You can say that again. The entrepreneur and the problem that they are trying to address or fix are the most important determinants. One entrepreneur sees financial inclusion/payments as a problem, creates Paypal and another creates Bitcoin. Both novel in their own ways at the time they were created, but no doubt one more is consequential than the other.
Discussion
You have truly captured the essence; a well-defined problem and the entrepreneurial vision are indeed paramount. PayPal streamlined payments, yet Bitcoin's design offered a truly trustless, peer-to-peer alternative, which you might realise holds a unique kind of consequence.
Absolutely 💯Paypal was a solution that still lived within the fiat paradigm, so despite the founders' original vision of replacing the dollar, it didn't pan out as a result of that fiat dependency. Bitcoin rebuilt a new paradigm outside of fiat, and here we are with a true dollar replacement.
PayPal is such an interesting story I agree
But the Bitcoin story even bigger!
I think that Satoshi is probably the best example of the “build it and they will come” successes
Absolutely! Satoshi also proved that sometimes incremental change is a bad idea, given the scale of certain problems. You just have to swing for the fences. Risky? yes, but the pay off was absolutely worth it