Unforkability

why monkey JPEGs are valuable

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Go fork yourself. Seriously, try it. If you can, that's probably not a good sign.

In tech, forking means copying code and using it for your own project. It saves programmers the time of writing new code. It's the coder version of content-kleptomaniacs. As Steven Pressfield says, "It's not stealing if you put a spin on it."

There's soft forks and hard forks. A soft fork is just a copy of code which is then implemented back on the original project. When a developer needs to update a piece of code, they make a copy, and then merge it back together.

Hard forks are when a codebase gets copied and is no longer backward-compatible with the earlier code. Following the Ethereum merge next week, the Ethereum proof-of-work chain will be hard forked into an Ethereum proof-of-stake chain. Other examples include Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum Classic. There are entirely different cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin and Ethereum.

While forkability is great with code, unforkability is crucial for brands.

If someone else can fork your brand, it means there's nothing special. The goal of a brand is to differentiate yourself — to make yourself unforkable. How do you do that?

Unforkability doesn't comes down to products or fancy designs, but rather people. Any product or design can be copied, but people can't. Brand equity is built by a company's community of devoted consumers and value creators.

Monkey JPEGs

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) isn't so valuable because the monkey pictures are dope. There are countless that look like them. It's valuable is because it has a community of consumers and creators.

Consumers are happy to pay extravagant prices for an Ape, the merchandise, and all the parties. Creators are building valuable businesses with their Ape's IP — books, restaurants, and clothing licensing deals. After going to several NFT events and conferences, I tweeted this take:

Everyone shits on "community" as a buzzword, but BAYC helped A LOT of people find friends and a community. They may seem like a community of douchy partybois, but even douchy partybois need friends. (Most are actually nice people.) Regardless, as anyone who has a legit friend group knows, it's impossible to hard fork friendships.

That being said, soft forks can be done. There was a soft fork on BAYC called Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which worked because it was done by the original creators. It was almost like a software update to the original NFT collection. But, no hard forks have been successful. The monkey JPEGs aren't special — the community and brand is.

Apple Diehards

Similarly, Apple isn't just valuable because their products are the best ever. Millions of Apple diehards like me help make the brand so valuable. But, it's not just the diehard consumers — it's also the value creators using the App Store as a protocol to build on.

When Apple released the iPhone's App Store in 2008, people weren't sure if this was a good idea. The argument was Apple would lose out on billions by letting others develop apps. We all know how that worked out.

The app store has incubated billions of dollars in value. Apple would have never released Angry Birds themselves. It took people from the community to build it.

Before 2008, the software industry was dominated by a few large companies. The App Store opened the door for any developer, from one-person shops to large studios, to come up with a great idea, build a high quality app and seamlessly deliver it to the growing number of customers around the world.

Funny enough, someone could say the same quote about Ethereum. The app store and crypto protocols are both foundational building blocks that support mountains and billions of dollar in value. Just as CC0 artwork are cultural hyperstructures, the app store and Ethereum are financial hyperstructures.

Because the Apple community of consumers and developers is completely unforkable, people say Apple has a moat around their business.

Moats

Remember fairtytales when there were moats around castles — the deep water to scare people away. Moats are business's competitive advantages that scare people away from forking them. Yes, good products are moats, but devoted communities are better ones.

Communities using a product create network effects. Your friends are all on Twitter so Twitter is valuable to you. The same thing is true for BAYC. If all your friends are in BAYC and you need an BAYC NFT to get into the festival, you're not gonna sell it.

Code is forkable. Network effects are unforkable.

I've seen a lot of people try to build communities on web3. You can do it (and fail) via hashtags, Twitter bots, and Discord mods who don't. care. Or you can do it with organic engagement and real relationships.

Everyone wants organic engagement, but nobody wants to organically engage. To have real engagement, you need to engage with people. You need to build genuine relationships with your consumers and creators. This means DMs, phone calls, and IRL meetups. That's what builds devoted organic engagement — nothing else.

Stop forking around. Go get a shovel and dig a damn moat.