"Interoperability is the connecting thread of the future of the social web."

"Interoperability is the idea that to succeed in the future, builders will design individual lego pieces rather than entire sculptures."

"interoperability is the core mechanism that brings them together."

"“interoperable” means multiple products or services can make use of the same information."

"As Ben Thompson notes in The Web’s Missing Interoperability, interoperability was actually one of the core benefits mentioned at the start of the last wave of consumer tech, what many refer to as Web2.0. But we didn’t get interoperability from the big Web2 giants of Facebook, Twitter, and the like"

"We got almost the exact opposite — business models built on capturing data, storing it in private databases, and charging advertisers for access to it."

"The simple reason the social giants even consider such bold new directions is because interoperable graphs are better for creators, and creators are the scarce resource in the quickly arriving next iteration of the internet."

"The most valuable asset in a world of interoperable data will be the complex business relationships creators establish between their content, other creators, and their audience."

"What new types of products could we imagine getting as creators and consumers from a more interoperable world?"

"For creators:"

"Publish anywhere."

"Auto-updated profiles."

"Focus Twitter."

"For consumers:"

"Follow everywhere."

"The media boats that first floated across Web2 moats were the Substacks and Patreons. They are the first major media networks to build huge businesses by optimizing for creator success rather than consumer engagement."

"The reason I call this Web2.5 is because the Substacks and Patreons are open but not interoperable. There’s nothing stopping me from downloading my Substack subscribers and posts and manually moving to a new platform."

"Hiding behind a distracting blur of new features, Mirror’s core structure is consistent and visionary. It's a bet worth understanding on the future of interoperable content graphs, internet-native money in the form of tokens, and the dynamic new businesses that will be possible because of them."

"A unique creator ID:"

"On closer examination, however, we can pass it through the same criteria as above and see that it’s not far off:"

"An open database of content, connected to my ID:"

"Open social and economic graphs:"

"Standards:"

"The key point to take away from this is that owning the content is not important to Mirror’s strategic moat."

"Could interoperability ever dry the Web2 moat?"

"There are a number of reasons interoperability will not happen overnight, and may never happen at scale. A few key barriers include high transaction fees, difficulty managing a crypto wallet, and scarcity of talent in the space (although all of these are rapidly improving). Not to mention privacy, security, and moderation — those topics would take an entire piece on their own but there is good reason to believe those are technical limitations which can be tackled."