Twitter version (v)2, So-called “super apps”,” is… never going to happen. But by placing a Dogecoin avatar on his website on Twitter, Elon Musk has at least created a feint in the right direction.
Galen Moore is a Content Lead at Axelar building an interoperable Web3 infrastructure.
To make Twitter like WeChat, Musk needs to rebuild Twitter. Also, basically he has to rebuild all the services built on the internet since 2004. Big Tech’s “walled gardens” don’t always communicate.
The only way to actually build a superapp is through decentralized applications, also known as dapps. These open source applications are open in a way that not only frees up computer code, but an entire network of Internet participants.
In other words, developers of the distributed web should: Configurable software featuresi.e. code blocks that can be easily integrated into other open source projects, but Configurable network effects. It is the total value that participants add to the network that can be snapped together like Lego pieces.
Network effects are at the heart of many of the world’s most valuable technology businesses. Facebook, Google and Apple are the top. Airbnb, PayPal, and Uber are a tier or two down, but equally impressive. The line between these successes and the mediocrity of many technologies is often drawn between those that have network effects and those that don’t.
It’s easy to see why.Moat of network effects” is a staple of the pitch deck. With network effects, the larger the effect, the wider the moat. The US consumer web juggernaut companies are very good at this kind of logic and have no incentive to lower drawbridges like Twitter, or just about anyone else.
Almost, with one notable exception. The marriage of convenience between Apple and Google has made Google search possible across Apple devices. Apple is the largest producer of consumer technology hardware. Google is probably the most important consumer web company. The relationship, targeted by regulators, is worth billions of dollars for both companies.
Apple and Google are exceptions and prove the rule. Superapps cannot form in this mercantilist Internet economy, where corporations hoard networks like colonial rulers hoard precious metals.
At a pre-congressional hearing last month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said Said“Our commitment to this Commission and to all users is that we maintain [TikTok] It has not been subjected to any manipulation by any government. Imagine how easy Chew’s job would be if he could prove it cryptographically.
The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up antitrust enforcement against both. apple and Googlewhich is different from action Oppose the longstanding partnership between the two companies in search. Imagine a hearing on Capitol Hill. Imagine the unlikely scenario that, through acquisition or sheer ingenuity, a Silicon Valley giant developed a super app that could span multiple verticals.
WeChat, on the other hand, is in another kind of hot seat. It has close ties to the Beijing government and is used for censorship and censorship. surveillance, not to mention public service announcements.It is ubiquitous and essential for its users: being banned from WeChat sometimes compared To be cut off from the public utility.
Without the help of a powerful state, it’s hard to imagine an application that wields such power, or the power necessary to enforce superapp integration. It is natural for users who love to question the trust assumptions that come with such public-private information partnerships.
The decentralized web (Web3) is something different. UnauthorizedIf one project provides an app store and another provides search, a third developer can integrate that functionality into a new app without negotiating or asking for permission. One person’s finished product is another person’s Lego bricks. Potential combinations are not restricted by moats or regulators.
There are many examples of this. Ethereum has built an infrastructure to support this kind of composability between Ethereum dapps. Ethereum dapps can leverage Uniswap contracts for liquidity or call Aragon contracts for on-chain governance. No need to eat in public.
Naturally, dapps organize their capabilities into integrated products in the Cosmos ecosystem. For example, Osmosis made it easy for other dapps to enter the on-chain market just like dapps use his Uniswap on Ethereum.
We are now starting to see dapps that compose functionality across multiple ecosystems. squid is an example. Built on Axelar, Squid is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that leverages the liquidity of other DEXs on many chains to facilitate cross-chain swaps.
None of these applications are “super apps”. But they all have one thing in common. The building blocks of Web3 open source code combine to create something greater than the sum of its individual parts.they are composition Use network effects built by other Internet applications.
This might be called the power of the distributed web. Configurable network effectsToday’s applications often take the form of liquidity, a network of buyers and sellers. But configurable network effects exist at every layer of Web3. Even something as basic as Ethereum security is a configurable network effect that can be used to configure the application layer.
This is not to suggest that everyone should try to build so-called super apps with Web3. It seems a little early for that. But this quality of configurable network effects will continue to attract builders, and their work will eventually lead him to applications that were not possible in the 2004 Internet.
Thanks to 0xPostman for providing feedback on this article and for writing this article. original post It inspired it.
