Thin Applications
Metadata
Highlights
- When I started thinking about the architecture of blockchain applications back in 2014, I described it as a hierarchical “stack” of functionality. That first iteration described a blockchain at the base with “overlay networks” that provide specific decentralized services on top, forming “shared” protocol and data layers. Above them, independent applications would consume those protocols and redistribute their services to users:
The Blockchain Application Stack (2014) (View Highlight)
- As a crypto user, you bring your own data. Nobody has monopoly control. When you log into a crypto app by connecting your wallet, you’re sharing the “keys” it needs to find your information across the relevant networks. You can share them with any app, so your data comes with you as you move from interface to interface. And you keep control of the “private key” (basically a password) needed to operate on it, like signing messages or authorizing transactions. So you have effective custody over your data and nobody can manipulate it without consent (unless you delegated your keys to a custodian). (View Highlight)
- I’m most fascinated by the user-staking models because they represent a genuine business model innovation. The examples above are built more like traditional web applications. They are more centralized and custodial than thinner apps like Zerion. But what I love about their staking models is how they change the user-service relationship. Web users are locked-in by force through the centralization of data. Crypto applications, even if they’re built more traditionally, don’t have that same ability to lock you in. But user-staking creates a kind of “opt-in” economic lock-in that benefits the user by turning them into stakeholders in the success of the service. It creates defensibility through user-ownership instead of user lock-in. This presents a universe of fascinating consequences, to be explored in future work. (View Highlight)
- Note: also staking is an interesting model of “commitment” what does it look like to “stake attention” ?
Thin Applications
Metadata
Highlights
- When I started thinking about the architecture of blockchain applications back in 2014, I described it as a hierarchical “stack” of functionality. That first iteration described a blockchain at the base with “overlay networks” that provide specific decentralized services on top, forming “shared” protocol and data layers. Above them, independent applications would consume those protocols and redistribute their services to users:
The Blockchain Application Stack (2014) (View Highlight)
- As a crypto user, you bring your own data. Nobody has monopoly control. When you log into a crypto app by connecting your wallet, you’re sharing the “keys” it needs to find your information across the relevant networks. You can share them with any app, so your data comes with you as you move from interface to interface. And you keep control of the “private key” (basically a password) needed to operate on it, like signing messages or authorizing transactions. So you have effective custody over your data and nobody can manipulate it without consent (unless you delegated your keys to a custodian). (View Highlight)
- I’m most fascinated by the user-staking models because they represent a genuine business model innovation. The examples above are built more like traditional web applications. They are more centralized and custodial than thinner apps like Zerion. But what I love about their staking models is how they change the user-service relationship. Web users are locked-in by force through the centralization of data. Crypto applications, even if they’re built more traditionally, don’t have that same ability to lock you in. But user-staking creates a kind of “opt-in” economic lock-in that benefits the user by turning them into stakeholders in the success of the service. It creates defensibility through user-ownership instead of user lock-in. This presents a universe of fascinating consequences, to be explored in future work. (View Highlight)
- Note: also staking is an interesting model of “commitment” what does it look like to “stake attention” ?