In the beginning was Bitcoin, the only blockchain we thought we’d need. Then Ethereum came along and launched us into a multi-blockchain world.Specifically, in the Internet world, the protocols (think TCP/IP and HTTP) were conduits and not holders of value; it was the applications built on top of them that held the value. In the blockchain world, he argued, it’s the protocols that hold the value.
Fat protocols
Monegro’s core thesis is now coming under scrutiny. Teemu Paivinen argues in his recently posted essay on “Thin Protocols” that “[while] protocols in aggregate will continue to capture most of the value, individual protocols will in fact be quite thin and tend towards capturing minimal value, due to the combined effects of forking and competitive market forces.”As a blockchain developer, you want to be able to take the best of everything and put it together so you can build the best application possible. That’s why interoperability is critical and why the market for it is starting to heat up.Van Ness then refers us to a post by Stephan Tual, a leader within the Ethereum community who now is at Slock.it (and who has as more first-hand experience with decentralized innovation than most, since he was at ground zero of “DAO-gate”). Tual challenges conventional wisdom further by sharing his Web 3.0 Abstracted Stack.
