Products vs Protocols
2548 sats \ 11 comments \ @halalmoney 12 Feb 2023 bitcoin
People really struggle with understanding the difference between companies, platforms, and products vs protocols.
The beauty of nostr is that it is a protocol and people aren’t locked in. However, it’s also true, and I think very likely, that companies and products will be built on top of the protocol. That’s a good outcome.
I kind of laugh at the posts on here demanding a perpetually free, censorship-free, anything goes social media experience where apps are developed and maintained without subscription fees, advertising, or business models. Sustainability of the protocol and the ecosystem that supports user choice should be the goal.
There may be apps and relays that can meet that standard and that will be great for some users. Others may host their own relays which is fine and good. Still others may be using the protocol within some other experience like a media app and be wholly unaware of how it works.
The key is that the user can own their social graph and their content. They can choose the experience that is best for them.
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570 sats \ 0 replies \ @richnost 13 Feb 2023
I have always struggled explaining this outlook to people. It is the default mode of modern consumers to look at EVERYTHING like a product or an "app" with a shelf life. It is normal for them to assume there will be a "next bitcoin", due to this "well this is how it works" fallacy.
Look at it from their perspective. They started on PayPal. And then Venmo came along. And now it's CashApp or Zelle or whatever. They are used to consuming "experiences", and, like locusts, flying off to the next "new thing". That is normally how the market iterates. They are PROGRAMMED to look at these things as products. Combined with their innate, human tendency for pattern recognition, it is no wonder they see things as "brands" with an inherent expiration date.
Except the Internet. The internet used to be considered a "fad", until it broke through the locust consumer midnset and established itself as ELEMENTAL to their life. That is what a well-designed protocol does. It becomes like water or love or oxygen -- nobody questions an elemental property of life; in fact they laugh at people who deny its impact and boundaries. Imagine a politician declaring oxygen a privilege reserved for "good citizens"... ABSURD!
I use the term "elemental" intentionally, because elements can't be stopped -- they can only offer the challenge of being understood.
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10 sats \ 6 replies \ @kr 12 Feb 2023
unless a person understands bitcoin or is a programmer, i find people really have a hard time making sense of the word “protocol”. their eyes glaze over whenever i utter the word.
how would you explain the concept of a protocol to a non-technical person?
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254 sats \ 0 replies \ @pillar 13 Feb 2023
I've always had success by using the pallet and its role in logistics as an example. People get quickly why the whole world agreeing on standard pallet sized makes supply chains much more efficient.
You could say nostr is the pallet of online communications. An extremely simple agreement on making things a certain way that suddenly gets everyone wonderfully synced.
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387 sats \ 2 replies \ @supertestnet_phone 12 Feb 2023
Two people on different computers send messages to one another. Protocols let both computers display the same thing. They are a set of rules about what to display if you receive message X or message Y.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kr 12 Feb 2023
i like the set of rules definition, is there a way you like to describe this “set of rules” in an offline context?
i wonder if that might be a more relatable on-ramp for helping non-technical folks understand the concept.
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466 sats \ 0 replies \ @supertestnet_phone 13 Feb 2023
When you learn a dance like the electric slide you have to learn the steps so that you and your friends all dance the same dance. The steps are the protocol.
Nostr is like the electric slide for computers. As more and more computers learn the steps, it gets more and more impressive.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @zuspotirko 13 Feb 2023
HTTPS is a protocol, HTTP is a protocol.
When you see a green lock symbol in the top left of your browser the website is using HTTPS, otherwise probably HTTP.
These 2 protocols are the way your browser speaks to the website - but it isn't a specific product made by Google Chrome, Firefox or Apple Safari - it's just the protocol.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @uiuxdesigner78 13 Feb 2023 freebie
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @joyepzion 13 Feb 2023
Protocols are better as projects are built on them. They are by default the rules that govern the usage of any well-thought-through system.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 13 Feb 2023
Exactly
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @thrown 13 Feb 2023
This is a very relevant blog post from an XMPP contributor that decided to emulate Signal and combine the protocol into a single product.
https://snikket.org/blog/products-vs-protocols/
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