Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

cdixon.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 78 posts

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#11

Post by gitfan86 »

Olreich wrote: post #6

The points about centralized power make sense, but why http, smtp, and social media became centralized in the first place wasn’t grappled with at all. Running your own servers is attractive for some, but they aren’t the majority and never will be unless it requires something as simple as buying a $35 box and plugging it in at home with no additional setup. Social media is hard to accomplish without a centralized disc…

Wikipedia was mentioned in the article and it provides a great example of a product that was built in a decentralized way. Ironically, the author doesn't appreciate that Wikipedia's success had nothing to do with Web3 or crypto. The success of large companies isn't because of a lack of technology, it is due to human nature and economies of scale and network effects. Anti-trust is the way you fix this. Break youtube out of Google, Instagram out of FB, etc...

Also, Wikipedia has shown that centralization is necessary sometimes. For example, political pages are frequently locked because people with the most extreme and inaccurate viewpoints are the most vocal.

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#12

Post by uniqueuid »

aaa_aaa wrote: post #10
summm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It cannot. Bitcoin cannot be used, because the rate of transactions is much to low for such an application. Currently its only use is gambling and burning the planet.

Last time I checked, in El Salvador you could buy beer from a machine with a cell phone using Bitcoin.

Burning the planet is the primary effect. The beer is a side effect :)

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#13

Post by gitfan86 »

shaolinspirit wrote: post #4

nah, I don't buy this. Education matters. Let the folks educate on how to spin up their own website on a VPS. Let folks educate how to subscribe via rss or websub and get notifications. Let folks educate how to add "donate me" button on their website. Instead, people are educated on how to use useless NFT's and how to burn their time trading air on binance. Web3.0 is the definition of vanity. All of the tools require…

You cannot fight human nature. If you offered everyone the choice between a $1 lottery ticket or helping them go through a tutorial for building their own self hosting websites, 90%+ would choose the lottery ticket.

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#14

Post by [deleted] »

aaa_aaa wrote: post #10
summm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It cannot. Bitcoin cannot be used, because the rate of transactions is much to low for such an application. Currently its only use is gambling and burning the planet.

Last time I checked, in El Salvador you could buy beer from a machine with a cell phone using Bitcoin.

[deleted]

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#15

Post by gitfan86 »

aaa_aaa wrote: post #10
summm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It cannot. Bitcoin cannot be used, because the rate of transactions is much to low for such an application. Currently its only use is gambling and burning the planet.

Last time I checked, in El Salvador you could buy beer from a machine with a cell phone using Bitcoin.

That is just a PR stunt, just like the Bitcoin city that "is going to be built"

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#16

Post by keyle »

I don't understand why the message ends up "let's go crypto" and not "make protocols, not startups".

He started by talking about the good old days. He clearly identifies the issues of crypto and that there was nothing wrong with open protocols besides speed to market (which is easier to fix than the snafu of crypto)

He identified Wikipedia vs Encarta and Wikipedia is a success but has nothing to do with crypto.

There are so many issues with blockchains compared to publishing RFCs and pushing an opensource client as a scout... it boggles my mind.

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#17

Post by have_faith »

>Wikipedia improved at a much faster rate, because it had an active community of volunteer contributors who were attracted to its decentralized, community-governed ethos.

Does being open contribution warrant the use of the word "decentralised"? as far as I can tell it's still a huge success story from a centralisation perspective.

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#18

Post by babelchips »

uniqueuid wrote: post #12
aaa_aaa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked, in El Salvador you could buy beer from a machine with a cell phone using Bitcoin.

Burning the planet is the primary effect. The beer is a side effect :)

Under 10 transactions per second globally is why Bitcoin isn’t used in retail.

Micropayments and nanopayments require thousands and tens of thousands TPS. There are newer generations of crypto that can do that and with none of the energy consumption problems of Bitcoin and other Proof of Work systems.

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#19

Post by donmcronald »

senko wrote: post #9

What I find curious in that web3 scenario is this: 1. Today's internet is decentralized because people can't run their own web, smtp, nntp, xmpp, servers, WP blogs. Which is true, we can't expect people to run this the same way we can't expect every car owner to have a mechanic shop. 2. The proposals for "web3", to the best of my understanding, require people to run their own blockchain nodes, manage wallets, etc. Ba…

Exactly! And, in addition to that complexity, there are scalability issues that are easier to solve with some amount of centralization. Would you rather build on a platform where you're paying a well known company or a platform comprised of a bunch of anonymous nodes trying to minimize operating costs?

That Filecoin thing is a great example. Yeah, I want to store my mission critical data on a bunch of EoL, consumer grade hard disks that someone is using to participate in the blockchain. /s

And no regulation isn't the utopia the crypto enthusiasts are selling. Don't completely unregulated systems typically end up dominated by the richest, most ruthless, least ethical participants?

Re: Why Decentralization Matters (2018)

#20

Post by babelchips »

senko wrote: post #9

What I find curious in that web3 scenario is this: 1. Today's internet is decentralized because people can't run their own web, smtp, nntp, xmpp, servers, WP blogs. Which is true, we can't expect people to run this the same way we can't expect every car owner to have a mechanic shop. 2. The proposals for "web3", to the best of my understanding, require people to run their own blockchain nodes, manage wallets, etc. Ba…

Others can run the nodes. The point is the network of nodes are distributed and no node is more important than any other. They are all just peers.
Post reply on HN