However, the article misses something I think by conflating "early internet" with early technical and gaming application rather than "early e-commerce" or something a bit broader.
There was a time when is was not clear why a company would have a website, online presence, or web store, there were lots of failures by people that didn't get it, and lots of naysayers calling bullshit on why companies all wanted to be "on the internet". Turns out there were lots of good reasons.
Crypto is not the same in that it's basically 100% scam at this point, and the cycle is much tighter (as in all tech) between ideas and attempted exploitation. But it is the same in that there are some underlying concepts that get people excited but don't have any real use yet. They probably won't, but in 1997 it was probably pointless for companies to invest in building websites.
Tldr, anything is possible
There are some non-mainstream ones though that provide genuine innovations while not allowing its creators any financial rewards (the latter can itself be seen as an innovation).
