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.
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.
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.
Do you really think it’s not a useful question? Surely it’s not sufficient (what model is 💯 correct?). Pointing out that successful tech had detractors who questioned its utility doesn’t mean questions about use case isn’t a powerful tool.
Yup! Here's a more interesting question: "what is a set of disqualifying criteria that is more useful?"
and
"Assuming that innovation is the result of a complex system of indiv actors (who recombine innovations), how do you reason about higher potential recombinations?"