The revealed-preference marginal value of privacy/security/data portability for median users is really really low. This might be the biggest blocker of protocol tech (I’m now using protocol instead of blockchain, crypto, web3, web5… it seems the most accurate category descriptor)

Delver at contraptions.venkateshrao.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

3 ways around this:

1. Increasing the stakes (eg money, passports tied to self-custody)

2. World gets a lot more crazy/apocalyptic 

3. Someone invents a use for protocol tech that’s upside use value rather than downside insurance

WordPress is a good example of partitioning into a strategic core and a plug-in ecosystem with widget/theme/block/skin structure. Integrated UX around distributed capabilities. It’s complex and took 15y to perfect, right at cusp of obsolescence. 

Protocols need to speedrun such evolution in 5 years.

A related problem I think is decentralization makes for more features faster but worse UXes. Nobody wants to periodically unbundle and rebundle behaviors around affordances of a quicksand ecosystem of apps and special clients. Searchcaster is nice but search is too central to be marginal. Needs in-client 🔎 UX

Thankfully(?), 2 seems like a sure bet, and 3 at least has NFT art, which is miles better than the traditional equivalent, esp. for digital art. We'll develop other use cases, but tbh don't really need to - art is a big enough market as-is. And 1 follows from 2 and 3!