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 *'''The network effect''':  The exponential increase in our own digital inter-connectivity. Data is finally free of its mortal shackles, and we have the machines to crunch it, and now we can move it frictionlessly from place to place, anywhere on the globe.
-Any one of these developments is powerful, but when the three work together the results are revolutionary. The analogue/digital transformation commenced as long ago as the [[Jacquard loom]] in 1804. Moore’s law has been a thing since before Gordon Moore first noticed it in 1965. The internet — a global network of interconnected computers, used mainly by the military industrial complex<ref>See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet Wikipedia] for more.</ref> — became a public thing when Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989. Then suddenly we were cooking with gas
+Any one of these developments is powerful, but when the three work together the results are revolutionary. The analogue/digital transformation commenced as long ago as the [[Jacquard loom]] in 1804. Moore’s law has been a thing since before Gordon Moore first noticed it in 1965. The internet — a global network of interconnected computers, used mainly by the military industrial complex<ref>See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet Wikipedia] for more.</ref> — became a public thing when Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989. Then suddenly we were cooking with gas.
-But note: all of these things are ''hardware'' developments. They make software possible and worthwhile, but this is all about the kit.
+But note: all of these things are ''hardware'' developments. They make software possible and worthwhile, but this is all about the kit. Self-awareness, and intelligence, you would think, is all about the ''software''. The thing about the kit is that it is there. It is cheap. It is fungible. These three effects are costed in — they come with ''any'' software solution free of charge.
+So what makes a killer software app: one of two things:
+*'''killer software''' — actually clever, imaginative code that does stuff that no-one else thought of, and it took a lot of effort to put together —  think Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, IK Multimedia or Microsoft Office — or
+*a '''natural monopoly''' that exploits the network effect — think eBay, Facebook, Amazon or Google — here the first mover has an (assailable) advantage — but a late-comer (like Google) can overhaul first movers with killer software, and first movers can defend against latecomers with killer software that it can afford to develop while its natural monopoly persists.
+Killer software developers can charge a few people a lot of money, but they have to keep improving their software to the point where they may generate some kind of network exploitation effect too (Microsoft Office)
+Network exploiters won’t generally be able to charge users ''anything'' so will make their money off their interactions ''with'' users, by serving ads to them or selling data they have collected about users.
+And as for software: all the world is a coder. You can find cheap coders in rented rooms in Bratislava, Bogota and Bangalore. Coders are mainly fungible too. So if one guy can do it over a weekend, so can ten thousand others.
+So, dear reg-tech providers, if you want to monetise your offering, your special sauce will need to be your ''software''. If all you are doing is cleverly combining the three magical effects of hardware and delivering simple software API on the top of that, do not expect to make any money for long. If you quite your job as a lawyer to start your reg-tech started up by ex lawyers they are unlilkelty
 ===Why is reg tech so disappointing?===