reading.

Today, we stand on a massive digital stage where trillions of bits move every second and wallets, profiles and algorithms compete fiercely. Just thirty years ago, this entire scene was wrapped in complete silence.

The first seed of the internet was planted during America’s Cold War era in 1960s: ARPANET. Contrary to popular belief, ARPANET wasn’t designed to withstand nuclear attacks. As its director at the time, Charles Herzfeld, put it: “The main goal of ARPANET was to make it easier for geographically separated researchers to access limited computing resources. It wasn’t a military necessity. If it had been, it would have faced major criticism.” So, the core idea was simple and clear: research communities would share data quickly over a common network, using resources efficiently. Once this technology spread into civilian life, it sparked a completely different revolution. Information would break free from library shelves and travel at electric speed. Exciting, isn’t it?

In 1989, at a desk in CERN, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee completed the missing piece of this potential: World Wide Web. Berners-Lee had a clear vision: a universal, connected information system. Combining lessons from his Enquire project with Ted Nelson’s hypertext idea, he built the backbone of the web as we know it today: HTML, URL and HTTP.

Looking back, the early years of Web1 feel like a barren desert. Pages were static, each site looked like a picture frozen in time. There was no interaction, users were just a reader. But even that was a big revolution. Encyclopedias, newspaper archives, library catalogs - for the first time, they all fit on a screen, ignoring physical limits.

In 1993, the release of the Mosaic browser made it possible for everyday people to access the internet for the first time. Then came Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer... The web broke free from academic circles and stepped into the lives of the masses, turning into an investment boom that history would remember as the “Dot-Com Bubble.” From 1995 to 2000, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and investors on Wall Street felt like they were living through a gold rush. One idea, a domain name, a few HTML pages and suddenly, you had a multi-million-dollar valuation.

The tragic mascot of Pets.com, the abandoned delivery trucks of Webvan and countless founders who were billionaires only on paper. The desert suddenly turned into a virtual gold mine. But the infrastructure wasn’t ready yet: internet speeds were slow, payment systems were insecure and user behavior wasn’t mature enough for such complex digital services, it was too early for clicks.

So what happened? In 2000, the Nasdaq collapsed. The dot-com bubble burst. Companies vanished. Employees were left jobless. Capital froze out of fear. There was a massive fire, but from its ashes, something survived: the core protocols, widespread internet access and the foundation for the next big wave.

What remained from the dust: lasting value

The survivors of the dot-com crash are still cornerstones of today’s digital world: Amazon, eBay, Google. These companies stayed alive because, even during the bubble, they managed to meet real user needs. They fueled a revolution in e-commerce, a revolution in search engines and built algorithms that act as a compass in the vast ocean of online data.

Web1 marks the first phase of humanity’s collective migration to the digital realm: books, newspapers, academic papers - all gathered on servers and opened to everyone. But back then, the internet was still seen as a publishing platform, not a community space. Information flowed, but ideas weren’t debated.

Lessons for the next wave

The big legacy of Web1 carries two timeless lessons to this day:

• Distributed information sharing is possible without relying on centralized infrastructures.

• Sharing information alone creates value, but without sparking interaction, it can’t build a sustainable economy.

This very legacy prepared the stage for Web2: Age of Interaction.

Users would no longer be just readers but also creators. Static pages would give way to dynamic feeds. But this new order brought along its own giants and its own system of exploitation. The second part of the InfoFi series will focus exactly on this story: social age, the heart of interaction.

Picture a desert: silent, endless, barren. Then, the first canals were dug, the first oases formed. The canals carved into the dot-com desert became the rivers that fed the information age. But who really benefited from these rivers? And who got lost in the sandstorm? That’s the first question of InfoFi. To find the answer, we’re setting off toward the Social Era.

See you again next Sunday.