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28 years into the modern commercial web. Tens of thousands of projects and startups funded in web1/web2 model. Time to try something new.

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Aaron Levie

@levie

Dec 22, 2021

How about the future of the web is just: * more interoperability * more open standards & new protocols * richer, more immersive apps * multiplayer everything * more APIs to leverage * more open source contribution * more monetization options * more voice, video, and media

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❤️ all philosophy debates. The web is not broken. You primarily point to flaws of Twitter, Facebook & Google. That is not the web. Those are some successful sites. We also have Airbnb, Spotify, Netflix, Shopify, Zillow, Slack, Airtable, Figma, and millions more. It’s working

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Yes ad-based vs transaction based is an important distinction. Generally, I think b2b works much better because the incentives are aligned. In my view SaaS works well, transaction-based network (app store, music streaming) less well, ad-based networks least well.

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There has never been a better point in history to build, monetize or distribute for consumer or enterprises on the web. Everything is 100X better. Now rebuilding the entire trust model, architectures, UX, cost structure, and legal frameworks to get to the same place seems odd.

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So what’s your analysis for why we ended up after 28 years of experiments we ended up with 4-5 companies controlling most of the internet, closed ecosystems, very little API access, 50-100% take rates, opaque governance etc? How do avoid the same outcome again?

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We don’t share the same premise I think. I see a vibrant web of millions of ideas that are compounding on each other, with centralization occurring when consumers demand it; and plenty of successful attacks on any incumbent that remains stagnant (see Shopify, Snap, TikTok).

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I’m glad you are happy with it. A bunch of people aren’t, and we are going to run a different experiment.

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As you should. And more openness and open protocols is 👏 . But the right architecture for the job matters, and sustainable economic models (not driven by speculation will matter). All I’ve wanted is more soberness in the discussion 🤷‍♂️.

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Do SaaS companies trade on cash flow multiples or speculation on future growth, margins, etc?

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Sadly mine trades on cash flow multiple 😂. Trying to fix that! But the *business model* for SaaS isn’t dependent on speculation (either by investors’ or customers’ use cases of the product). If all investors go away, the product sustains. We don’t see that *yet?* in crypto.

cdixon.eth

@cdixon

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@levie

There are many crypto protocols that have meaningful cash flows. Ethereum generated $31M in fees yesterday. As with SaaS in the early years, the market is trying to predict growth of those cash flows.

cryptofees.info

CryptoFees.info

There's tons of crypto projects. Which ones are people actually paying to use?

5:37 AM · Dec 23, 2021

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For sure! And Ethereum would make an epic investment! But the question is are those use-cases relevant to why we need “decentralization” of the future of the web, or are we in an asset trading frenzy right now. You will say the former, I humbly suggest the latter :-).

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Ok thanks- enjoyed the discussion and look forward to discussing more. :)

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and

Is the idea that governance tokens will eventually give holders a share of the protocol fees?

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and

Correct, but who gets these fees? Not every owner of ETH. As an equity shareholder you are legally entitled to the cash flows. Isn’t there a difference?

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