213 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 5 Feb \ on: Territories, digital scarcity, and cultural capital meta
Interesting question. I think the cultural capital of Stacker News is showcased in the real life accounts of people detailing their situations. I have read about the Bitcoin situation in Germany, how to orange pill merchants in New Zealand and how Bitcoin is empowering the masses in Nigeria, El Salvador and Argentina, among others. Reading such accounts is interesting because I just can’t find them anywhere else. And of course, the discussion that these posts generates is another gold mine on its own. People share advice and swap stories - and I’m often left uplifted by the social glue of Stackers and the humanity they espouse.
If SN can build on this unique selling proposition, it can market itself as a one-stop hub for not just Bitcoin, but other aspects of life. How parents in different countries raise their kids? What is the rural-urban migration like in various cities? How policies that work wonderfully in one country may flop when transported to another context? I think many Stackers hope to share about their lives and be enlightened by others.
One more thing, I feel that if SN were to be taken seriously, it has to broaden its scope besides Bitcoin. Sure there are tons of shitcoins out there, but ETH and Polygon are collaborating with multiple businesses, organisations and governments. To focus on just Bitcoin is like seeing one side of the coin, I feel.
My two sats’ worth
One more thing, I feel that if SN were to be taken seriously, it has to broaden its scope besides Bitcoin.
I think I saw in a presentation once that the SN business model is: we're building a platform that supports certain features of media and community and takes full advantage of btc and its ecosystem to deliver them; and its original focus will be btc bc of the natural fit in doing that; but it's not really dependent on btc as a topic.
(I think that's pretty close to what I saw but I don't have time to dig for it now.)
Point is, I don't think SN gets bigger or more relevant (or profitable) by more than a constant factor when you have to care about btc to be here. I have a fundamental assumption that, just as you don't have to be a car enthusiast to want to drive to the grocery store, a very small number of people in the world will ever want Saifedean Ammous's face tatooed on the small of their back. That market is tapped out already.
Either btc is money, plain and simple, or it isn't, and if it isn't, this is all going away, and it's only a matter of time.
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