# Joel Monegro

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## Posts

### **Aug 8, 2016**  
Note: see the 2020 follow-up post here: Thin Applications.

Here's one way to think about the differences between the Internet and the Blockchain. The previous generation of shared protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, etc.) produced immeasurable amounts of value, but most [Read more](/content/writing/2016/08/fat-protocols/index.html)

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### **Mar 2, 2016**  
Today we lead mostly sedentary lifestyles. Once we learned how to harvest the planet's natural resources for our survival all those thousands of years ago, we abandoned our nomadic way of life and settled down by the rivers. We learned [Read more](/content/writing/2016/03/jobbatical/index.html)

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### **Dec 8, 2014**  
Imagine a global database (or a set of global databases) that every application plugs into. That’s the general idea behind the Shared Data Layer. As the name suggests, it’s a data storage layer that is decentralized and open to everyone. [Read more](http://joel.mn/post/104755282493/the-shared-data-layer-of-the-blockchain)

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### **Nov 23, 2014**  
The first thing Brad taught me when I joined Union Square Ventures is that one of the greatest things about working in the Venture Capital business is that you get to look at markets from a very different vantage point. [Read more](http://joel.mn/post/103546215249/the-blockchain-application-stack)

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### **Nov 21, 2014**  
Web services, like governments, don't make anything, they just create the conditions necessary for their users to create value. Today's largest networks have demonstrated this to be true. Passionate communities have been born out of services like Twitter and Meetup. [Read more](/content/writing/2014/11/assembly/index.html)