Consumer apps can ‘evolve in parallel’ to infrastructure: Moonrock Capital
Moonrock Capital’s Simon Dedic thinks that we have to treat infra and consumer apps like the internet: build them side by side
Moonrock Capital and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks
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If you ask Simon Dedic of Moonrock Capital what he wants to see in crypto, there’s one big item on his list: more consumer apps.
In the last year, we’ve seen a slew of investments in infra projects — and we’ve even asked the question ourselves over at Blockworks: Are we building too much infrastructure?
While Dedic would prefer to see more investments in consumer apps, he told me he wouldn’t be surprised if infrastructure remains a focus, at least on the venture capital side.
“I just think it’s still kind of the case that infra plays are very easy for VCs,” he said. It’s what the space is currently used to, projects pitch their infrastructure — and they’re notably important to keep building on crypto, of course — and VCs are ready to put their money where their mouths are.
But the whole idea of building infra first and then gaining adoption through consumer apps is a backwards take if you ask Dedic. Why not do both?
“It’s something that can definitely evolve in parallel,” he noted. Remember how we made the internet comparison a couple of weeks ago with Empire’s Santiago Santos? Well, it’s back. Dedic’s point is that there wasn’t, say, a 20-year time commitment building the internet before emails were created. The internet had a bit of a lead, and then the technology was capitalized on so that we could all have inboxes in our pockets.
If you ask Dedic who should lead the charge, he thinks it’s up to VCs to a certain extent.
“I think it’s also kind of the responsibility of VCs to … take care of users getting into the space,” he continued. “And not just funding VC circlejerk infra rounds, right?”
The good news is that we’re starting to see this play out a bit, at least in Dedic’s opinion. And, speaking of consumers, I also picked Dedic’s brain on SocialFi given Kaito’s success.
For him, it’s about the project focusing on utility catered to users.
“One of the big problems that SocialFi space had so far [was its focus] on speculation and financialization of everything,” he said. Instead, it should be a feature, not the focus.
It’s one of the areas he’s “super bullish” on, but the narrative hasn’t yet taken off. Projects like Farcaster — in comparison to something like Kaito — are “too idealistic.” And, honestly, just too close to what we already have in a platform like X, which is a fair critique.
What would Dedic love to see in the space? Well, it’s simple: new social experiences on crypto rails.
Oh, and making the entry barrier “as low as possible,” to actually onboard the masses. After all, we want everyone to use crypto, right?
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