ted (not lasso) on Warpcast

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ted (not lasso) pfp

ted (not lasso)

lots of people asking this privately but no one asking publicly why is everyone so angry we don’t have any crypto apps and why did we abandon integrating or transferring existing apps to be onchain why the obsession with net new apps [i have my own answer but steelmanning is good thought experiment for us all]

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Dan Romero pfp

because all of the infra works if there are an order of magnitude more apps than infra most people work in infra *ducks*

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tldr (tim reilly) pfp

tldr (tim reilly)

1. It's very difficult for crypto to be frictionless to the non-crypto user (including the friction of its reputation). 2. Skeumorphic apps ported onchain are often not powerful enough value props to overcome this friction. 3. But perhaps some "net new" behaviors will make it worth facing first-time crypto friction.

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Mike🎩 pfp

There are lots of crypto apps but nobody knows because they follow the crowd. The crowd being loud influencer voices. The ones that have had a flash in the pan so far had points or tokens attached and influencers pumped to make money. Infra gets attention for the same reason. https://paragraph.xyz/@pit/1

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Akhil pfp

1. no solid reason to shift just because it's onchain. casual audience don't know/care what it is. 2. bringing existing web2 apps onchain eventually have to reach the audience outside this space once the peak hits - which boils down to user questioning what's the difference and why i should care about this - they're good where they are. 3. if the core of the product has enough pull (considering crypto space has solved for onboarding enough already) can bring people to use and they're by default onchain without actually showing a difference. it's easier to take a net new app with a core reason to 'use and come back' than transferring people from existing apps to an onchain one. these also could be just apps tapping into existing behaviors and not completely 'new'. better remove 'it's onchain' and convey it as just an app that does xyz cool thing.

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Gabriel Ayuso pfp

@gabrielayuso.eth

Now apps are hard regardless of whether they are on crypto rails or not. They are harder on crypto rails because of the UX. Back in 2021 everyone was excited because some large apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube were exploring crypto features. After FTX and the bull market all of that stopped. The few new apps that have received any attention are speculative such as friend tech and Polymarket. No one wants to try anything else. The reason why I'm a fan of Farcaster. One of the few projects actually trying to do stuff in crypto and consumer without fi

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Manuel pfp

@manuelmaccou.eth

I feel like there are a lot of crypto apps? Across all domains from consumer to infra and everything in between. Definitely not the scale of other apps, but I think that’s because crypto founders can’t (maybe don’t want to) break out of the crypto niche. More thoughts… https://warpcast.com/manuelmaccou.eth/0x74c52ce9

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links 🏴 pfp

Net new apps are the only way to really drive adoption. Example: GoodReads vs onchain GoodReads -> what is the reason for a user to switch? If it’s the exact same app, there is no reason. Put another way: if you only aim for GoodReads audience, the best you can do is GoodReads, and it’ll be an uphill battle.

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abram pfp

my 2¢ on need for apps: apps bring demand, demand brings investment, investment brings income/jobs. the music eventually stops without apps. apps let the music continue. why net new: porting an existing product isn't enough to move demand, so product must be much better (v hard) or previously not possible (easier)

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Ben 🟪 pfp

1. Angry or impatient? 2. Switching costs too high and business value unclear without existing user demand. (I'm bullish on using it to differentiate small businesses (@samantha) selling physical consumer goods in physical locations.) 3. Lore of the net new “killer app” rapidly catalyzing web1 adoption.

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LG pfp

Apps need to 👏solve👏SUPER👏painful👏problems

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karan 👑 pfp

It's harder to build sustainable companies out of apps than what is perceived by many in our space. You have to grind it out, listen to users, do multiple pivots. The "new cool thing" changes so soon that many people try to jump onto it and expect quick success. It's hard to continue to listen to users, keep on shipping things, and have strong convictions in this environment, when you see a new cool app get quick success, and not being drawn to that. Specially for multiple years. But it will happen, both the builders and consumers have to be patient and have long term thinking IMO.

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Emily pfp

Actually genuinely wondering if there are truly no apps OR is it that apps tend to be built by lean teams, who don’t get funding (bc it goes to infra), so we don’t see them peacocking or having a marketing budget to show up at industry events Idk the truth but my hunch is there’s way more infra than we need, more apps than we think, and it’s a visibility issue

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Tony pfp

Another thing I don't think people are saying publicly that often, people are just not asking for more crypto apps. There are natives who are impatient to move fully off fiat, but they are a very very small minority. The uncomfortable truth is most of the world (that app developers listen to) are just fine without crypto and its associated apps, so far.

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tani pfp

https://warpcast.com/tanishq/0x2be946a0

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Dwayne 'The Jock' Ronson pfp

Dwayne 'The Jock' Ronson

Skeumorphic apps have to add something that only crypto can do or why would people use or move from existing?

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chris pfp

it was supposed to happen in games but have you compared crypto games to other games? they are almost all terrible and anyone who says otherwise doesnt play games it has to be new games, and games with novel (previously nonexistent) mechanics that crypto makes newly possible. i still think onchain gaming is a fruitful endeavor, but it will take much more time to sus out these types of mechanism designs and for consumers to get familiar with it

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↑langchain 🎩

Too many people attempted (or attempting) to build “crypto apps” instead of “apps that solve problems that happen to be a lot better with blockchains”

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Poison Ivy pfp

because creating a network effect is at odds with crypto's PR problem, and without requisite DAU funding sustainability isn't possible the thing that exploded farcaster wasn't 'onchain twitter', or even 'decentralized social', but the net new frames feature

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