Thinking in layers: architecture shaping our online & IRL worlds
No-code automations, investment DAOs, & your latest burrito delivery have a lot more in common than you think
Viewing the world in layers
Navigating the startup idea maze this year has brought me down many fascinating rabbit holes. Albeit a windy journey, I’ve been lucky to explore different subjects ranging from on-demand logistics, to no-code apps, to DeFi lending protocols. Every conversation swirled with eagerness in leaving old legacies far behind, and excitement for the new way of doing things (albeit some nervousness for the future unknown).
At first glance, each community seemed to live in different corners of the universe, with their own privately-held memes, local heroes & villains, and acronyms glossaries. But if you looked more closely, one remarkable theme seemed to tie everything together — regardless if the topic at hand was admiring the magic of issuing loans in 20 seconds, fitting 4,000 SKUs in a tiny fulfillment center, or deciphering "zaps" that seemed to glue 6 different apps together. Time and time again, people were most excited about a single property: composability.
Composability enables applications and protocols to interact with each other directly. In software, we see startups equipping their tech stacks by stitching many specialized apps together using APIs and web hooks. In web3, money & media legos serve as interoperable building blocks for new ways of decentralized, permissionless exchange for digital assets. In retail and food, dark stores and micro-fulfillment services are woven across a nimble supply chain to seamlessly move the things we consume at lightning speed.
I’m most excited about composability because it shifts the goalposts for what is possible for each of us. As more interactions and transactions become digitally-native, it’s important for us to think about what we can craft together (as we are all world-building participants). The number of pathways connecting different categories will grow in number, and what may seem like niches now will become more mainstream.
Before we dive into composability, let’s understand layers. The layers before us had to be built before getting to our more interoperable layer today, so let’s give credit where credit’s due.
Layers of abstraction, and why sequence matters
If you went back in time and handed a caveman an iPhone, do you think he would know how to use it? Not likely. The more probable scenario is he would inquire — or rather, grunt — something along the lines of: “what do I do with this small rock?” As much as we want to leapfrog into the divine future, we must be patient and make use of the constraints we operate under today.
The sequence of building layers on top of each other is a law of nature — each layer below the next was necessary to strip away complexity, usher in more iterative understanding, and build easier options for a brand new set of users to tinker with.
A high-level outline of layers of abstraction in different categories:
Layers of abstraction
In the newest layer, we're witnessing compounding change in ways we've never seen before. But this could not have happened without layers prior. For example:
In software & computing, the latest API-first and “no-code” visual programming apps could never be built without their predecessors, who pioneered moving software from on-premise to cloud-based SaaS models. Zapier and Figma should thank the likes of Oracle and SAP, who in turn should thank the creators of COBOL and BASIC, and so on.
In crypto/web3, the latest NFTs and game ecosystems could never be deployed at the speed they are today without their earlier pioneers, who built marketplace apps that abstracted away the technicalities of smart contracts. OpenSea couldn't exist without Metamask interfaces or ERC-721 standards, and smart contracts couldn't exist without Solidity, Rust, web3.js languages, which rely on the underlying blockchains.
In supply chains, the latest pop-up of dark stores and micro fulfillment operations could never exist without the mobile apps that created a robust labor economy for couriers and a new set of consumer expectations for on-demand logistics. Cloud Kitchens and goPuff stand on the shoulders of Uber and DoorDash, who could not have thrived without food suppliers and CPG manufacturers, who should thank the freight industry that spanned movement of cargo across our globe via trucking, air, and maritime.
Today, we send emails and browse the web without having to talk about http or compilers. We get food delivered with a press of a button without thinking about how every ingredient was plucked and processed. There are large businesses built entirely on no-code tech stacks. In the future, I see a world in which we buy and sell digital assets without ever mentioning smart contracts. I imagine a time when builders create new technologies without mention of a server or programming language.
The newest layer: composability unlocks ways of working we’ve never seen
You’ll notice that you're more likely to have a sense of familiarity as you move toward the top. What's amazing about the top-most layer is that reducing complexity leads to a step change in greater extensibility. Each nth layer of abstraction creates an inflection point with a compounding impact of greater utility, at lower cost (when they may have been prohibitively expensive before).
As a result, we’ll see opportunities come from new users tinkering with technology and tapping into new forms of distribution in ways that don’t yet exist. The gap between ideation and creation will continue to diminish — all while creating greater economic margin. We are already seeing $50m+ GMV businesses built on top of almost entirely no-code tech stacks, and by founding teams without engineering backgrounds. Many retail brands outsource warehousing and fulfillment operations to third-party services so they can operate in an asset-lite way.
Building blocks are magical because they can be broken down into little pieces, and they play nice with others. And when reassembled, they are still malleable. If built by actors who know them best, this can be done in a manner that is far more practical and contextual. If built by multiple actors working together, the cooperation breeds new creativity in an eternal way. Vitalik Buterin describes this regarding the Ethereum ecosystem:
“The limit for what you build is basically your own creativity... Once you build your application, the application does not need to depend on you or any other single person for its continued existence.”
But what happens to said “limit” when we observe interoperability of seemingly unrelated bits and pieces — those that live in different silos today?
World-building in a common language: cutting across silos
As humans, we're always finding ways to speak a common language. Machines rely on humans to identify the interoperable nodes across physical supply chains, digital assets, and software so they can all talk to each other. There will be new ideas built, not just intra, but inter-protocols and networks. But this can only happen when expressed in an agreed-upon shared language (standards and schemas), and knitted together in a cooperative manner.
We’re already seeing this magic bringing traditional industries more online, and cutting across silos to bring us new ways of working. This has me wondering:
What happens when we build far more robust customer data profiles and reputation scores using transaction history? …or funnel profiles in real-time, sending job-seekers to appropriate recruiter inboxes in a far more efficient way because skills & job history are captured on-chain? …or capture omnichannel experiences for brands, so in-person engagement is encoded via tokens, with records piped back to the data warehouse?
A few examples that highlight interesting intersections and new experiments:
SaaS enablement across all components of supply chain
Ultra-fast delivery models (Gopuff, JOKR, Fridge No More, Gorillas), and ecommerce/logistics vertical SaaS (ShipBob, Shippo, Skubana) are new models that arise from bringing together software ↔ supply chain. By combining the power of highly dense micro-fulfillment networks and logistics SaaS to hold the right inventory at the right times, they bring us everything we could want to our doors as quickly as possible.
Third-party logistics (3PL): ShipBob, a tech-enabled 3PL, allows brands to outsource fulfillment completely. With 24 fulfillment centers in 5 countries, ShipBob holds inventory and does the pick/pack/ship process after a customer places an order. The operations are enabled by order and warehouse management software, integrations across ecommerce platforms, and an algorithm that automatically selects the optimal warehouse location/carrier to provide quickest turnaround at the best price.
Ultra-fast groceries & convenience store items: Gopuff, an on-demand consumer goods delivery service, offers “instant” delivery of alcohol, snacks, and convenience store essentials at a flat fee of $1.95, 24 hours a day when users order through the app. This is enabled by its micro-fulfillment infrastructure - a network of 400 localized dark stores serving over 1,000 cities -- to more easily distribute to end consumers. The movement of goods in its vertically-integrated model is powered by on-demand dispatch, routing, and fleet optimization technology.
Building on-chain projects leveraging no-code
No-code builders are leveraging the power of Zapier, Bubble, and Bildr to plug into Metamask or pull from web3 app APIs, combining no-code tools ↔ web3 components to creatively stitch together NFTs, communities, and analytics.
Workflow automations: Zapier and Bildr has been used by Web3 app-builders to automate Metamask actions and data pulls from transaction records. For example, Pinata is a NFT file storage that uses Zaps to back up NFT purchases to IPFS by pulling from Etherscan/OpenSea APIs. NFT artists are leveraging Bildr’s visual web development tool to generate images from layer files and stitch them together as new artwork.
No-code platforms and tools: More full service no-code development platforms such as Easely for NFT creation and Muse for Metaverse building are being born. Existing no-code tools are also now offering new plugins. For example, Bubble now offers a Metamask plugin that allows builders to enable MetaMask connection to user wallet actions, offering token transfers, signatures, and read and write functions for smart contract interaction.
Funding work in new ways with crypto & investment DAOs
On-chain platforms such as Dev Protocol, Gitcoin, Mirror, & Braintrust are experimenting with ways to bring together labor ↔ tokenized earnings across multiple categories, including software development, media, and research.
Developer & knowledge worker projects: Gitcoin is a platform that enables developers to get paid for working on open source projects in Python, Rust, Ruby, JavaScript, Solidity, and more. These include bounties for UX/UI design, open security contests, new feature builds, hackathons, and grant funding. To-date, $34m has been funded on the network, with 312k monthly active developers. Top earners make north of $10k/week. Braintrust is another marketplace for knowledge workers, where the $BTRST token natively embeds financial incentive for top talent to bring on more qualified candidates, and shape a first-of-its-kind user-owned talent network (now at a $30m run rate).
Academic & scientific research: Vita DAO, a longevity drug development DAO, recently funded biotech research for this “Longevity Molecule” NFT. After holding an on-chain vote to acquire and fund the project, they purchased it for $325,000. This virtualized IP format enables funding, liquidity, and valuation by transacting legal IP rights. Researchers in academia are also using Mirror to fund independent research, with students structuring payouts for all contributors (including editors and interviewees) with the likes of $LABOR and Decentralization.
Learning & credentialing on-chain
Crypto-native education projects such as Project Galaxy, Rabbithole, 0xSTATION, Buildspace are tackling new ways of combining courses ↔ on-chain credentials for learners to receive tokens and build an on-chain resume, while going through custom learning itineraries and partaking in the ecosystem of other community learners.
On-chain resume building: Project Galaxy is building a data network to power on-chain credentials and credential-based NFTs. With certain achievements, users can claim NFTs as forms of identification as “badges”. Developers can build loyalty programs and achievement tiers for specific communities.
Course creation: Mirror, which started as a publishing platform but has since evolved into broader tooling, enabling creators to de-risk the ideation process when upfront capital and resources are required. For example, a recent effort to crowdfund collaborative learning through educational DAO was successfully funded by students for Crypto, Culture, & Society. Students who contributed to the DAO can direct how they want their syllabus to unfold.
Education via play-to-learn: Rabbithole unlocks the ability for users to claim credentials that represent mastery of new technologies after completing certain tasks. For example, after a user successfully does certain swapping, lending, LP-ing actions across DeFi protocols, they can unlock the “Asset Management” credential. Partners such as Aave and Uniswap are incentivized to fund campaigns, as promoting protocol-specific learning creates an early adopter base for future participants — a far more efficient acquisition play. 0xSTATION is building a personalized educational onboarding to web3. Users who hop aboard the train can receive protocol tokens by curating or creating content, participating in the community, and building tools.
Dissolving monoliths to build bridges
Interoperability across categories is exciting. What might seem like unrelated niches to you today will be relevant in the future, so it’s important to expand your consideration set. Lines will be blurred. There will be innovation stacked on innovation, particularly as we leapfrog from idea-to-offering in a faster and more elegant way than ever before.
Composability is a catalyst for change across industries, especially as we embark on a more digitally-native world. Gone are the days of trading activity restricted by weekdays and holiday hours. Access to media is no longer capped by limited channels programmed for only 24 hours in a day. Consumption is no longer governed by the constraints of finite retail shelf-space, or what we can physically carry to our cars. Furthermore, open source has made problem solving iterative and forward-looking in nature.
We frequently talk about composability and its compounding impact in the digital realm. But I suspect we’ll see the same discussion take shape in the physical realm as operational workflows become more modular and templatized. With software, IT architecture will become more headless in nature due to greater API connectivity across more apps. In Web3, financial infrastructure and incentives will unlock a more fair multiplayer game due to money & media legos. Across supply chains, production and movement of goods will mirror our hyper-individuality due to the expansive infrastructure of dark stores & micro-fulfillment. Let’s imagine if every business or app had a public API exposed, with no downtime.
As we design our future world — and the technology that shapes it — I encourage you to think about the building blocks you operate with today. I imagine they will soon form bridges into neighboring worlds, across new layers of abstraction, and those sitting beneath.
Many thanks to Andy, Jeff, Micah, Jake, and Bec for reviewing early drafts of this :)