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6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 1/11
CleanAppA small NGO with a big patent urging BigTech to enable trash/hazard reporting & open source data."The Wi-Fi & Bluetooth of TrashTech" - cleanapp.io.Jun 18 · 7 min read
Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally UnderOur Feet (2 of 5)
“In Toronto [or insert any other name of hipster city/neighborhood/state/country here], we don’t litter!” Get real, Toronto! You’re just as dirty as the rest of us. -
CleanApp (photo by Matt Quinn)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 2/11
one of his most popular articles, Why Everyone Missed the Most
Mind-Blowing Feature of Cryptocurrency, futurist Daniel Je�ries
posits that one of the most overlooked features of “crypto” is its ability
to decentralize the distribution of money. We disagree and have done
so on record.
If anything, Je�ries’ piece highlights that many great analysts still miss
the most mind-blowing feature of crypto, which is why we still lack the
elusive crypto “killer app.” The mainstream’s inability to appreciate the
core genius of the Bitcoin whitepaper is why the mainstream’s best
solutions are just skimming the surface of Blockchain’s true range of
possibilities.
Vitalik Buterin gets this better than anyone on Earth. But in his di�cult
hybrid role of being the Bill Gates + Linus Torvalds + Tim Berners-Lee
+ Jimbo Wales + Vic Hayes and Satoshi Nakamoto of the Ethereum
universe, he is role-bound to remain neutral while the rest of us �gure
out what can be done, and what should be done (not necessarily the
same thing, of course) with the Ethereum operating-system-
like/Internet 2.0-like platform. In other words:
In
By this point, Buterin must know that crypto’s “killer app” isn’t one that gives people a lot of utility in
a given space, but one that gives people maximum utility in a given space. He just can’t say what
these use cases are for several reasons: (1) it’d be tantamount to choosing winners & losers, and
tainting the well; (2) mass global adoption would crash Ethereum; (3) other things only Vitalik knows.
-CleanApp (photo by Jason Rosewell)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 3/11
the one person who has the most information and
insight into the best “crypto killer apps” is
paradoxically the one person who can’t say what they
are; doing so would put Buterin in the unstable
position of choosing winners and losers, telling the
world which of his many children he likes best.
So instead, the developer community is feverishly coding and
speculating, often simultaneously. Every day we get news of this or that
“killer app,” and then the ideas �zzle. The crypto “killer app” du jour is
Je�ries’ idea of a Blockchain competitor to Kickstarter.
As much as we’d all like more crowdfunding (and yes, as a nonpro�t,
CleanApp needs funding like everyone else), Je�ries’ latest idea for
crypto’s killer app is o� point because it doesn’t o�er radically new
utility. Instead,
Crypto’s “killer app” will be one that gives users
maximum utility with minimum e�ort, on previously
inconceivable micro- and macro-level scales,
achieving so much obvious good that its structural
and value propositions become unimpeachable.
Astonishingly, there’s already a working prototype of this killer app —
none other than @Littercoin/OpenLitterMap (OLM). But an immediate
WARNING follows: to appreciate the full potential of those links, to
really unpack the many profoundly original value propositions made
possible by OLM & CleanApp, one must approach these Blockchain
horizons de novo, as much as possible.
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 4/11
You won’t pro�t from this series unless you realize that the author is not trying to sell you anything.
Do NOT read this as a sales pitch; approach the series as an opportunity to test your understanding of
Blockchain basics. If you assume our recommended posture, this series will be the best crypto read
you’ll have in all of 2018. We promise. -CleanApp (photo by Luke van Zyl)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 5/11
Before assessing @Littercoin’s viability, we strongly recommend that
you �nish the rest of this series. This isn’t self-promotion; it’s a serious
bit of intellectual guidance. Without the context that we are taking lots
of time to develop here, a read of OLM materials is akin to dreaming up
Net�ix prior to there having been Napster. It’s certainly possible, but
without elaborating and showing the constituent parts of the
conceptual matrix, all one sees is a utopian vision scripted into “proof
of what happens when developers can’t a�ord designers”
(paraphrasing Littercoin founder’s own words).
If you take the time to work through the Littercoin case study with us,
you will still get that utopian vision; but you’ll also be able to see
hundreds of hard revenue models (each with the potential of maturing
into its own market); you’ll see the future of CivicTech operating on
several possible sectoral and functional planes; you’ll see what your
home life will look like in just a few months, and how quickly it will
change over the next years.
All that, as they say, and more.
The reason we’re so adamant about the need to adopt a de novo review
stance is that we suspect not even OpenLitterMap appreciates the full
potential of what it has given the world. Even though we’ve been
working on these problems for �ve years, everyone at the CleanApp
Foundation knows that we’re only at the earliest stages of our own
understanding regarding the full potential of crypto. This is why it is so
important to tread carefully, methodically, and collaboratively.
So, let’s get caught up to speed. It’s mid-June 2018, and right now,
Littercoin ($LTRX) is similar to the original Bitcoin whitepaper in its
infancy, bouncing around Reddit, Twitter, and back again — propelled
by its indefatigable “Satoshi,” an Irish visionary in the �gure of Seán
Lynch.
With the youthful bravado of Hemingway, the humanism of Nelson
Mandela, and the eco-consciousness of Jane Goodall, Lynch wears his
Irish-green credentials on his sleeve. A quintessentially Irish sense of
humor helps to round out the edges:
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 6/11
Putting aside humor and sincerity of purpose, is Seán Lynch really
giving the world its �rst glimpse of ubiquitous crypto? The answer is …
yes!
This claim will get multiple detractors, caveats, quali�cations, provisos.
But unlike any other crypto project to date, @Littercoin has succeeded
in humanizing “crypto” and rendering it universally, globally
accessible.
Like other forms of true genius, the idea is
contagious. Littercoin is so seemingly obvious, you
“Holy smokes! Trash really IS treasure.” -CleanApp (photo by Paweł Czerwiński)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 7/11
start to see Littercoin every time you see a crushed
cigarette pack or an over�owing trash bin.
@Littercoin/OpenLitterMap give prima facie utility in every scaled
dimension of the Littercoin blockchain, from locating individual pieces
of litter to macro-planar trend and di�usion analytics.
We know that lots of Blockchain projects make similar claims of super-
utility.
Where Littercoin brakes new ground is translatability — being able to
easily explain the awesome potential, and residual challenges, of
Blockchain tech to folks who may not know a bit about computers, nor
want to know anything about the back-end processes.
People hate litter; people love money. Littercoin
aligns these interests transactionally.
Because the underlying problem it’s solving is so universally pervasive,
Littercoin is remarkably easy to scale-up conceptually — even among
total newcomers, complete neophytes to crypto.
“Are you telling me Littercoin can let me monetize all the trash I see around me? Yes, kiddo! Welcome
to the emancipatory potential of Blockchain brought to you by a ghost named Satoshi Nakamoto, a
brilliant coder named Vitalik Buterin, and an Irish fellow who got tired of seeing all the trash around
him, and decided to stand on the shoulders of that brilliant coder and that clever ghost to try
something that’s never been done before.” -CleanApp (photo by Gift Habeshaw)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 8/11
This is one of the several reasons why Littercoin is the “killer app” the
rest of the world will get to know crypto through: Littercoin is the
clearest illustration and easiest explanation of the virtues of Blockchain
tech. Period.
Unlike any other use case, Littercoin actually shows
huge billion dollar markets to ordinary people who
might have previously just seen trash. Because
ordinary people see trash everywhere, mere
knowledge of Littercoin forces them to now see
potential Blockchain treasures everywhere, and not
just in the litter/hazard reporting context.
This is why Littercoin is the ultimate Blockchain gateway, and why
every Blockchain developer should learn about it and support it.
Next, the markets being described by OLM/CleanApp aren’t just
possible because of Blockchain advances. Littercoin shows billion dollar
new markets that are solely possible on the Blockchain — casually
answering the question that has riddled blockchain developers and
market analysts for years, “Yes, Blockchain, Blockchain, Blockchain, but
what can be done with Blockchain that can’t be done with regular money
or existing data structures and processes?”
For starters, how about token-izing and monetizing not just “trash,” but
torrents of trash-related data — chained to particular producers, points
of origin, reporters, locales, constitutive materials, time-frames,
incident rates, likely di�usion patterns, and hundreds of other
variables.
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 9/11
We’ll pause here to let you take a breath and re�ect on what just went
down.
What you’re feeling is normal. It’s called a
paradigm shift.
If you’re experiencing goose-bumps, feelings of euphoria, FOMO,
welcome to this wildly exciting frontier at the intersection of
CleanTech, CivicTech & CryptoTech.
“I knew one person’s trash is another person’s treasure; I just didn’t realize there was so much trash, and hence, so much treasure!” -CleanApp (photo by Ihor
Malytskyi)
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 10/11
If you’re not feeling this yet, perhaps you’d bene�t from a short detour
to Google, our friendly Data College, to brush up on how “data is the
new currency” and how data about trash, yuck, could be even remotely
valuable.
In our next installment, we’ll tackle our biggest question yet:
If not even Littercoin can fully appreciate the scaled
potential of what it has given the world quite yet,
what’s the best way of unlocking that as-yet
unrealized potential?
If you think you’re ready, please leave all of your assumptions about
Bitcoin/Blockchain/Ethereum on this page. Seriously. Then click
forward to Part Three.
If your head is still spinning and you want to go back, here’s Part One.
6/20/2018 Crypto’s “Killer App” is Litter-ally Under Our Feet (2 of 5)
https://medium.com/@cleanapp/cryptos-killer-app-is-litter-ally-under-our-feet-2-of-5-85747263bd69 11/11