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Decentralized Woo Hoo

stephendiehl.com

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Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#71

Post by AnthonyMouse »

kethinov wrote: post #5
whitepaint wrote: post #3

OP seems to have no idea about DeFI. You can lend and borrow on compound.finance, aave. You can play no-loss lotteries like PoolTogether. You can bet on your beliefs and hedge your investments on markets platforms like Polymarket. You can gamble. More on: https://ethereum.org/en/dapps/ . All of this without any arbitrary restrictions imposed by governments or companies, you just need an internet connection. How can y…

Because that is an ideological argument (government controlling currency is bad) masquerading as a technogical argument: https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html

The interesting technical feature isn't that it's a separate currency, it's permissionless transactions.

We're heading to a world where authoritarian governments want to eliminate cash. Handing the Stasi the ability to prevent people from so much as buying food from a grocer without their permission is catastrophic, much less the impact from such a comprehensive level of surveillance as takes place when every purchase made by everyone goes into a central database.

We need a digital technology that preserves the autonomy and anonymity people have always had since the beginning with cash. (And before the obligatory pedant comes in to say that everything on a blockchain is public, they're still not attached to your identity, and there are technical solutions to preserving anonymity there too.)

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#72

Post by VHRanger »

serverholic wrote: post #53
21eleven wrote: post #37

I think this is a fair criticism to a limited extent, the crypto world is full of useless memecoins that don't have value beyond serving as gambling games. However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation and "strongly typed"/formalized. Achieving these goals…

This is why I support crypto. I view it as a laboratory where we can experiment with ideas around finance and governance. Many of the currently accepted ideas around these topics came from a pre-internet world. However, myself and others think that certain technologies have changed the game. Maybe we need government or maybe we don't. Maybe we need a centralized currency, maybe we don't. The thing is we won't really…

Your laboratory has run for 12 years and is currently consuming 0.5% of the world energy output and 20% of new GPUs.

All of that without a popular usecase yet. Except for financial speculation, finance-of-last-resort, and crime.

I would say that laboratory is not using the research grants well.

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#73

Post by [deleted] »

Xorlev wrote: post #27
capableweb wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That centralized exchanges exists doesn't somehow make decentralized cryptocurrencies less decentralized. Just like how centralized social media doesn't make decentralized social media less decentralized.

Crytocurrencies are effectively useless without centralized exchanges. Change my mind. Social media doesn't need to interop between centralized and decentralized, but currencies do if they want to be useable. At the end of the day, someone will want to actually _buy_ something, and unfortunately I can't go to Petco and use my Dogecoin to buy dogfood.

[deleted]

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#74

Post by _hyn3 »

serverholic wrote: post #67
CJefferson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last point (everything in smart contracts) I just can't understand. I personally wouldn't want to live in a world where the "computer says no", and even if a court and Jury disagrees, it's impossible to change. Similarly (and it's already happened several times), what happens when someone finds a loophole and drains the entire GDP of a country into their account? Do we say "Oh, well that's what the smart contrac…

One thing I've realized is that it's best to think about crypto and smart contracts as a foundation to build upon. They're tools in our toolbox. What we build is up to us. In the future, I don't think we'll see many monolithic contracts like you're describing (no USA smart contract). Instead I think we'll have a bunch of small, simple, and battle tested smart contracts that we can fit together like lego bricks.

I agree, but that's assuming the whole concept survives to maturity and engenders public trust. At this point, I have my doubts.

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#75

Post by cle »

Kalium wrote: post #59
21eleven wrote: post #37

I think this is a fair criticism to a limited extent, the crypto world is full of useless memecoins that don't have value beyond serving as gambling games. However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation and "strongly typed"/formalized. Achieving these goals…

> However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation and "strongly typed"/formalized. That's great! Could you provide some details on what these projects might be and how they aim to reshape political and economic life to be more open, formal, and participatory?…

Here's a random one I stumbled on the other day: https://venturebeat.com/2021/02/10/project-starling-uses-tec...

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#76

Post by mistermann »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #44
21eleven wrote: post #37

I think this is a fair criticism to a limited extent, the crypto world is full of useless memecoins that don't have value beyond serving as gambling games. However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation and "strongly typed"/formalized. Achieving these goals…

> However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation I hear this all of the time, but the people and projects “reshaping the economy and politics” are rarely ever named. When it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency, we’re supposed to believe the “good ones” ar…

> I hear this all of the time, but the people and projects “reshaping the economy and politics” are rarely ever named.

I know very little about this space, but I get a very strong "real deal" feel from Charles Hoskinson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hoskinson

https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles

https://roadmap.cardano.org/en/

I am most optimistic about blockchain based innovation with respect to direct/liquid/etc democracy.

https://cardano.org/governance/

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#77

Post by meheleventyone »

Trustless is another word that gets the same rhetorical slight of hand and IMO is more dangerous in terms of individuals getting scammed. All these terms specific in context get sold as general in application when crypto is marketed. Same thing with other rallying cries like removing middlemen.

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#78

Post by m3kw9 »

21eleven wrote: post #37

I think this is a fair criticism to a limited extent, the crypto world is full of useless memecoins that don't have value beyond serving as gambling games. However some people interested in and working on blockchain and related technologies are pursuing ambitious goals that could reshape the economy and politics in ways that makes them more open to participation and "strongly typed"/formalized. Achieving these goals…

Govt won’t likely allow that because who needs government if people look to governing tokens?

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#79

Post by trwhite »

Some good points here. If the author is reading the comments, I spotted the following typos:

1) "that tries to rationalize their existence by appeals to either" should probably say "that tries to rationalize their existence by appealing to either"

2) "like that that quantum mechanics and consciousness" should probably say "like that quantum mechanics and consciousness"

Re: Decentralized Woo Hoo

#80

Post by Zababa »

serverholic wrote: post #67
CJefferson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your last point (everything in smart contracts) I just can't understand. I personally wouldn't want to live in a world where the "computer says no", and even if a court and Jury disagrees, it's impossible to change. Similarly (and it's already happened several times), what happens when someone finds a loophole and drains the entire GDP of a country into their account? Do we say "Oh, well that's what the smart contrac…

One thing I've realized is that it's best to think about crypto and smart contracts as a foundation to build upon. They're tools in our toolbox. What we build is up to us. In the future, I don't think we'll see many monolithic contracts like you're describing (no USA smart contract). Instead I think we'll have a bunch of small, simple, and battle tested smart contracts that we can fit together like lego bricks.

This is what people said about objects in the context of object-oriented programming and it never really happened. Currently software doesn't really feel like lego bricks, it feels more like the mix of legos, mega blocks, duplos, kaplas and playmobiles that I played with when I was younger. You can build lots of stuff with it, and they can kind of go together, but not as easily as things from the same brand.
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