I posted a while ago a comment that large tech companies and their investors are not really motivated for decentralized systems, but that they have to tell the markets they are. Otherwise they will face increasing regulatory and liability pressure due to how they wield control and power over their platforms and customers / users (products). On the one hand they want to be shielded from the effects of running large, centralized systems, but on the other hand, they don't want to give up their walled gardens, customer lock-in, captive audience, no right-to-repair benefits. [0]
Why Web3?
31–40 of 706 posts
Re: Why Web3?
#32One thing that is confusing most loud supporters of Web3 are VCs and yet: "It all comes down to the database that sits behind an application. If that database is controlled by a single entity (think company, think big tech), then enormous market power accrues to the owner/administrator of that database. If, on the other hand, the database is an open public database that is not controlled and administered by a single…
The locking is in the company that controls the spec of the protocol and its reference implementation. It’s always been about getting as many people onboard as possible, this time the bait is decentralisation.
but they are not company people?
company does not own anything nor database?
I think just coins?
Re: Why Web3?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn’t an open database lead to loads of ACID issues or is the point of blockchain to prevent that
It’s a very limited database that is very slow and scales poorly.
The currently most popular implementation of this "open database" (Bitcoin) is indeed slow and scales poorly. But if you start looking into the new ideas, you'll find there are plenty of still decentralized blockchains with much faster confirmation times (even as low as 5 seconds) today.
Re: Why Web3?
#34perspective of a not terribly interested party:
* two years ago: "bitcoin! bitcoin! bitcoin!" - tech community: "bitcoin is a pyramid scheme and also bad for the environment."
* a year ago: "crypto! crypto! not bitcoin, there's others and also fintech loves blockchain!" - tech community: "nope, still a pyramid scheme, financial community goes whereever there's hype and $$$, they couldnt care less about 'tech'"
* 6 months ago: "nfts! nfts! look there's an actual thing associated with it!" - tech communuty: "but you don't actually own anything. obvious speculation scam"
* 2 months ago: "web3! web3! it's vague! except it's all about those things above we just make it less obvious and more buzzwordy!" - tech community: please leave
Re: Why Web3?
#35Matt Baer, developer / owner of Write.as, has a competing and differing vision of web3 (perhaps better labeled "web 3.0"):
https://write.as/matt/what-would-a-real-web3-look-like
It'd be preferable for users and developers to gravitate towards a web built on community standards, rather than one built on an exploitative ecosystem. Dave Winer notes "web3 is venture capital wanting a new bubble to inflate so they can get the kinds of returns they used to get." (https://twitter.com/davewiner/status/1475876218905976843)
Re: Why Web3?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a very limited database that is very slow and scales poorly.
The currently most popular implementation of this "open database" (Bitcoin) is indeed slow and scales poorly. But if you start looking into the new ideas, you'll find there are plenty of still decentralized blockchains with much faster confirmation times (even as low as 5 seconds) today.
Which coins have confirmation times that low with the volume of Bitcoin?
Re: Why Web3?
#37One thing that is confusing most loud supporters of Web3 are VCs and yet: "It all comes down to the database that sits behind an application. If that database is controlled by a single entity (think company, think big tech), then enormous market power accrues to the owner/administrator of that database. If, on the other hand, the database is an open public database that is not controlled and administered by a single…
Because experienced VCs know web 1.0 also started with decentralized / libertarian ideals, but ultimately early players built walled gardens and gatekeeping around the "world wide web". They don't want to miss the web3 boat, and they're betting the web 1.0/web 2.0 playbooks still apply.
Agreed. Most of the decentralization talk is Kabuki and it's still about controlling the platform.
Re: Why Web3?
#38HN meta: funnily enough, I made an extension that highlights keywords on HN and I added "web3" to the list this morning after reading this 3-week old comment: "It feels as if 5 similar articles [about web3] reach the HN top page every day like this. The same arguments are made, the same rebuttals are made, the same comments are made ad nauseam, every single time, with no apparent conclusion. Are we officially living in a simulation? What's happening?" [1]. 2 hours later, I refresh the frontpage and here we go.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29484941
Also if you looking for recent past threads about web3: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&query=web3
Re: Why Web3?
#39VC: "The key innovation is this new database!"
Points to slowest / lowest throughput / most expensive database ever designed
Sigh.
Re: Why Web3?
#40The linked post[1], ironically, really helps to cement why I consider web3 to be interesting technologically but mostly nonsense from a product perspective. > As a first approximation all the big powerful internet companies are really database providers. Facebook is a database of people’s profiles, their friend graphs and their status updates. Paypal is a database of people’s account balances. Amazon is a database of…
Appreciated your third paragraph and 3rd link. I'm struggling with my own articulation about how NFTs dont intrinsically themselves add value and yet are being treated/described as such, and this helped clarify it a bit for me.
Honestly, the linked article about NFTs in Video Games was what really helped me with my articulation. It's long, but I really recommend it.
The situation makes me sad, because I think that Web3/NFTs/etc. are some really interesting technologies, and I really align the aims that they _claim_ to be supporting (whether all proponents actually _do_ support those aims, or are merely claiming to do so in order to make a quick buck, is a different question). But the implementations that exist, and the environmental damage that they currently cause, make them utterly unsupportable to me.