Framework · 2018–2024 · Platform Wars
Web3 frontends
Wallet popups as UX. A subculture with real tech under a mountain of token incentives.
Why Web3 frontends faded
Web3 frontends faded when token prices stopped subsidizing user acquisition and wallet UX still insults humans. Some infrastructure persists; the "replace the internet" narrative did not. Designers went back to buttons that work without MetaMask.
Case studies
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Practice · 2017–2023
Blockchain for CRUD
Distributed consensus for problems that needed a database and an audit log.
$ Enterprises funded "innovation labs" to put loyalty points and supply-chain spreadsheets on ledgers. Most pilots ended as slide decks; the gas fees and audits did not.
Framework · 2013–now
React
Components and unidirectional data. Won the front-end by being good enough and having a gravitational ecosystem.