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Unblocking creative output with technology leads to category defining platforms

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Unblocking creative output with technology leads to category defining platforms

What mediums can blockchains and smart contracts unlock?

Tony Sheng
Jul 8, 2020
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Unblocking creative output with technology leads to category defining platforms

tonysheng.substack.com

Here’s a theory: for any given medium, there are moments in time where the cost to create gets sufficiently low to onboard a huge wave of new creators. It’s easy to see this with the big social networks of the last couple decades:

We’re seeing this in every medium, with the hottest battlegrounds in streaming video, mobile video, and (not pictured) long form audio and streaming audio.

So my question is: where do blockchains and smart contracts fit into this framing? What are the relevant mediums of content?

Markets are an obvious one. Because smart contracts can be deployed permissionlessly and users can trade with one another without needing permission from financial institutions or governments, anybody can create a market now.

  • Status quo: NYSE, CME

  • Disruption: Uniswap, Binance

  • New normal: a market for everything

What else? What are the underrated opportunities? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

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Unblocking creative output with technology leads to category defining platforms

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3 Comments
Kyle Samani
Jul 8, 2020

The argument for Uniswap is that there will be lots of long tail markets. The question is, does that matter?

In the case of your other examples, the disruption made the content more accessible to the masses.

In the case of Uniswap, if something becomes sufficiently liquid, it will 1) be abstracted by an aggregator like 1inch/dex.ag anyways, and 2) make its way onto Coinbase/Binance

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