David A. Johnston, co-founder of BitAngels and serial entrepreneur, has a list of professional accomplishments too numerous to list here.
His current work with decentralized applications and blockchain technologies includes serving on the board of the Mastercoin Foundation and managing the BitAngels DApps Fund I, and he also co-wrote the primary white paper on decentralized applications.
We recently reached out to Johnston to learn more about his work.
Cointelegraph: How did you get started in working with, and helping develop the general theory of, decentralized apps?
David A. Johnston: I began focusing seriously on decentralized applications after August 2013, when I led the due diligence on the Master Protocol (one of the first decentralized applications to hold a crowdsale). I had been thinking and writing about the idea of decentralized applications and ended up publishing my white paper on the topic later in 2013.
CT: Can you speculate a bit as to what you think the potential for decentralized applications could be?
DAJ: I believe the decentralized applications model is going to disrupt existing centralized services in the areas of data storage, computation, and internet service provision.
CT: What such applications do you think we will see emerge in the next few years?
DAJ: Decentralized versions of Dropbox, Amazon Web Services, and Comcast-type services will emerge.
CT: What industries might be upended as a result?
DAJ: Those companies taking large margins to act as middlemen in a transaction will be disrupted by much more efficient systems that don't require a third party to act as a middleman.
CT: What motivates you, as Managing Director of the BitAngels Fund I, to encourage and fund this disruptive technology?
DAJ: I'm excited by large fundamental infrastructure platforms that will impact and improve the lives of billions of people over the next decade.