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Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

thousandetherhomepage.com

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Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#21

Post by malgorithms »

I'm on the Keybase team and as you can see we jumped to sponsor a small block. We participated in this for two reasons:

(1) shazow (co-author) was also the author of the official Keybase Chrome and Firefox extensions, and he did an amazing job. We'd gamble on anything he does. The space we bought wasn't that expensive from a company perspective, and it was an educational experience. And maybe it will draw us attention.

(2) Holy crap, it's really impressive a dapp like this is possible with Ethereum. If it hasn't sunk in yet how this thing works, really read the FAQ and stop to think about it. As shazow and ontoillogical said, "there's no backend!" and "It's immortalized!"

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#22

Post by aaron-lebo »

malgorithms wrote: post #21

I'm on the Keybase team and as you can see we jumped to sponsor a small block. We participated in this for two reasons: (1) shazow (co-author) was also the author of the official Keybase Chrome and Firefox extensions, and he did an amazing job. We'd gamble on anything he does. The space we bought wasn't that expensive from a company perspective, and it was an educational experience. And maybe it will draw us attentio…

We'd gamble on anything he does.

Well said, because the dynamic is the same. Throw money at the house and hope you win. The house does.

This can't be duplicated (maybe every few years), it's a copy of a previous project, and it is literally a page of ads that won't be worth anything in a month or less. It only has value because of the attention people are giving it right now, so maybe reconsider the investment.

Own a piece of blockchain history!

That doesn't feel the least bit hucksterish to you? They say the same thing about those commemorative coins they sell on late night TV. The only person who gets anything out of this is shazow, so I'm not sure why people are so willingly enthusiastic about supporting it. It has no value except to itself.

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#23

Post by shazow »

jasode wrote: post #18
shazow wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, we were worried about this also. The best solution we could think of is include an NSFW flag on ads that an admin (myself and Max) can force, which prevents the ad from being rendered by default. The "bad bytes" are still out there, but at least we don't have to subject the consumers of our frontend to it unless they opt in.

>, but at least we don't have to subject the consumers of our frontend to it unless they opt in. Right... but if your project gains huge awareness (or "notoriety" depending on perspective), someone else can replicate your work and show the bad bytes. (Because the urls are still there in the blockchain.) Unless I'm not understanding the architecture, the project would have escaped your ability to control it.

I think that's fine. There are really two parts: The part which stores the data (the Ethereum blockchain) and the presentation layer (https://thousandetherhomepage.com/).

There's nothing we can do about the data that ultimately ends up on the Ethereum blockchain.

But we do control the presentation layer (the domain, the frontend). We're going to do our best to do The Right Thing within the confines of what we can control.

If someone else buys another domain (eviletherhomepage.com) and renders a bunch of illegal content on it, I would argue that's on them.

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#24

Post by shazow »

thisisit wrote: post #20
shazow wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, we were worried about this also. The best solution we could think of is include an NSFW flag on ads that an admin (myself and Max) can force, which prevents the ad from being rendered by default. The "bad bytes" are still out there, but at least we don't have to subject the consumers of our frontend to it unless they opt in.

I am wondering what capabilities do you guys have as admins other than the NSFW flag? And how does the NSFW flag affect the rendering when using Mist or Parity?

We control the presentation layer (the domain, the VueJS app). If you're using our presentation layer, then you're essentially rendering what we programmed to be rendered. In this case, NSFW is default not rendered but you can toggle it in the footer.

If someone forks our presentation layer, they can launch it on another domain to do whatever they want.

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#25

Post by notahacker »

shazow wrote: post #5
kowdermeister wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to start an art project that can buy me an Aston Martin :)

The "Fork" button is right there... :)

I think this concept is "who executes first wins". I'm looking at the guy in this thread who tweeted out the idea a while back and especially the guy who's posted his tutorial on how to create one with a tinge of sympathy ;)

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#26

Post by ontoillogical »

malgorithms wrote: post #21

I'm on the Keybase team and as you can see we jumped to sponsor a small block. We participated in this for two reasons: (1) shazow (co-author) was also the author of the official Keybase Chrome and Firefox extensions, and he did an amazing job. We'd gamble on anything he does. The space we bought wasn't that expensive from a company perspective, and it was an educational experience. And maybe it will draw us attentio…

Getting to work with shazow has been the best part of this project.

A+ would pair program again.

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#27

Post by shazow »

ontoillogical wrote: post #26
malgorithms wrote: post #21

I'm on the Keybase team and as you can see we jumped to sponsor a small block. We participated in this for two reasons: (1) shazow (co-author) was also the author of the official Keybase Chrome and Firefox extensions, and he did an amazing job. We'd gamble on anything he does. The space we bought wasn't that expensive from a company perspective, and it was an educational experience. And maybe it will draw us attentio…

Getting to work with shazow has been the best part of this project. A+ would pair program again.

<3

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#28

Post by shazow »

malgorithms wrote: post #21

I'm on the Keybase team and as you can see we jumped to sponsor a small block. We participated in this for two reasons: (1) shazow (co-author) was also the author of the official Keybase Chrome and Firefox extensions, and he did an amazing job. We'd gamble on anything he does. The space we bought wasn't that expensive from a company perspective, and it was an educational experience. And maybe it will draw us attentio…

By the way, here's a GIF of what the buying process looks like:

https://gfycat.com/BleakSimilarGermanspaniel

This is the part that blows my mind, it feels like magic every time.

(P.S. Thanks for your support, Chris!)

Re: Show HN: The Million Dollar Homepage as an Ethereum Smart Contract and DApp

#29

Post by notahacker »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #14
grandalf wrote: post #11

The idea of emergent PR via this sort of mechanism combined with a trustless and difficult-to-regulate infrastructure offers significant promise for breaking the glass ceiling that makes fame so difficult to achieve. Ever wonder why news personalities and many celebs are so seemingly mediocre? It's this glass ceiling. Platforms like Youtube solve part of the problem, but big fame takes big money, and so the funding m…

Have we not seen the effects of this already? YouTube, Kickstarter, Twitter have already made it possible for nobodies to became massively famous. Most of them are mediocre. It seems to me the surest way to guarantee mediocrity is to incentivise blatant money grabs. Here's a million a dollars for your billboard of ads? That's not going to build the future we are hoping for, it's gonna make someone else in 10 years ma…

Plus the punks that skip traditional routes to mainstream attention end up on major record labels just like the original elites anyway.

Alex Tew, the original Million Dollar Homepage creator, runs a VC funded startup in Silicon Valley. Social media stars tend to make their money shilling for big brands. I can't think of any internet stars I'm particularly desperate to see go into politics, and that's not because I'm delighted by the status quo

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