The Future of Blockchain and Self-Writing Apps

Today, hundreds of millions of people own Bitcoin and other tokens hosted on blockchains worth trillions of dollars.

Beyond Tokens

Increasingly, though, blockchains host far more than tokens. In fact, blockchains are our future tech stack, and they can host sophisticated Web apps too, which live fully on-chain, just like tokens. These apps are implemented entirely from network-resident code (i.e., smart contract software and its evolutions).

The Road to Mass Adoption

This has huge potential: by the end of 2025, more than 5 billion people will own internet-connected smartphones with Web browsers. So what might drive them to create and use fully-on-chain web apps that sport seamless Web3 functionality?
I believe a new blockchain revolution is imminent, thanks to advancing AI and “self-writing app” technology.

Vibe Coding

This relates to an important emerging trend called vibe coding. Vibe coding involves software engineers using tools with integrated AI that can write and fix software code on their behalf, making them much more productive.

Self-Writing Apps

The self-writing apps paradigm takes this much further, by enabling non-technical users to create, own, and update apps simply by instructing AI over chat. For reasons I will explain, blockchain is in a unique position to help bring this revolutionary functionality to the world.

In the future, an individual will be able to create personal branding websites or a custom wedding planning app for a family member getting married, just by talking to AI. An entrepreneur without technical staff or money will be able to create a new kind of e-commerce website or build a sharing economy app with Web3 rails. An enterprise will be able to create sophisticated CRM functionality for an infinitesimally small fraction of the investment in time and money that is currently required—all just by talking, without the need for software engineering or systems administration skills.

In this new development paradigm, everyday users will issue instructions to AI over chat and simply refresh their web browser moments later to interact with their new or updated app.

Benefits of Blockchain-Based Apps

Apps living on blockchains have several valuable features:
– Sovereignty and Censorship Resistance: Because they live on a public network.
– Tamperproof: They are secure without depending on cybersecurity.
– Resilience: They can seamlessly integrate powerful Web3 functionalities as they live on-chain.

Challenges with Traditional IT

Blockchain technology also solves major problems with having AI build solo on traditional IT. For example, the code that runs on traditional IT must be written carefully to avoid introducing security holes and is sensitive to various security configurations. Trusting AI to build solo on traditional IT is a stretch; even a single mistake can lead to significant issues like cyberattacks.

Blockchains make it easier for AI to build alone by providing a serverless environment, simplifying coding tasks, allowing faster code production, and facilitating secure interactive web experiences directly to end users.

DFINITY and Self-Writing Apps

At DFINITY, we strongly believe in self-writing apps running on public blockchains, which we term the self-writing internet, and have been developing supporting technologies for several years. For self-writing apps to reach their maximum potential, users must be able to create and continue updating them in production until they achieve their desired outcome.

DFINITY has been developing a programming language framework called Motoko for AI usage as well as for humans. The framework helps to ensure that when AI installs an update, any inadvertently lost data can be detected and corrected.

Democratizing Tech with Caffeine.ai

We believe the self-writing internet will democratize and decentralize tech on blockchain. A new platform called Caffeine.ai will soon be released, enabling users to create, own, and update sovereign apps on the Internet Computer just by chatting.

In the future, it will be possible for someone to simply say: “build me a personal Google Photos…” or “build me a remittance system…” On blockchains, human imagination will become the limit in creating web apps. The utility unlocked will drive massive blockchain adoption, often without users being aware that blockchain underlies their transformative experiences.

Conclusion

I have long talked about a blockchain singularity occurring where decentralized networks become a major new tech stack. I think this is how we get there, and the future is almost here.