I’ve rambled on a lot about the potential use cases of NFTs and specifically how token-gated access will change the landscape of commerce and product design.

Sometimes I feel like I’m grasping at straws so I’m constantly trying to poke holes in my nexus of ideas around this topic.

Then every now and then someone comes along and drops an idea that resonates with where I see all this going and it forces me back down the cerebral rabbit hole.

This thread is one of those examples. As someone who sat through the required onboarding process to activate my Superhuman account, this one hit home.

Sure there are holes to be poked – like with all ideas – but “luxury” software is yet another thought-provoking example of what web3 is going to enable. And the design space is still wide open.

Here’s a few quotes that jumped out and got me thinking…

“Twitter has 368 million users and sold (at a premium) for $44 billion. LVMH has (educated guess) tens of millions of customers globally and is valued at $500 billion. ~1% of the customer base and more than 10x the value.”

“There is lots of beautiful software in the world. But up until now, there has never been a viable way to create exclusivity with software. NFTs enable artificial scarcity, and it’s opening up new ways to manipulate the supply of software.”

“There is an untapped market for everyday digital products that differentiate on style and exclusivity. But limiting access through invite-only links is one-dimensional way of creating artificial scarcity compared to token-gating. It also misses out on the value-capture of a growing waitlist.”