cdixon

Jun 27

Toys, Secrets, and Cycles: Lessons from the 2000s

I started my internet career in the early 2000s during the dot-com bust. It's hard to picture this now, but the internet was a thing that people used only intermittently, to check email or plan travel or do some research. The average internet user spent about 30 minutes a day online, compared to about 7 hours today. To use the internet, you had to sit down in front of a desktop PC and "log on" (most people still had dial-up), nothing like the always-on, high-speed mobile internet we use ...

cdixon

Mar 19

Why web3 matters

Why Web 3 matters 🧵 Web 1 (roughly 1990-2005) was about open protocols that were decentralized and community-governed. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network — users and builders. Web 2 (roughly 2005-2020) was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations. Most of the value accrued to a handful of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. We are now at the beginning of the Web 3 era, which combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of Web 1 with th...

cdixon

Sep 21

Blockchains are the new app stores

1/ Topic: Blockchains are the new app stores 🧵 2/ If you were an ambitious, risk-seeking founder in the mobile golden age circa 2009-12, you built a new mobile app. That was when Uber, WhatsApp, Instagram, Venmo, Snapchat, and many other top apps were built. 3/ Mobile has since moved up the technology adoption S-curve. Great mobile apps will still be built, but the low-hanging fruit has been picked. The computing frontier of this decade is building apps on programmable blockchains like Ether...

cdixon

Jun 27

Toys, Secrets, and Cycles: Lessons from the 2000s

I started my internet career in the early 2000s during the dot-com bust. It's hard to picture this now, but the internet was a thing that people used only intermittently, to check email or plan travel or do some research. The average internet user spent about 30 minutes a day online, compared to about 7 hours today. To use the internet, you had to sit down in front of a desktop PC and "log on" (most people still had dial-up), nothing like the always-on, high-speed mobile internet we use ...

cdixon

Mar 19

Why web3 matters

Why Web 3 matters 🧵 Web 1 (roughly 1990-2005) was about open protocols that were decentralized and community-governed. Most of the value accrued to the edges of the network — users and builders. Web 2 (roughly 2005-2020) was about siloed, centralized services run by corporations. Most of the value accrued to a handful of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook. We are now at the beginning of the Web 3 era, which combines the decentralized, community-governed ethos of Web 1 with th...

cdixon

Sep 21

Blockchains are the new app stores

1/ Topic: Blockchains are the new app stores 🧵 2/ If you were an ambitious, risk-seeking founder in the mobile golden age circa 2009-12, you built a new mobile app. That was when Uber, WhatsApp, Instagram, Venmo, Snapchat, and many other top apps were built. 3/ Mobile has since moved up the technology adoption S-curve. Great mobile apps will still be built, but the low-hanging fruit has been picked. The computing frontier of this decade is building apps on programmable blockchains like Ether...