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Why Web3?

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431–440 of 706 posts

Re: Why Web3?

#431
post #34

perspective 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 mo…

Want to share where I can read the unified opinion from the "tech community"? I'd consider myself as part of the tech community, but never said anything of those things, are you sure you can speak for everyone in the community?

Here on HN. The comment count vs upvotes for posts like this speaks for itsself

Re: Why Web3?

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some examples of dApp data sharing in the wild: For example if you have Ether, you can use a decentralized exchange (e.g. Uniswap) to swap it to stablecoins like USDC and DAI, deposit that USDC and DAI into a collateralized lending market (e.g. Compound), then deposit your deposit tickets into a stable pair exchange (e.g. Curve) to earn maker fees when others trade against your liquidity, while ALSO earning interest…

This is the most elucidating comment I’ve read in regards to real-world examples of crypto projects. Thank you. Do you by any chance have a blog, or could you recommend some top resources to learn from?

It makes me happy to hear that my comment was appreciated. Anon account here unfortunately, but if you come up with any questions, the ethfinance community's daily thread on reddit is full of friendly and very knowledgeable people!

I would start with learning the basics of how Bitcoin works if you haven't already. There are some heavily watched YouTube videos you can find that do a good job of it. Ethereum is more or less the Bitcoin idea but with smart contracts (basically, it lets people run custom software directly on the blockchain).

If you're a programmer, you could try looking at some beginner Solidity tutorials.

Sorry, I feel like that might be the best I can really do here. Good luck!

Re: Why Web3?

#433

I think the focus on data openness is overly simplistic. Blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and Tezos are attracting a lot of brainpower and capital. This is occurring because of price action, for sure, but also because of their ability to allow actors to interact with each other in a way that minimizes the amount of trust required from any single actor in the system. They do this by distributing trust among differen…

> You can currently earn 6% on USD-backed stablecoins, and withdraw at any time. Compare that to your current checking or savings account.

Sure, I’m comparing an investment with high counterparty risk to an FDIC-insured savings account. Seems like apples and oranges.

Re: Why Web3?

#434
post #430

The current state of web3 reminds me of people building new game engines well before any reasonable game could be built on the platform. This happened a lot in the 90's/2000's in the Interactive Fiction community. Smart people would find IF, play a bunch of games, build a game or two, then decide the existing platforms "didn't fit their style or the kinds of features they wanted" and start discussing how _they_ would…

A lot of them are happening right now. The most interesting thing about Web3 is just how much stuff is being built. Really innovative financial models, huge DAO that are beginning to work, NFT communities that actually help people. It's happening right now, just join the discords.

Mind sharing which discords to follow?

Re: Why Web3?

#435
“ If, on the other hand, the database is an open public database that is not controlled and administered by a single company, but instead is a truly open system available to all, then that kind of market power cannot be built up around a data asset”.

When I use a service I hardly think which fat cat I’m feeding. It just has to work good and fast for me.

Re: Why Web3?

#436

I've been noticing this web3 buzzword picking up steam on here for months now. And it all feels very manufactured (much how metaverse has been co-opted and tainted by Facebook). I suspect this web3 push is just cryptobros shoehorning their schemes into relevance. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=web3 On the other hand, if you're paying attention, you might have noticed a push back to web1 and even older tec…

web3.js is the name of the Ethereum API since 2017.

First commit in this repo is 2014:

https://github.com/ethereumproject/web3.js/commits/develop?a...

Re: Why Web3?

#437

I'm not convinced. People talk grand about "permissionless data" but I fail to see any practical applications. NFTs are a scam and are retroactively obsoleted by digital signatures. All of the ideas about logistics tracking, deed tracking, etc etc are all rendered pointless by the oracle problem, you can get identical guarantees with digital signatures minus the blockchain. DeFi is DOA. Gas fees are insane, "layer 2"…

DeFi is DOA. Gas fees are insane, "layer 2" is just a diplomatic way of saying "offchain centralization" It may come as a surprise but there are other chains that support DeFi apps and which do not have high gas fees like Ethereum. For example, Avalanche and Solana. Collateralized crypto loans are the equivalent of people taking loans out on their equity position so they don’t have to pay cap gains and don’t need to…

Both of those are centralized, and will need to compete with zk rollups on Ethereum in the coming year, which will have tokens too, incentivizing people to try it out.

Re: Why Web3?

#438
post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're forgetting about the part where the same system can provide those people with an income. Excluding people from the global financial system, imo, is the opposite of where we should be headed. The notion of paying people for their contribution to the network, no matter how small, is discussed in "Who Owns The Future"

How do you make money on web3 without the upfront loading of cash into a crypto wallet?

In the existing state of things, you can get involved in a community that "air drops" a token, you can run a network node, you can play a P2E game, or you can sell NFTs that don't mint until sold. But this is super early. "Who Owns The Future" describes a model of revenue sharing that will require extremely cheap micro transactions.

Re: Why Web3?

#439
The linked post in TFA (which is essentially the OP's main argument in favor of web3) describes how the PC won, even though it was deficient in almost every dimension (worse CPU, worse memory, storage, etc) than existing mainframes, except for one dimension: price.

It then goes on to describe how blockchain is essentially the same thing - it's a "worse" database in every way, except one: it's not controlled by a single entity

The problem with this analogy is that price is a very very different and meaningful dimension than something like memory, or storage. making something cheaper is different than making something faster. Making something faster doesn't make it more accessible. The PC was more accessible than any other computer out there.

To compare price to "being controlled by a single entity" is totally wrong. Sure, the data is "accessible" in that it's public, but to use the technology is actually way more expensive than a traditional database. in fact, calling blockchain better while ignoring the price of storing data in the blockchain is like, exactly the opposite reason why the PC won!

I'm actually pro making data way more accessible, and I wonder if there's a web3 app out there that isn't some sort of financial instrument, and not about hoarding tokens in the hope that the price for them goes up, but actually about distributing data ownership in a way that people who didn't "get in early" can actually have a seat at the table.

Re: Why Web3?

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you are trying to be persuasive you should know that what you said is complete gibberish to tech saavy people who are not already bought in to whatever you are talking about.

I mean, if you don't know what byzantine fault tolerance [1] is, then that's fine. It's not gibberish to people who are into distributed systems. And I'm not claiming it's a silver bullet or trying to persuade anyone either. BFT is overkill for most use cases, but sometimes it's useful. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault

The commenter above was certainly familiar with BFT. It wasn't the term as such that was gibberish.

But rather, the implication you were attempting to make that this is a "critical innovation" that provides value.

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