Reading all the hot takes on crypto/web3 going “but what use case does it solve?” and mostly thinking to myself that these folk have such confidence in their opinions.
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The nice thing about reading history is that it repeatedly (and I mean REPEATEDLY) disabuses you of the notion that tech needs a clear use case in its infancy.
I put myself in the shoes of mistaken commentators and mostly think “hmm, yeah, that take makes sense.”
It’s humbling.
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I have the same use-case skepticism about crypto/web3, but this made me realize (again) that the future isn't predictable (effectual reasoning right). What are some of those repeated examples in history?
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Bill Gates explaining the internet to David Letterman is one example I enjoy, because I can totally see myself with Letterman's reaction: youtube.com/watch?v=4Gx-o7
And there's also the laser: press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/2
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The strongest crypto-pessimistic argument I've thought about so far is a "strategy" argument, and isn't a common one! It's really hard to formulate a robust crypto bear argument, so I sympathize with a lot of these people
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The point isn't that such cases do not exist. There is tech that succeeded because it had a clear use case, as well as tech that succeeded even though it had no clear use case. The point is that 'having a use case' is not a useful/sufficient criterion for tech success.
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It’s not just tech, is it? Everywhere you look, things get made first then people find ways to use them to solve problems they have. It makes sense that this would be the case. Imagine having a problem first then trying to solve it. By the time you solve it, your problem is 💥
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It’s so nice that us humans are gifted with imagination and we can dream up potential realities and design for them. So that if that reality ever comes to pass, we’re ready! We’re prepared!
Look: Neal Stephenson & Asimov imagined the future we now live in. Imagination’s awesome
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