There's been a lot of chit-chat recently on the so-called 'Everything App', so I thought I'd offer some insights into what we're talking about and ideas on how things will pan out…
The basic premise is that we’re likely to combine our apps going forward and use one or two main apps for our activities. Currently we have applications covering banking, social media, buying food, booking a taxi, checking the weather, messaging, games, the list goes on.
In particular finance and social media are likely to be combined, meaning less friction and efficiency. The technology exists, so it’s a logical process. One of the reasons this has come to the fore is Mr Elon Musk and his antics…
Elon Musk & Twitter
You will have probably heard on the ol’ grapevines that Musk, one of the richest people in the world has bought Twitter, and some may be scratching their head about it. First off, Elon is smarter and more successful (depending on the definition) than most of the people doubting his business acumen (and general sanity) so I think we should let him do his thing and see how it pans out.
Twitter was haemorrhaging money and may not make sense as a good move, so why on earth would you buy it? First off, why not. If you have the money and a certain vision of things, you can take a punt. Then we have all the data. The reams of data on everyone and all their actions… this is worth billions in itself.
Then we have Musk and his missions. One of them is to go to Mars and most involve the advancement of humanity (in his eyes). Whether you agree with him or not doesn’t change the sentiment. He seems to me almost child-like in his ideals and his tenacity, follows his instincts and passions, and appears to be very honest (perhaps not having that filter that others develop).
He’s doing a great job of shaking things up (and pissing off some people in the process, which is always a bonus!), cracking down on some nefarious activity, tackling fake accounts/bots, attempting to ensure accurate information, and opening things up again to free speech (to a point, it's all relative). Some people will delight in these things, others may say he's running it into the ground.
One thing we can say is that he acts fast and big, fails fast and publicly, and moves on faster… which is different to how most operate hence the discord.
The Revival of X?
But it goes deeper than that. Back 20+ years ago, Musk had a vision for what could be described as an everything app… what was to go on and become PayPal. If you didn’t know, Musk was one of the main people involved with PayPal which was one of the first alternative payment systems and is still going strong today, an option at most checkouts.
That was good, but times have moved on and that technology is a bit old hat. At the same time Musk wanted to start a payment company that integrated other aspects (x.com) but the other people involved didn’t share his vision so it was shelved, or at least taken in a different direction. I would say he was on the right lines but a little early. It’s not just about the right idea, timing is crucial.
PayPal went full steam ahead and Musk then turned his attention to rockets and cars, but 'X' was never forgotten, perhaps waiting in the wings for the right moment and opportunity.
Back to Twitter: Musk’s Everything App.
It will likely be one of the biggest financial institutions in the world, combined with a suite of social media tools. It won’t just be staying as a microblogging (ie. 280 character limit) platform. People will spend most of their lives in one way or another inside this application with most aspects integrated - that’s how I believe Elon sees it.
He could of course start this from scratch but has a huge head start with Twitter. So, money well spent after all? Time will tell.
In China they’ve had a an app called WeChat for many years. This is their version of The Everything App and contains a lot of what we’re spelling out here. So it already exists and works well there.
A word of caution… these are all centralised Web 2.0 companies and are owned by people or organisations that control everything that goes on. In China in particular they are known for a certain ‘approach’ and this kind of app makes it very handy for the powers that be to see and control what’s going on. So you better play ball!
Elon Musk seems to be one of the better folks out there and appears to be genuine. But a benevolent dictator is still a dictator, and they can always turn malevolent. Musk does heed to regulations and needs the approval of government organisations for his projects so he has no choice but to do as they say to a degree.
Facebook (sorry, Meta) may be looking at something similar. Imagine a world where one company (and a person like Mark Zuckerberg) controls the Metaverse through their virtual reality headset technology and not only is all your social life on there, but also your money… and they decide to shut you down. Could be for any reason, no warning, you’re gone. And so is everything connected to that account.
On Hive
If only there was some sort of alternative. Oh, wait…
Hive solves a lot of this and is in the process of haphazardly building its own everything app, and that could come from a few angles.
It already has the financial component baked in at the base layer through blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. It’s censorship resistant, immutable, and has no one in charge. Your content is on the blockchain for as long as it lasts (and there’s no reason it should ever stop) and can be accessed. Certain front-ends may be able to hide your content on that particular site but you can see it by simply accessing a different front-end or using a block explorer.
LeoFinance and 3Speak (Layer 2 solutions built on Hive) seem to be 2 front runners in this race but anything can happen.
We already have a number of applications that cover longer form blogging, microblogging, photos, videos and games. It’s now a case of whether any of the particular set ups involved integrate all these different aspects into their individual app, hence bringing it all together to form The Everything App.
This is Web 3.0 which is the term thrown around for the new iteration of the internet. First up was all very basic and static web pages. Then we had the social media tools which allowed multimedia and interaction, communication and generally more features. It got somewhat bastardised by some big hitters and the internet lost some of its original essence and intention.
Now we head into the new world which allows the incentivisation and reward aspect to flow as one and for people to take back their power. You own your account, and are fully responsible for it. It can’t be taken away from you but you need to take care of it.
So that’s where we are. Musk is building out his vision and will likely be successful but it will still be an updated version of Web 2.0 and will be at the mercy of others. You can still have a lot of fun with it and worth using (with caution) as part of your life.
Then we have the new way that is forming and should bring us something fresh with the tokenisation layer and true ownership. Well worth getting a Hive account and getting involved. I’m not aware of anything that compares at the moment although I’m sure there are various people working on all sorts out there!
So what do you make of it all? Do you agree that people’s lives will be managed this way, and where will The Everything App ultimately come from? Will there be several, and individuals and companies will have their own leanings?
Cheers,
Adam
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