In the latest episode of the Invezz podcast, we talk about social networks.
Christopher Gulczynski is co-founder of Tinder and Bumble. Zaven Nahapetyan is a former Facebook engineer. They are now co-founders of Niche, which aims to be part of the new era of social media.
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Namely, reducing the dominance of legacy companies like Facebook and Twitter and building things in a decentralized way by leveraging blockchain technology.
Some parts intrigued me. First of all, it is not a cryptocurrency. There is nothing to speculate here. Christopher and Zaven decided to use blockchain technology to improve the traditional model of social media, but they avoided the noise of the cryptocurrency world.
Christopher tells a beautiful story that illustrates it. He talks about his grandmother who technically owns NFTs but has no idea what they are. Their goal is to build something with these technological advancements – NFT, DAO, blockchain – without having it front and center.
Part of the reason is the reputation that crypto enjoys these days. We have seen many crypto scandals this year – most recently Bankman Fried and the crash of FTX – making headlines. I asked Christopher and Zaven if they were frustrated with being obscured by the “crypto brush”.
Ease of use is also part of it, although cryptography can sometimes be a bit daunting for new users. We discussed how the wallet experience can be daunting and how people don’t really need to understand what’s going on behind the scenes as long as the product is working.
We also discussed the disadvantages of old social networks. I recently wrote about the power of Apple and we also talked about it in this episode. We also spoke on Twitter – Chirstopher mentioned he recently left the platform in the new era of Elon Musk.
Given the enormous influence of Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the rest of CEOs and corporations, it’s no surprise that a new wave of decentralized social media platforms is springing up.
Continue the conversation on Twitter with @InvezzPortal, @DanniiAshmore and @NicheProtocol or visit https://www.niche.club/ for more information.
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