Why I work at Dapper Labs
Ok, here we go. First real post today. Hope you enjoy.
A couple months ago, I shared with a friend some articles I wrote about how I became interested in blockchain because of its potential to bring financial freedom and control over our digital lives. He then asked “So why do you work at Dapper Labs? Isn’t is just blockchain cats and basketball cards?” Good question. I’ll answer here.
None of this technology is useful if people don’t use it
To make use of blockchains, you need a blockchain wallet. So how do you convince the world to get a wallet? My bet is on NFTs that are about culture, art, games, and entertainment. There’s a much wider audience for this than for a financial asset. As Dapper CEO says, “we believe NFTs are the catalyst to putting ‘a blockchain wallet in every pocket’”
Dapper Labs is The NFT Company. TopShot has 1.3m+ users and there’s 1b+ NBA fans to grow towards. This in addition to the partnerships with LaLiga and NFL will onboard billions to having a wallet.
A developer ecosystem for mainstream blockchain apps
For mainstream adoption, we need crypto user experience to be in line with what consumers expect on the internet today. In most cases it’s very far from that today.
What sets Dapper Labs apart from other protocol developers is that the company started as a world-class app development studio so we know intimately what it takes to build something for consumers. Dapper built the first breakout application on Ethereum called CryptoKitties. The team learned that Ethereum would not allow UX to meet needs of the mainstream because its 1) too expensive 2) too slow 3) complicated UX (requires wallet and key management, downloading browser extensions like metamask). We used this knowledge to architect the Flow blockchain specifically designed to solve these issues.
Sure there are other networks you can build on, but none other has the mainstream user base (e.g. 1m+ TopShot users), developer support, and business development support that exists on Flow. Flow is the blockchain for mainstream consumer app developers.
Commitment to openness
People can only realize the benefits of financial freedom and control over our digital lives if the blockchains are open and decentralized. The point is to make it impossible for any one company or government to shut you out. Not every chain is built this way.
Everything at Dapper and Flow is architected with a clear-eyed commitment to open standards and decentralization. It started with Dapper CTO authoring the NFT standard on Ethereum, and now evolved into the Flow blockchain with an architecture designed to be more scalable and decentralized than any other in existence.
These three missions are significant milestones for the world.
Anyways, go buy some CryptoKitties and TopShots!
Have a great weekend.
Brian