The Sandhill

The Nanda Devi glacier break up gives us a reason why we should all care about sustainability. IEspecially those of us in tech. Shipton's ghost is watching. Shipton taught us about being light, nimble and respectful of nature. We can do that in tech today. It matters. Really, natural capital does. 

Thanks to Swapnil Vithaldas for an amazing photo via Unsplash. 

We speak about what young blockchain developers think of tech, community and crypto. We also talk about The Pink City and how life and tech mirror one another. There is a little gap at the start, which happens as I sit down and adjust my headphones. Apologies for that. 

Disclaimer-Both I and the interviewee make these comments in our personal capacities and we stay away from comments on specific companies. There is no implicit or explicit recommendation to buy tokens-only opinions of people are recorded. We provide no investment advice. Do your own research. 

Madhu runs his own travel start-up, 5sensestours.com, which offers curated cultural packages to inbound tourists in India. As we all look forward to resumption of normal life, let us hear his story.

The GameStop episode brings to us the power of the grapevine. It also hints at a larger transformation. Institutions are resilient and nimble and will see this as an opportunity.

Disclaimer-There is no investment advice, I own none of the stocks mentioned and please be responsible to yourself and society. 

Most content publishing innovation is in the Global North, practically and symbolically. A massive market, otherwise penetrated by tech, is getting left out. The answer is not software but networks of empathy. The opportunity is massive.

"...The walls that separate writing from success have not come down yet. Despite the best intentions. This is because every innovation on publishing is being born in the US or someplace like it and that means access to funding. That makes it a tech story. Not a story story, not an art story or anything like that. Now, that gap is a huge opportunity for potential investors. Imagine. Millions of people everywhere want to read, write, record, listen. And many will pay a bit. The gap is two fold- the cultural context of consumption and the tech context of the publisher narrative. It is driven by our innate belief that software is eating the world. Well, seems to me COVID is, but never mind that. How about this? We do not have to deny that software is eating the world-but we can agree that organic, self-organizing networks make it seem like a small starter on an economy class meal. Can we start saying that software started it all but everything else is now finding its own path? Take no-code and low-code. If that is the future, are we not saying that we are abstracting out software? Would it not make it’s cultural dominance diminish even as it remains a pivotal player behind the scenes?

The world of innovation is as much about narrative, drama and culture as it is about tech. The world of writing and reading is as much about all that too. When tech brings writing to us, it can do a huge service by making it easier for everyone to earn money. That means breaching the final frontier-telling each of us-hey, read this thing that this totally unknown person wrote this morning. That requires a relook at networks and what they are supposed to do. A network should be able to create empathy based opportunities for the faceless, nameless folks on them and make them into giants. Or at least, give them a fair shot. Substack is doing good stuff. Wattapad is doing good stuff. So is Medium-well don’t get me started on the paywall. I did earn a tiny bit there. But we need to go one step further. Explode the market. Do not let a few eruptions sound like it’s Diwali. You know what Diwali is, right?

Enjoy the rest of the week".

Note-Many thanks to Marcos Paulo Prado for a great snap on Unsplash. 

The Clubhouse has burst upon the scene as a phenomenon. It holds out transformational possibilities for content. Beyond that, it promises change to how we see innovation.

Singapore received 17.2 Billion dollars in investments in 2020, considerably more than 2019 and the highest annual number since 2008. It is being said that in general, inflows into Southeast Asia will continue. Innovation has the fuel it needs. Innovation can lead to spectacular things. And we will talk about one of the shiniest in that particular corner. Welcome to the Sandhill.

Clubhouse is a place where the favoured few hang out, listen and talk. It invites chosen individuals to be a part of intimate celebrity conversations. If you are in on the list, you can “hang out”. This is where Hollywood, Superbowl and the Silicon Valley get to meet. It could have been another talk radio station. Or one more chat software. But it now being backed by Andreesen Horowitz. The valuation is rumoured to be in excess of 1 Billion USD. Ashton Kuchher, Jared Leto, Drake and Estelle are there. You no longer need to gawp at the Kardashians. Things have moved on pretty fast. That always happens in tech. And then it impacts everyone else. Now we hear that there will be a way to monetize content on Clubhouse. This takes us into very interesting territory.

Let’s look at what is happening to content today. You can read a bit and then you pay for the rest. In general, paywalls have been welcomed. News organizations claim it gives them editorial freedom. Others claim it provides remuneration. All that is true.

But a hierarchy of knowledge access based on the ability to spend contradicts our aspirations. We want a flattened society but in trying to achieve that, build new edifices. I believe the argument around creative remuneration, editorial independence and universal access to content has not been fully played out. If the New York Times is unavailable to a lot people worldwide today-as it was not earlier-then it has chosen not to let it’s voice be heard by them. Yet, if it does not run a paywall successfully, it can be prone to editorial compromises. The cost of generating quality stories and providing deep news coverage is unaffordable on traditional revenue models. Or so, we are told.

But Clubhouse may offer a way around it. It might opt to have highly privileged rooms and rooms that are open to all. The level of content available on an ongoing basis may be significantly more than the free content outside paywalls. It may be possible to patch in live performers and newscasters. I look to a day when a niche cultural channel runs live in a Clubhouse room. Importantly, it is the voice of opinion leaders and creative achievers. That is an emerging bulwark for a dynamic society.

Bringing tech and privilege together has always been problematic. After all, tech is supposed to be the great leveller. It “solves problems”.  However, as it attracts money, there is inevitably a hierarchy. There is a tech royalty. That ties in very well with Hollywood, sports and other personality driven industries. Here are the achievers of society, one might say. They are people who perform and whose very presence and creative skills lead to an explosion of new material for consumption.  If you are half way to being where they are, you could join a hallowed circle via an app. To be fair, Clubhouse does allow you to join a waitlist and it promises to open up to everyone eventually. It will be interesting when it does. Those who are inside today may well find it a great platform to showcase their talents and their latest work. The fragmentation of media distribution and the re-shaping of content will continue, perhaps with more intensity. Clubhouse will have a far bigger role to play in society than we may think.

Have a great day ahead.

Thanks t Joao Victor Alves de Bastos for a great pic on Unsplash

(Blockchain was not created for savings growth. That diminishes  it's rightful global role. It is possible to change that). 

The cult-like infatuation of the crypto faithful for a particular car brand is very well known. The intent to disrupt finance is being carried on the back of some very expensive wheels. That may sound like the mother of all paradoxes. But there is a larger paradox embedded at the heart of crypto. Welcome to the Sandhill.

As the highly visible demand for crypto grows, it is slipping further and further away from the reach of the common man. Most people cannot afford to buy Bitcoin. Even Ethereum is expensive. There is a bigger issue one needs to be concerned about. The price of gas is going up. Apparently it has increased by over 600% in a year. This makes life difficult for start-ups, sole proprietors and small businesses. If the crypto industry wants to get mainstream acceptance, it cannot be prohibitive to transact. If this continues, innovation will grind to a halt. We may hold interesting debates about BTC being the next gold. Well, you don’t really want that. Gold is inert. It has not been used a medium of exchange for god knows how long. Keep that in mind.

The biggest problem facing the broad middle and below the pyramid segments is not access to financial services. That has always been there. Perhaps it has become somewhat more efficient. But what would one do with an empty bank account? Or with an account that barely pays interest? People need to find a way for their money to grow at a reasonable pace. That means, without having to resort to reckless adventurism. If crypto is to address that, it has to take a big next step. Blockchain was intended to solve a double counting problem without having to resort to a trusted intermediary. I am not sitting with Satoshi’s paper in front of me. But no one seems to have mentioned growing what we have. So we need another algorithmic journey. How would that work?

First, the transport layer of crypto has to be decoupled from investible traffic. You do not increase your toll tax on a highway simply because there are more people paying toll. Of course you can charge more to de-congest. That means, it is an intent to exclude and thin out the ranks. That is not really the intent, of course. So we need to get this right. Secondly, the matter of savings. One short term solution might be for pension funds to be allowed for end-user investment into crypto. But that also comes with it’s hazards. There is no alternative to original coding, then. In the longer term, we need a completely new concept of how programmatic money can grow savings. Nick Szabo once said that we must protect what is important to us. That, I argue, is not only privacy. Or the right to choice. It is also the right to reasonable growth of savings.

In other words, the world  needs a second Satoshi. Have a great day. Bye.