1-min summary of “Improving strengths over weaknesses” by Tony Sheng

This is a 1-minute read summary of “Improving strengths over weaknesses” post by Tony Sheng published on 23 April 2019. The original is available at
https://www.tonysheng.com/improving-strengths-weaknesses

Key take-away points from the post:

• There are 2 ways to approach improvement: hone your strengths or limit your weaknesses.
• Zoom is an example of the first approach. Zoom’s strategy is focused around its reliable technology stack. This approach helped them achieve a $10bn IPO despite fierce competition.
• Usage of existing crypto networks has occurred because of their strengths, not due to the extend of their weaknesses.
• Bitcoin’s lead in the “digital gold” market lies in its security, distribution of power and strength of social contract. Even if Bitcoin scaled worse than it did, people would still use it for its strengths.
• Ethereum’s lead in DeFi lies in the superior security Ethereum provides. Again, scaling is not a defining quality for DeFi.
• Protocols need to match their strengths to a use case to be successful. Otherwise there would be no reason to choose it over its competitors.
• The choice between honing existing strengths or limiting the weaknesses can be made depending on durability of the existing strength. Bitcoin’s strengths are durable, while Ethereum’s strengths are questionable. Hence competing on scalability might be the best option.