Well designed game theory can make a protocol better though. Big reason why BitTorrent is so fast!https://twitter.com/backus/status/999519259628732416 …
Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom
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John Backus Retweeted John Backus
Well designed game theory can make a protocol better though. Big reason why BitTorrent is so fast!https://twitter.com/backus/status/999519259628732416 …
John Backus added,
Decentralized protocol market mechanisms people experimented with: • Targeted game theory (http://bittorrent.org/bittorrentecon.pdf …) • In kind resource accounting (tracking just upload vs. download) • In-network token you can't cash out • Generalized and liquidatable tokens
MojoNation tried building IPFS+BitTorrent w/ a token in 2000. Quote from thread w/ @NickSzabo4 and @zooko:
> The smartest thing [@bramcohen] did when stripping down MojoNation to create BitTorrent was conforming the digital resource mechanism to the actual behavior of the users
Quote is from MojoNation founder Jim McCoy by the way. Source: https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2007/06/nanobarter.html?showComment=1181708460000#c2518193502558600657 …
@NickSzabo4 later jokes about the commenter being "anonymous" while using "we" to refer to MojoNation team. Later identifies as Jim McCoy.
Whole thread is a valuable read
MojoNation was a visionary project. In @zooko's post mortem, he mentions some assumptions about usage that didn't pan out, causing problems.
IMO, Jim's comment doesn't reject tokens. Instead, he is acknowledging that the token added too much complexity to an already grand visionpic.twitter.com/NAltFWWXjQ
Takeaway: Tokenize after you figured out user behavior. MojoNation incorrectly assumed users would leave their PC connected to network all day. People critique some decentralized projects as bolting a token on to an otherwise understood product. This is an interesting reframing
The teams behind successful decentralized file sharing protocols also created the first client. Tons of people end up competing to be the best app on top of a protocol, but the protocol creators need to lead the way for others. Gnutella was a very important flash in the pan.pic.twitter.com/z5Y8wG3Uxj
Imagine tokenized BitTorrent where clients negotiate token/GB rate for a transfer • Seeding after dl can buy faster future downloads • Incentive to seed long term and contribute bandwidth • Token bounties for desirable content would incentivize sharing content people want
There is so much more that I think would follow from tokenized file sharing. I'm planning on writing "What if BitTorrent had a token?" soon 
We should split product/market fit in two when talking about decentralized protocols: • Protocol/market fit: is the protocol powerful+general enough to let apps give users a good experience? • App/consumer fit: does the app optimize how the end user wants to use the protocol?
The fat protocol layer fundamentally restricts what thin apps can provide. Multiple companies building on the app layer experiment with different product visions in parallel. Their learnings can be fed back into protocol improvements.
The split between fat protocols and thin apps starts as a weakness and becomes a strength. Until a compelling enough app is built, it is a three legged race to coordinate protocol and app changes. After this MVP is found, you see rapid experimentation and competition
If you enjoyed this thread, my blog post on the topic goes into way more depth: https://medium.com/@jbackus/fat-protocols-arent-new-42d2c538db41 …
I'll share more on p2p parallels for tokenization, decentralization, scaling, and legality in the future. Stay tuned!
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