---
schema: 1
type: term
title: _Coasean floor_
description: >-
  **_Coasean floor_** — in this channel's material, the rising size threshold
  below which features are never prioritized inside massive aggregated
  platforms. As data gravity concentrates user data in incumbents, features
  serving too few users — Komoroske cites 50k users at Google as the threshold —
  can never be built, so entire classes of useful software cannot exist
  [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1564].
canonical: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/coasean-floor-5c4c7970951b'
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/coasean-floor-5c4c7970951b.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \_Coasean floor\_

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/coasean-floor-5c4c7970951b

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**_Coasean floor_** — in this channel's material, the rising size threshold below which features are never prioritized inside massive aggregated platforms. As data gravity concentrates user data in incumbents, features serving too few users — Komoroske cites 50k users at Google as the threshold — can never be built, so entire classes of useful software cannot exist [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1564].

**_Coasean floor_** appears in Alex Komoroske's exploration of how the web's accidental design choices concentrated power in big platforms [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1564].In Komoroske's telling, the **same-origin paradigm** — the web's 30-year-old security model that treats each origin as an *isolated island* — creates **data gravity**. Because your life is integrated but the sites you use are not, *you* become the copy-paste orchestrator between apps. When choosing between a cool startup and an incumbent that already holds your data, you pick the incumbent. So data accumulates where it already exists, and incumbents grow massive [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1564].As incumbents become massive, the **Coasean floor rises**: features below a size threshold — Komoroske's example is *50k users at Google* — can never be prioritized. The result is that **entire classes of useful software cannot exist**, because no big platform will build them and data gravity makes it hard for small ones to compete [^bb2c42aa-478f-5c9a-ac26-e83a54c63127@1564].- The **Coasean floor** is the rising threshold below which features are never prioritized inside massive aggregated platforms.- It is a consequence of **data gravity** caused by the **same-origin paradigm**.- Its cost: **entire classes of useful software cannot exist**.