I'm a big fan of his fictional work. I think his track record in startups has not been that great though. Even though he has clearly got some interesting ideas and thoughts. So, I don't have super high hopes that this time is going to be different.
But I think that if you can look beyond the current crypto scandals there might be a need for something like what he is trying to build here. I'm not convinced that what he's building is the right thing technically. But the base observation that copyright, ownership of digital assets, and payments become a lot more complicated in whatever the metaverse is going to be is fundamentally not wrong. It's where our current systems break down.
Novels like Snow Crash, the Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and his more recent Reamde and "Fall, or Dodge in heaven", all feature some kind of crypto payment systems and it's a recurring theme in his work. Even his baroque cycle is basically an historical science fiction novel that is about the birth of the modern financial system in the seventeenth century. So, he is an author that has a track record of understanding a thing or two about money.
> So, he is an author that has a track record of understanding a thing or two about money.
On the contrary, while he is indeed a good author and has written highly enjoyable fictions (well, heavy on the nerdy side but this is HN after all so I think a lot of us have no problem with that), his understanting of how money and knowledge work on a societal level is quite frankly laughable. It is deeply rooted in the californian ideology and very naïve. But it still good fun, and it doesn't take itself to seriously.
I'm a big fan of his fictional work. I think his track record in startups has not been that great though. Even though he has clearly got some interesting ideas and thoughts. So, I don't have super high hopes that this time is going to be different.
But I think that if you can look beyond the current crypto scandals there might be a need for something like what he is trying to build here. I'm not convinced that what he's building is the right thing technically. But the base observation that copyright, ownership of digital assets, and payments become a lot more complicated in whatever the metaverse is going to be is fundamentally not wrong. It's where our current systems break down.
Novels like Snow Crash, the Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and his more recent Reamde and "Fall, or Dodge in heaven", all feature some kind of crypto payment systems and it's a recurring theme in his work. Even his baroque cycle is basically an historical science fiction novel that is about the birth of the modern financial system in the seventeenth century. So, he is an author that has a track record of understanding a thing or two about money.