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Web3 is going just great

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Re: Web3 is going just great

#271

Post by ShamelessC »

guntars wrote: post #268
stevebmark wrote: post #97

I find it both sad and funny watching folks discard efficient, regulated, centralized financial systems, and turn to a decentralized one and deal with the constant scams that such a system would obviously produce. Irreversible transactions, 90% wash trading, the hilariously bad idea of "smart contracts," and surprisingly inefficient core technology designed to become more wasteful as it scales. Who knows what the fut…

To the proponents of the "efficient, regulated, centralized financial systems" I want to ask - why can't I pay $0.10 to a random paywalled site to access a single article?

See, that's the whole problem with the approach though.

Paywalls are shitty. Nobody wanted that to happen except for the money-men. It's for this very reason that if an article gets linked here and has a pay-wall, a few volunteers will go hunt down a free version of the article and post it on archive.org for everyone else to view. You may see this as flawed - but I see it as beautiful. The way the "good parts" of the web still work.

Money/currency/blockchain absolutely does _not_ have to be a fundamental structure of the internet. There is zero reason why a currency needs to be fundamental to the basic operation of "the web" other than for incumbents to try to increase the value of said currency. Like - seriously; the internet was supposed to be about democratization of information. I realize that didn't exactly happen due to big-tech extrapolating value out of everything - but the "solution" you are proposing is to say "oh you don't have any [insert coin here]? Yeah - you'll need to exchange 20$ USD first before you can even use our internet. Or if you don't have any cash we can give you some freebies so you can shill for us." Like - what? No. Not going to work.

Or maybe it will. But, not because it should.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#272

Post by pshc »

ShamelessC wrote: post #224
pshc wrote: post #78

Why blame web3? Proof of work (Bitcoin specifically) is the entity pouring lighter fluid on the planet. Bitcoin isn't even part of web3. If we want to realistically reduce CO2 emissions by cryptocurrencies, displacing Bitcoin and other proof-of-work chains is step one. Thankfully this seems to be happening. Check out any chart of BTC-ETH. With power-efficient proof of stake coming next year I'm hoping we can reduce t…

Proof of stake simply won't work without some sort of proof-of-work coin backing it. I'm sure the Ethereum people would love for you to believe otherwise - but there's a reason they keep punting to "one more year"; they can't do it.

The beacon chain has been operational for a year now. Progress is slow and steady.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#273

Post by qu4z-2 »

fab1an wrote: post #221
valeness wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What net-beneficial applications of crypto would you suggest I look at if I wanted to re-evaluate my perspective on crypto? I was a very early crypto fan, loved talking about decentralized trustless networks, legal smart contracts, that kind of thing. But after years and years of just getting burned by the space being taken over by financial people spouting cultist rhetoric, the space has lost it's shimmer to me. Ask…

Take a look at Loot project by Dom Hof (the creator of vine, but now mostly known for Loot...:) It is exactly how you describe, but so so much more: why limit your Halo / skyrim character to one game world when you could take it into any other format and play with it there? NFT composability is a huge topic and extremely exciting in terms of these optionalities. Again: https://www.lootproject.com/ Also see my comment…

Why would I want to play my Skyrim character in Halo?

Re: Web3 is going just great

#274

Post by ShamelessC »

carlosdp wrote: post #177
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As someone building in web3, I'll give an example. When I sold my first business, escrow.com wanted >$20K for the domain transfer from godaddy. If you sell a domain on ethereum (ENS), the escrow requires only a smart contract and fees scale with the network so like $50 right now. I'm working on connecting the two. A quick look at https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator shows that fees only reach $20K if you're sellin…

> At that level, lawyers should be involved on both sides anyway and your $20K fee is better spent on proper legal services to get it done. Escrow.com is notoriously expensive. Yea so, that's kinda the point of what he's saying. Why is it that a domain transfer for $2M is so much more expensive than one for $2? Intermediaries. Smart contracts eliminate the intermediary. Whether you are selling for $2 or $2M, it's gun…

You seem knowledgeable so maybe you can help me with this. So you said:

> Smart contracts eliminate the intermediary. Whether you are selling for $2 or $2M, it's gunna cost the same small fee (and the fee is going to be negligible within a year).

Okay, fair enough intermediaries suck. Let's replace them with smart contracts.

But what happens if there was a bug in the smart contract? What happens when a situation such as death occurs that wasn't considered when the smart contract was written? Who settles such disputes?

Re: Web3 is going just great

#275

Post by beej71 »

Seems like there are three classes of tech people around web3:

1. Love it (for reasons) 2. Hate it (for reasons) 3. Confused Vince Vega Meme

I'm in category 3. Maybe I just need some RFCs to come out, 'cause Wikipedia ain't helping.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#276

Post by evandwight »

fab1an wrote: post #217
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, my entire "consumption" of web2 communities like Reddit (AND HN!) has honestly been replaced with the amazing and kind communities I met "on" web3 (a misnomer in that context, as the entire comms stack is Twitter and Discord). So your "web3" consumption happens entirely on web 2.0? And its existence doesn't actually require anything web3 related? What makes it web3, other than the fact that maybe someone…

A bunch of things, which also define what web3 means to me: - Yes, NFTs: just like most websites are crap, so are most NFTs, and the tulip bubble that has formed around them will eventually bust (but return in different ways...). What will IMO almost certainly remain is the significant paradigm shift on two aspects: 1. indisputable ownership of digital goods that unlock other things: logins to apps, usage of software…

Minor correction: accessible source doesn't mean free to copy

Re: Web3 is going just great

#277

Post by guntars »

ShamelessC wrote: post #271
guntars wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the proponents of the "efficient, regulated, centralized financial systems" I want to ask - why can't I pay $0.10 to a random paywalled site to access a single article?

See, that's the whole problem with the approach though. Paywalls are shitty. Nobody wanted that to happen except for the money-men. It's for this very reason that if an article gets linked here and has a pay-wall, a few volunteers will go hunt down a free version of the article and post it on archive.org for everyone else to view. You may see this as flawed - but I see it as beautiful. The way the "good parts" of the…

So you'd rather choose privacy invading ads just because it's technically not a paywall? I'll take microtransactions every time. In fact, I'll argue that the current state of the internet can be directly attributed to content producer's inability to directly monetize their work so they have had to find an indirect way to get paid.

Information can be copied almost for free, but it still takes a fixed amount of work to produce even one copy of something. It is better to sell more copies at a fraction of the price assuming the revenue ends up the same because more value is created in the world. Unfortunately you can't charge people low enough amounts via the current financial system as they're not interested in innovation. So we are stuck with ads.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#278

Post by moistly »

I really can’t see much difference between blockchain/coin/nft promoters and the door-to-door JWs and Mormons. They are all pushing their religion in a desperate attempt to keep the faith alive.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#279

Post by dumbfoundded »

ShamelessC wrote: post #274
carlosdp wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At that level, lawyers should be involved on both sides anyway and your $20K fee is better spent on proper legal services to get it done. Escrow.com is notoriously expensive. Yea so, that's kinda the point of what he's saying. Why is it that a domain transfer for $2M is so much more expensive than one for $2? Intermediaries. Smart contracts eliminate the intermediary. Whether you are selling for $2 or $2M, it's gun…

You seem knowledgeable so maybe you can help me with this. So you said: > Smart contracts eliminate the intermediary. Whether you are selling for $2 or $2M, it's gunna cost the same small fee (and the fee is going to be negligible within a year). Okay, fair enough intermediaries suck. Let's replace them with smart contracts. But what happens if there was a bug in the smart contract? What happens when a situation such…

Governance tokens & DAOs are helping to bridge the human divide. Not everything can be coded, humans have to make judgement decisions sometimes. The smart contract is just the agreed upon structure of cooperation.

For cases like escrow over digital goods, it should be perfect in a p2p context without human involvement. It already is for any web3 good like tokens or nfts. Bugs happen but these contracts are often simple and used lots of times. We'll settle on more and more common standards to implement simple transactions.

Re: Web3 is going just great

#280

Post by dumbfoundded »

AlexandrB wrote: post #211
dumbfoundded wrote: post #72

As someone building in web3, I'll give an example. When I sold my first business, escrow.com wanted >$20K for the domain transfer from godaddy. If you sell a domain on ethereum (ENS), the escrow requires only a smart contract and fees scale with the network so like $50 right now. I'm working on connecting the two. Intermediaries are a huge reason the web is the way it is. If we can eliminate them, the internet looks…

> Intermediaries are a huge reason the web is the way it is. If we can eliminate them, the internet looks very different. That's what makes me the most skeptical. I don't see a lack of intermediaries in crypto and the crypto intermediaries are far sketchier than their non-crypto counterparts. Just compare Tether to your local bank. Tether could pull the rug on USDT tomorrow and your recourse would be... what? Same wi…

Some things are cheaper in web3 than web2 and web3 can do everything web2 can so it's all going to get rebuilt. The same thing happened with mobile phones. Mobile completely changed the internet and the only "invention" there was the form factor and battery. Everyone all of a sudden needs an app and the whole internet was rewritten for IOS & Android.

The promises for how it changes society are pretty weak. It could change nothing or a lot. Web3 is just a better cheaper tool for humans to use so it'll get used. How it changes society is up to the people using it. Just like how the internet didn't usher in a utopia, web3 won't either, but it will change a lot.

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