This story is based on true events (references at bottom), detailing how two start ups revolutionized an industry.
Modernizing Retro
In 2008, a vintage photography enthusiast named Lucas had an idea for a mobile app that would revolutionize the industry. You see, vintage photography was an expensive hobby and the entire system was archaic, full of middlemen, and primed to be modernized.
In order to get into the hobby and share your photographs with your friends and family, you had to
- Acquire a vintage camera from a pawn shop or eBay
- Find and purchase the correct film for your camera model
- Learn how to use the camera and take a photo
- Bring the film to a photo lab and pay a fee to have it developed
The brilliant idea Lucas had was to take advantage of recently released iPhone and its camera capabilities. A series of filters (with catchy names like Blanko and Valencia) could be applied to digital photos after the fact to create the effect of a vintage photo, streamlining the entire process into just a single press of a button.
Lucas got to work creating an app that would do just that and bit by bit, word spread. Friends were amazed by the nostalgia of seeing these vintage photographs and the ease at which these they can be taken. Folks in the business were apprehensive at first but soon began looking for partnerships and embracing the inevitable revolution of their industry. Before long, Lucas' app was at the top of the App Store and would eventually garner millions of users.
The name of this app was.... Hipstamatic.
A new challenger
The success of Hipstamatic spawned a slew of copycat apps hoping to replicate its success but none were able to overcome Hipstamatic's first mover advantage and brand recognition. That is, until the launch of a new challenger a few years later... Instagram.
Instagram's early success was due to its focus on doing one thing and doing it really well -- and that was the sharing of the photographs taken on the app. It completely streamlined the process and made it seamless for their users to share their creations with their network. This approach worked and Instagram soon left Hipstamatic in the dust with its growing userbase and eventual historic Facebook acquisition. The rest is history.
Parallels to crypto
Reading about the beginnings of these two apps/companies reminds me of Bitcoin's history and the disruption that it brought with the great technological invention that is the blockchain. As a digital currency, it allowed for peer-to-peer payments bypassing all the middlemen of the traditional banking system.
I was floored the first time I sent a Bitcoin transaction. Sure it was a steep learning curve in the early days, and there was plenty of room to make mistakes, but I was excited by the potential it offered.
Forks and copycats followed but none could match Bitcoin's success. But Bitcoin isn't perfect. Eventually a coin will emerge that aims to do everything Bitcoin can do but better.
I believe that coin is Nano.
References
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/102615/story-instagram-rise-1-photo0sharing-app.asp
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