Oddbean

If you’ve studied network effects you’ll know the first cohort to adopt a new network is massively influential on development, there’s a form of path dependence from the userbase which isn’t immediately obvious but becomes apparent over time. Think of things like zaps and how that directionally leads devs and subsequent use cases. There are downsides to having Bitcoiners as your bootstrap but I reckon your about 1000x more likely to succeed with them as a cohort over some degens who are only there because their views and what they want to be social about is repugnant to the vast majority of other people. Bitcoiners don’t HAVE to be here on nostr, they want to be here. At least devs know they have a low time preference user base who will put up with some rough edges if it means users can get outside “the system” and remain self-sovereign. This is unlike the pedos and Nazis and furries who were forced to migrate elsewhere because other places didn’t want their message on their platforms. Those are fickle bootstrap cohorts who will move on to the next place that allows more extremism than now and won’t feed back to Devs what they need to grow the place. In 10 years, with hindsight, this will appear obvious. It’s not obvious to most people today though. We are the lucky ones who get to see this thing from the beginning. nostr:note1q7ttle22uy70jh52pchp0pyk9du08y49n5zkrk2t6wel49py2lmsh6hjua