It's funny how social sites are converging towards the same interfaces. Communities, not features, are the real differentiator - features were just bait to attract a community.

Once an app has a strong enough community, it can expand out of its initial feature niche. Why shouldn't every app be capable of doing everything? Software is infinitely extensible.

And companies that build software are driven to expand. Try telling shareholders "we're happy with these numbers, we're just going to cultivate this community." No. Infinite scalability meets dreams of infinite growth.

A ridiculous but not impossible end state is every app has all the social features, contains all shopping functionality, and eventually becomes a bank. Maybe two ultimately end up in this position as the smaller ones get acquired along the way.

Counterhypothesis: software can be built open source, apps can be separated from data, users can own their data, identity, and relationships. Technically this is possible. But it currently lacks the rocket fuel to take off. Funding, profitable feedback loops, virality.

Cryptocurrency has raw virality, so there's hope that it can power decentralized social apps, but attempts I've seen so far feel like early flying machines: wings + person = fly, plz? The concept is there but the mechanisms are off.