When Apps Will Pay You

Every time one of your Internet-of-Things/connected devices sends data back to the manufacturer or service provider, you have created something of value.

Think about it.

When you

• tell Waze how much traffic there is on the highway because you have slowed down….
• let Swarm know you are at a pizza shop
• search Google for gluten-free candy bars
• allow Fitbit to know how far you have walked
• permit Nest to check the temperature in your home
• …and billions more

Each of these nuggets of data are value to the organization that consumes it. Know how I know? Because they are consuming it.

Then, they put it all together and figure out who would like to buy that information.

Google is the most obvious as they connect it with the people who have bid for the keyword “gluten-free candy bar.”

In your mind, it may be great that you get the service “for free” and you are ok with Google making money off of it.

Yet, like Division 1 football and basketball players at US colleges, the amount of your compensation is far below the value you are creating. You are not being compensated for the value you have created.

Every time you contribute data to a network (Wave, Fitbit, Google) you aren’t adding linear value, you are adding some minuscule amount of exponential value.

This is the “network effect.”

And you know what really benefits from “network effects?”

Yep, you guessed it…token-based, decentralized systems.

First, you paid for apps. Then, you got the apps “for free.” Soon, you will get paid to use the app.

Let’s look at the GPS market to understand how this will work.

Once upon a time, if you want a GPS device, you went out and bought a solitary device from, say, Garmin. It was $250 or whatever. Plus, if you wanted the maps updated, you would have to subscribe or pay for additional map downloads for, say $50.

Fine for version 1.

Then, the smartphone comes along and we have Waze. You get how that works.

But now, you have the option to join a network like comma.ai where you run their Chffr app and

earn points (eventually tokens) for driving as you normally would and, in so doing, you help the network understand things like which roads have traffic, overall condition of the road, average speed and more.

It will also be able to create maps and more.

So, now, instead of Google having to buy cars and drive everywhere, the whole process gets decentralized and all of us drive everywhere, collectively creating the maps (and eventually StreetViews).

Eventually, the open-source project they are creating (OpenPilot) becomes the decentralized network on which self-driving cars can be built.

Oh wait, it’s already started.

They have a device called “Panda” which can be connected to certain cars today and can create self-driving functions.

1. The more you drive..
2. the more data you create for the network….
3. the more value you create for the network…
4. the more you get compensated….
5. the more valuable the network…
6. the more valuable your tokens become.

I would not be surprised if, at some point, there are token-based decentralized projects that basically give the hardware (a Fitbit, a Nest, etc.) away and then pay you in the form of some cryptographic token for the value you have created.

Understanding how value gets created in a blockchain world is going to open up a treasure trove of opportunities…that also improve people’s lives and welfare.

When I wrote that the vision of Never Stop Marketing was a world where “people get paid to do what they want to do anyway,” this is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.

I have been using Comma.ai for about a week now and it’s a lot of fun (you can still use Waze and other software on top of it). For now, it’s just cool. Soon, I expect it will be profitable.