Four Fundamental Innovations of Web3 that Will Upend Web2 Incumbents by @ttunguz

Twenty years ago, startups IPOed after 4 years. Today, it’s 12, driven by several factors but regulatory costs present the principal one. Crypto companies access pools of capital web2 companies cannot because the regulation doesn’t exist. Where nascent rules are present, the regulation isn’t yet a warren of legalese- yet. Within this freedom to maneuver, Defi protocols invent new financial instruments. The perp, a perpetual swap, has become the most traded crypto derivative). Perps don’t exist outside crypto.

Open-source software is arguably the most important motive force powering innovation in technology. Open-source software powers every server and most software. Crypto empowers open-source projects to monetize their innovation in a way web2 never achieved. DAOs bind the loose community of open-source software contributors through tokens. Tokens provide an ongoing financial link that aligns long-term incentives. Foundations with significant token stakes fuel the ongoing protocol development, balancing the capitalism needed to fuel progress with the benevolence of the open-source ethos.

The fifth cluster of innovation benefits central banks, not startups.

CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Coins) are programmable money: central bank digital coins enable a government to focus stimulus as granularly or as broadly as they like. Imagine a reserve bank stimulating the electric bicycle industry in the Kansas City metropolitan area by providing residents new US digital dollars that are only valid within bike shops in Kansas City.