The Third Wave
When it comes to any new technology, it is often easier to think of the underlying environment around the technology evolving over three distinct waves: concept; infrastructure; and platforms.
The first step, the concept wave, occurs when a new technology is still in the very early stages of development and may exist as a proof of concept. At this point, the technology in question may be in a prototype stage and may still be worked on and developed further.
The next step, the infrastructure wave, is when third parties begin to take notice and realize the potential for the technology. These companies help to mold the technical, business, and social environments around the technology so that consumers take notice of what the technology can do.
The final step, the platform wave, is when the technology becomes accepted by society and it experiences mass adoption. At this point, the core concept and vision of the technology has been more or less fully developed and companies focus on services to differentiate themselves from others. While the technology may change or evolve, its functionality remains constant. It’s important to note that companies in the third wave are those that have the highest valuations because the market is at its most mature.
Let’s take a look at an example with a technology that has become so commonplace and widespread that it could be considered a human right: the Internet.
The first wave of the Internet began in 1983 with the initial adoption of TCP/IP protocol to create a network. It continued expanding and growing until 1990, when the world wide web was formally created by Tim Berners-Lee and we saw the beginnings of the Internet as we know it today.
The second wave of the Internet continued in the mid-90’s with the proliferation of the infrastructure for the web. Companies such as Intel, Cisco, America Online, Yahoo!, IBM, and Dell, to name a few, helped to create not just the physical infrastructure with networks, computers, and servers, but also created social hype to make the Internet “cool”. If it was not for these companies, we would not have experienced the early adoption by millions of users around the world.
The final wave of the Internet began a decade later after the dot com bust of the early 2000’s. In this phase, the Internet economy began to mature as the industry experienced mass adoption by users. The meteoric rise in the number of internet users has been bolstered by the creation of platforms such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tencent, Alibaba all companies with top-10 market valuations in the world.
It is important to understand the three wave phenomenon in technology because society is on the verge of entering the third wave of the blockchain. The first wave of blockchains was completed after the creation of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. They were proofs of concept that showcased what blockchain could do.
In the second wave, we’re seeing hundreds and thousands of companies enter the digital economy to try to take advantage of blockchain’s huge popularity. These companies are creating the infrastructure for blockchain by creating new exchanges, trading platforms, online courses to teach people about blockchain, and more.
We are on the cusp of seeing blockchain become widely adopted by the masses. Because of where society is at the moment, we at FamilyPoints have built our company to be a third wave platform company.
The FamilyPoints platform is focused on helping parents achieve their goals in raising children. We have a deep understanding of parenting and education. We are also combining that understanding with our knowledge of blockchain to build our company on the foundation of a blockchain ledger.
In China alone, there is an audience of 100 million children from 0–6 age with 200 million parents. In the world, that number jumps to over 500 million parents. We have a macro view on the economy and believe in the positive impact that our platform has on society.
As we move from the second wave to the third wave of blockchain, we expect that most of the tokens that are growing today on speculation alone, will either stagnate or even come down in value. Because the digital economy is maturing, there will be a shift towards tokens linked to real businesses. FamilyPoints links the fiat economy with our token economy. With mass adoption of this kind of platform, we expect that our token values will grow because we have an established and growing business supporting our token.
2018 will be the year where investors, companies, and others will invest in real assets — even in the token economy.
For more information about our platform, visit familypoints.io.
