Prompt Cast
Kevin Rose's Journey from Web 2.0 to Web 3: Exploring Tech, Cryptocurrency, and NFTs
TLDR Kevin Rose, founder of Dig and early investor in companies like Twitter and Facebook, shares his experience transitioning from the Web 2.0 era to the emerging Web 3 space. He discusses his involvement in the tech industry, his interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, and his new podcast dedicated to exploring the world of NFTs.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Kevin Rose, founder of Dig and early investor in companies like Twitter and Facebook, discusses his journey from Web 2.0 to Web 3.
06:33
Kevin Rose discovered the tech scene in Silicon Valley through computer magazines and attending conferences like Comdex, which led to his interest in the industry and eventually being on camera.
12:15
Kevin Rose's first job in the Bay Area was in digital marketing for an online furniture retailer called Next Office, where he tracked ad campaigns and ad spend.
17:47
Kevin Rose worked at tech TV for two and a half years before it was acquired by G4, which eventually led him to create Dig and Revision 3, a podcasting network.
24:26
Kevin Rose started Dignation as a way to engage the community and highlight their names, leading to more usage of the website and eventually making Dig much bigger than Dignation.
30:43
Kevin Rose created Digg as a combination of the social bookmarking concept from Delicious and the idea of surfacing user-submitted content from Slashdot, after the founder of Slashdot rejected the idea.
36:40
Kevin Rose didn't initially understand the concept of Web 2.0, but later realized that Digg embodied it with its dynamic and user-submitted content.
42:48
Kevin Rose feels a similar sense of connection and camaraderie in the Web 3 space as he did during the early days of Web 2.0, and believes that despite the doubts and skepticism, it's just a matter of time before the mainstream embraces it.
49:33
Kevin Rose first tweeted about Bitcoin in 2012 and received his first Bitcoin transaction in August 2012 through Coinbase.
56:06
When evaluating new cryptocurrency projects, Kevin Rose looks for a credible team, a use case that needs to be solved, and a focus on the underlying technology rather than just price appreciation, as conversations centered around making money are often indicative of potential scams or pump and dump schemes.
01:02:33
Kevin Rose is selective about his investments in the NFT space, looking for projects that are not clones and were the first at something, like the first fully on-chain generative artwork or the first to introduce the ERC721 standard, as he believes these projects will have long-term collectability and durability from a price standpoint.
01:08:46
Kevin Rose joined True Ventures after they had backed and invested in his company Milk, and he was attracted to their long-term, low-ego approach to investing and their focus on supporting entrepreneurs.
01:15:13
Kevin Rose is launching a new podcast called "Proof" dedicated to all things NFTs, while his existing podcast "Modern Finance" will focus more on DeFi and scaling.
01:21:06
NFTs provide value by allowing people to connect with artists and their work, incentivizing creativity and innovation in the digital art world, and appealing to a younger generation that values virtual objects and portability.
01:27:43
Kevin Rose wants to bring his geeky passion for watches to the NFT world by going deep with artists, discussing their creations, and even including code snippets in articles, with the goal of building trust and providing in-depth editorial content on Proof.xyz.
01:33:54
Kevin Rose wraps up the podcast episode by expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to discuss the history and future of web technology, and the hosts mention a company called Trovatrip that they recently invested in.
Categories:
Technology
Business
