In a recent post on X to the crypto community, Brian Armstrong, the founder of Coinbase, has delineated ten audacious ideas he believes could define the future of crypto. He posits that bear markets are prime times for constructing the frameworks of tomorrow, and he’s laid out an inviting path for both current and would-be builders to follow.
The ideas Armstrong shares feel like an amalgamation of cryptocurrencies’ best traits: decentralization, programmability, and privacy, fused with the familiar aspects of the existing financial and online systems. It’s a stirring amalgam of what’s now and what’s next.
In one fascinating proposal, Armstrong speculates on the creation of ‘Flatcoin,’ a novel form of cryptocurrency that surpasses the volatility and inflation issues plaguing Bitcoin and fiat-backed stablecoins. Imagine a digital asset whose value doesn’t just keep up with consumer price indexes but outpaces them through intelligent backing by diversified asset baskets or algorithms. Services like Truflation, Armstrong suggests, could even bring real-time inflation tracking onto the blockchain.
Armstrong also tackles the important issue of trust in the decentralized world. Despite the advent of decentralized identities, like ENS names, the lack of a centralized authority creates a trust vacuum. Enter ‘Onchain Reputation,’ a decentralized system to rate and rank entities based on their transaction histories and relationships. This could serve as a backbone for a new age decentralized credit scoring system, merchant ratings, or even fraud prevention services.
But Armstrong doesn’t just stop at the weighty issues of trust and money; he sees an advertising revolution on the horizon. He envisions ‘Onchain Ads,’ a mechanism through which blockchain-based entities can transparently, and more effectively, incentivize user interaction. Forget impressions or even clicks; the next frontier in online advertising could be action-based incentives recorded and rewarded through smart contracts.
As for the next evolution of ICOs, Armstrong emphasizes the need for a more organized, trustworthy means of capital formation. He imagines an entity combining the strengths of Stripe Atlas and AngelList in the crypto space, helping startups not only register but also fundraise with full transparency and community engagement.
But let’s not forget the ‘Average Joe’ in Armstrong’s vision. He suggests a global ‘Job/Task Marketplace for Crypto,’ making the case that as people from various geographies look for opportunities, being able to transact in cryptocurrency could become an enabler of a truly free and open global job market.
His attention also turns to privacy concerns in Layer 2 solutions, the need for a decentralized P2P exchange system, the scope of on-chain gaming experiences, and the tokenization of real-world assets like debt instruments and luxury goods. The focus, undeniably, is on building a more inclusive, transparent, and efficient world.
And last but not least, Armstrong introduces the concept of software to manage Network States, expanding on Balaji Srinivasan’s notion of ‘startup cities.’ Here Armstrong invites entrepreneurial spirits to build governance, taxation, and service tools for these newly formed entities.
In a world where conversations around crypto often devolve into price talk, Brian Armstrong’s manifesto is an essential palette cleanser. His call to arms isn’t a plea for quick riches, but a roadmap for an economy and society built on the principles of decentralization and individual agency. Whether these ideas will come to fruition remains to be seen, but if Armstrong has his way, the next five years could see the crypto industry evolve in ways that most of us have yet to even imagine.
And for those aspiring entrepreneurs and builders, Armstrong has thrown in an added sweetener—the Coinbase Ventures Summit. Scheduled for this October in LA, the event aims to bring the best minds in the crypto space under one roof for a sharing of ideas and perhaps even a bit of matchmaking among future co-founders.
Armstrong concludes his letter with a slot left open for ‘Your Idea,’ underlining the embryonic stage the crypto industry is still in and how much space there is for groundbreaking ideas. He’s not claiming to have all the answers, but he’s surely providing some of the most compelling questions. And in a rapidly evolving landscape like cryptocurrency, sometimes the right question can be worth its weight in Bitcoin.
