Oddbean

Certainly user prompts are a new type of data that could be included in a profile to target users with ads. But note, big tech companies don’t ever want to sell your data. They want to sell your attention, targeted to advertisers by using their proprietary systems on your data. They would prefer to keep the data for themselves and only charge advertisers for attention. The challengers are going to reshape the tools/interfaces to how data gets created/consumed/evaluated by users. There are more profound shifts afoot than just “more data captured by existing players”. Disruption at the interface layer is the biggest threat. Nostr plays a small role (for now) in this kind of disruption. It could play a larger role over time.

The web browser is an example of the “interface layer”. In the late 90s Microsoft tried to bundle Internet Explorer (their browser) into the Windows operating system, so that they could control the defaults (e.g. which “portal” or search engine most people use). Google fought this by building “search toolbars” that plugged into IE and other browsers and eventually launched the Chrome browser. It’s open source, but Google owns the “interface layer” (binary software distributed/installed on your computer which you launch). Another disruptive “interface layer” change happened years later when Apple launched iPhone/iOS and again controlled a new “interface layer” to computing. Apple uses this “interface layer” disruption to get $10s of billions of dollars from Google for the privilege to be the default search engine. A collection of open source nostr clients could become a new “interface layer” to the next wave of information and communication systems on the internet. As people seek higher quality information from more reputable sources with more control over their data, privacy, and attention there’s an opportunity to disrupt at the “interface layer” again. The largest strategic battlegrounds in business/tech occur at the “interface layer”. How do consumers choose what they do?

Good point @dk ! Data monopoly is better for them. They want your data, so they can monetize it without letting the control out! Thanks for crearing it! 🫡 Basically "infinite money" if they collect your data indefinitely, and they are the first point of contact for that data.