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Evans: Crypto Sits at the Peak of Tech's Historical Complexity Curve

Benedict Evans · The Evolution of networks · Mar 14, 2022 · at 26:29

Benedict Evans, tech analyst and Venture Partner at Mosaic Ventures, compares the usability evolution of early PCs and the early internet to modern crypto infrastructure.

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“The visible complexity goes up in a kind of a bell curve. And then you reach a point by like, you know, you get GUIs and Windows and Mac and so on that the visible complexity starts going down. Even as though you carry on getting more and more plumbing underneath. And same with the internet. And sort of where Bitcoin is now, where crypto is now, is just like, well, Bitcoin is very cool, but it doesn't really do it. It only does one thing. And Ethereum does a bit more. And now you've got this sort of explosion of complexity of people building plumbing, which is all necessary if at a certain point in the future you want to be able to run doom on Ethereum. But you haven't got to the point of having those infraction layers.”

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