Data is very, very valuable. And the problem is that people don't understand it. And also data and the users and the social networks around them create these network effects that are really, really valuable and powerful. And they have no benefit in that. I think if there's one thing that is unifying ideally is that if you can have an area where prosperity is more shared, then I think you can create more happiness out of that. And which is, you know, typically rising middle class generally means a more happier society, right? And I think definitely if you look at the last 20, 30 years, that hasn't been the case. The middle class has been squeezed out in most countries. Wealth inequality is rising over time. And this is certainly true in some places in Asia as well. And that breeds unhappiness. And that breeds polarization. And then you're looking for, you know, things to demonize as a result as well. And it's very easy to demonize people that have sort of appear to be successful or have money because it seems unfair. And I think one of the big strengths of America is that you've made money, you know, you've achieved something and that's commendable and I want to do the same thing. And among certain circles, that is beginning to die. But that has a lot to do with the way that America has been unnecessarily extractive in the way they do business as well. Particularly with the big tech giants and big tech companies. And I think crypto and blockchain and web 3 will change, is already changing that. Because just think about how wealth and money is broadly shared across the ecosystem.
One of the things that I really do love about our space, you know, sure there's funny stuff with, you know, like meme coins and so on. But at the end of the day, we're more than willing to put the money that we made in crypto back into crypto. Right? Everyone in the industry plows it back in, makes investments, supports companies, builds projects, you know, buys shitcoins, like all sorts of stuff, right? But they're back in the ecosystem, which is not actually what happens in Web 2. So, you know, like we ourselves are prolific investors, you know, we have over 573 portfolio companies, but we're not alone, right? So many other companies are redeploying back in the ecosystem. And then you look at the giants of Web 2, the biggest companies in the world, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, even Google. What seed early-stage investments do they do?
And yet those are the guys that are depending on them to build on them, and yet they're not putting any money back into it. The top 10 companies in the world have roughly a trillion dollars of cash.
A trillion. That's basically not productive capital except getting interest in these kind of rates. And imagine if you took like a single-digit percentage and you created a seed ecosystem fund. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars. That's like a rounding error for those companies. Really, I mean, that's insane to think about, right? But it's a rounding error, but it would do so much for those ecosystems. You know, when the judgment came against Apple because of the Epic case.
Where Epic basically had to force open the payment rails, which is great for crypto, by the way, because we launched a game on the Apple Store that one of our existing games and basically made it possible to use Tower Tokens, which is a crypto token, for the game. It was an experiment, and it was approved, which is great news, right?
And that's... But when that judgment happened, who came to Apple's defense? Crickets. Right? Nobody said, 'Oh, Apple Epic, pay your 30%.' Or, 'No, you know, like nobody came to Apple's defense.' Now, imagine, because we think of it as like a tax rate.
Imagine, right, your husband's Swedish, right? Imagine if someone got away from paying his taxes in Sweden. What do you think the people in Sweden would say?
No. But they'd be like up in arms and say, 'That's not fair. Whatever. Like you need to all pay your taxes.' Because you know that at least the taxes go back into contributing into society, whether it's building schools, creating infrastructure, opportunity.
And for Apple, because they only take, right? It's extractive. They sell your iPhone. They don't give you anything back for it.
And you're the product, exactly.
I'm an app developer, you take 30% from me. You're not investing in me. You're not helping me grow. I don't get distribution anymore.
