Cours du Audius

a few thoughts on mainstreaming crypto and killer products one of my fav consumer products over the last year are the ray-ban x @Meta AI glasses have really enjoyed using them the product brings together hands-free camera/video, natural language AI (voice/audio), bluetooth/internet connectivity, and open-ear speakers (all under $400 USD) one possibility i’m looking for with regard to a larger consumer crypto moment: parallel technologies that weave together a product that is (1) simple to use, (2) reasonably priced, (3) offering a unique consumer payload not otherwise reproducible by each technology alone a product bigger than the sum of its parts few historical examples: - the personal computer mainstreamed when innovations in the microprocessor, graphical UI, operating systems for simple software development, and mass produced electronic accessories converged into a seamless non-technical experience - the internet mainstreamed when personal computer penetration converged with innovations in ethernet/LAN, open standards (TCP/IP), browsers, email, and search it's possible a glasses product might serve as a similar product/hardware unlock to push crypto mainstream, where the UX/friction upgrade from mobile to glasses, in collaboration with other parallel innovations, is so significant that it creates an interesting moment for crypto adoption playing this thought experiment out, here’s a few thoughts on a crypto-enabled glasses product with mainstream value props (under < $400 USD) would require using the same base primitives that make the ray-ban x @Meta AI product so fun to begin with (hands-free camera/video, natural language AI (voice/audio), internet connectivity, open-ear speakers): - Security. Store private keys on hardware’s embedded secure enclave, encrypted with eye (or face) scan - Identity. Link the product's wallet to a user's larger namespace network on @clustersxyz for seamless cross-chain identity across @ethereum, @solana, @bitcoin and other decentralized environments - Crypto x AI Apps. Use the product's microphone and voice-enabled natural language prompting to execute transactions or crypto strategies over any blockchain using @AIWayfinder (+ $PROMPT staked community pathways for economic security) - Crypto x AI Infra. Access SOTA AI models of all types that originated out of distributed training networks like @NousResearch, @PrimeIntellect, @Opentensor, @gensynai - WiFi. Connect glasses to decentralized WiFi across 3M+ hotspots on @weRoamxyz - Mobile. Connect glasses to decentralized mobile carrier on @helium - Network Incentives. Earn hands-free crypto rewards (that flow directly to wallet) for categories like video/photo mapping (@Hivemapper) or daily walk/run challenges (@PulseNoLimits) - Audio. Stream open-ear decentralized audio via @audius - Social. Mint photos/videos onchain, with blockchain-anchored timestamps, to decentralized social platforms like @sharedotxyz + many more consumer crypto protocols yet to build for this environment ultimately, the hardware product i'm describing should offer an open, verifiable, and fully programmable hardware/software stack—one that builders can trust, extend, and iterate on without asking permission this type of permissionless composability/modularity is one of crypto's great powers would love to see more hardware solutions provide a similar technical foundation for these types of products in the future (by exposing firmware, secure element integrations, and I/O behavior to external inspection) reach out to me or any of the investors at @Collab_Currency if you're working on these ideas (+ thanks to @aradtski for riffing with me)