Stop Trying to Build the “Killer Dapp”
Start trying to build a killer company.
The argument against decentralized applications, thus far, has largely been that there isn’t yet a killer app. Or killer dapp (the whole community really needs to stop using that acronym, but that’s a different topic altogether). People point to the success—and later lack of success—of Cryptokitties as an example of both what decentralized apps can be and as proof that the world isn’t ready to embrace them.
But maybe people are simply asking the wrong questions.
Instead of asking where the killer apps are, let’s start asking where the killer companies are. Apps are novelties. They’re toys in an app store that people use and forget. Apps are things. Companies are movements. Furthering the movement of decentralization, privacy, security, and censorship-resistance isn’t going to happen because of a killer app. It’s going to happen because companies come along that people can get behind.
We’ve already seen this with DuckDuckGo in the privacy space. They didn’t build a killer app. They built a company wholly dedicated to user privacy. They gained traction not by dropping an app in an app store and hoping for the best. They gain traction by dedicating themselves to building a company that could last and be profitable without selling data. The same is true of ProtonMail. The same is true of what Brave is working on now.
And the same will be true in the decentralized ecosystem.
Graphite is not just an app. Graphite is a company dedicated to build an antidote to the Googles of the world. You’ll notice I said “an antidote” and not “the antidote.” That’s because there isn’t just one solution. We can’t just build an app and be done. We have to dedicate ourselves to building companies just the like the companies of Web 2.0 did. That’s exactly what Graphite is working on, and we hope you’ll join us.
Sign up for free here: https://app.graphitedocs.com
