BREAKDOWN: Tom Shaughnessy & Jordan Clifford on Layer 1 Wars, Token Economics and a Shift to Applications
Why 2020 will see both a true competition for layer 1 smart contract platform supremacy and why development will shift back to the application layer.
ABOUT
Tom Shaughnessy is a co-founder at Delphi Digital as well as the host of the Chain Reaction podcast. Jordan Clifford is managing director of Scalar Capital. In this end of year interview for The Breakdown, Tom argues that the big story of 2019 was actually the fact that it was all about quiet building. When it comes to 2020, however, watch out for fireworks. Tom predicts we’ll see a major increase in the layer 1 smart contract platform wars, as well as an increased in the perceived importance of token economic design. Jordan meanwhile argues that we’re likely to see a shift back to development at the application layer.
HOST
CoinDesk is the world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies.
We cover news and analysis on the trends, price movements, technologies, companies and people in the bitcoin and digital currency world.

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