Speaking of showing one’s age: recall the 1990’s with Web 1.0 and we all had HTML homepages, pre-Facebook, pre-Google. And the much-reviled Microsoft had all the same accusations of monopolistic practices as Facebook does now (IMHO both reputations truly earned.)

Microsoft forced (almost) everyone (myself included) who couldn’t plunk down $2k on a Powermac to adopt personal computing and the Internet with their crappy Windows OS and even crappier IE browser. But we can thank them for making mass adoption happen.

Sometimes it takes a big company with deep pockets to move the needle. It’s unfortunate that innovation so often leads to consolidation. That seems to be the price of unfettered capitalism.

Microsoft, although still a major player, seems to have been disrupted by much of the rest of FAMGA, in mobile, search, AI home assistants, etc. Facebook may be headed for a similar decline. But don’t be surprised if history repeats itself, and the next big dog makes the same moves.

The mass adoption is a good thing in the long run, if it happens. Since it’s still centralized, Facebook is more in competition with credit card banks and fiat currencies, IMHO, than with Steemit or even BTC. The price of BTC is (for the moment) still strong, so a rising tide lifts all boats.

It would be nice, however, if tech could get mass adoption and democratization in a more egalitarian way. But I’m not holding my breath. Instead I’ll just hold (hodl?) my coins.