Live data from Hacker News

Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

billprin.com

151–160 of 319 posts

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#151
So the main selling point to "rational" people is that you can connect your wallet to websites?

As in potentially link your income to every site you want access to?

If I wanted to do micro transactions, and let everyone drain my bank account, I'd not have 2fa on, use my real name, address DoB for things.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#152
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about using a ledger to hold public keys. The keys exist regardless of the ledger. The idea is to use the ledger to indisputably prove ownership or control over resources. Could be money, could be access to certain services, could be files, anything. Also, the ledger doesn't have to be public.

If the ledger is not public, why would I trust it? If someone else claims they are you, how would I differentiate the conflicting claims?

Keys are identities. Someone claiming to be you doesn't matter. Always defer to keys.

A non public ledger would be something agreed upon by participants only. So you and I and 5 other people for example could run some type of organization using some private way to keep track of state. You choose to trust it, if you don't, then don't use it.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#153

Several years ago, Mozilla/Firefox created "Persona," which was an open-source federated identity system that provided all the benefits described here. The idea was that it would eventually be built into browsers. I used it on a commercial site myself for many years. It failed to gain traction, and Mozilla eventually pulled the plug. Persona had many advantages over the Web3 vision described in this article. It was p…

Cryptocurrency ecosystems have the advantage of economic incentivization and if they're decentralised, uncensorability. Those are two major advantages.

"Ecosystem" in tech means usually means vertical integration, which is not what it means in nature.

Anybody looking to build a tech ecosystem is looking to build vendor lock-in. There is no advantage to planning for decentralization, and no laws to force companies to adopt a decentralized approach.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#154
post #138

I'm open to the idea that there are real problems that are best solved by PoW/PoS blockchains and smart contracts, so I was hoping this article would reveal one. It doesn't. As mentioned elsewhere, Persona was already a perfectly good technical solution to this, years ago. It failed for various reasons, none of which would be addressed by blockchains/smart contracts. Likewise, the problem of "conveniently and securel…

Have you actually used a web3 website? Once you have your wallet setup it's the most seamless login experience I've ever had.

Also, I find it funny whenever someone says something like "web3 doesn't actually solve anything that hasn't been solved by other technologies like X". Then why isn't anyone using X? Why is nobody using Persona or Webauthn despite being "superior"?

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#155

I'm reading this with an open mind, but I have questions: > Problem #1: Owning Your Own Digital Identity & Fixing Authentication My very technical friends who are security minded are on keybase.io. Multiple usernames and passwords across the internet is solved in various ways without blockchain. There are a lot of good password managers (I use and encrypted text file.) I don't feel Google owns my identity because I u…

Alone the audacity to think a single point of failure without any chance of recovery is a good idea for persona management in the real world is insane.

This is one of those things that has been an absolutely terrible thing for Apple over the years. People would forget their passwords on their phones or their iCloud account and lose access to everything. And there was nothing Apple could do to help them. So the poor people at the Apple Store just had to tell someone that the last pictures of their dead mom are gone forever.

Apple finally implemented a solution in iOS 15 (15.1?). You can designate people you trust to be able to help recover your account. Like your spouse or a sibling. If they don’t have full access, they can just help recover it.

You are 100% right. A single point of failure without any chance of recovery is a complete disaster for normal users.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#156

Several years ago, Mozilla/Firefox created "Persona," which was an open-source federated identity system that provided all the benefits described here. The idea was that it would eventually be built into browsers. I used it on a commercial site myself for many years. It failed to gain traction, and Mozilla eventually pulled the plug. Persona had many advantages over the Web3 vision described in this article. It was p…

I joined the team at Mozilla that developed Persona as an intern, just as they closed it down. Persona failed because it was fighting against a head-wind of an already established trend of using Google/FB OAuth2, without giving the service provider any new benefits. There was no incentive for a website to actually implement Persona, since it was just another auth provider and users weren't using it. Users didn't use…

> Websites that integrate web3 wallet login do get something new: built-in, straightforward payment rails.

Is this really any better than Apple/Google pay? Those are already set up, trustworthy, I don't need to convert my fiat into a cryptocurrency than can swing in value wildly, and it's super easy to set up with stripe or any of the other platforms that the website is probably already using.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One possible advantage web3 has over Persona is that it is not under the control of Mozilla or whatever foundation Mozilla set up to address those very predictable concerns. Being distributed might help it gain early adopter mindshare which could lead to future UX improvements. (Not saying I believe this will definitely happen, just that Persona failing isn't a guarantee of failure here.)

That’s a lot of words to say “this will have better marketing thanks to crypto hype.” Seems to be the selling point of most web3 and blockchain solutions once you brush the buzzwords off the copy.

The best product doesn't win, the 'sexiest' ones do because they can drum up the press coverage and mainstream recognition necessary to become a household name.

WeWork might not have a a 'tech' company, but it behaved like one after juicing on all that Softbank money. Turns out they had nothing Regus or other 'boring' companies couldn't provide. But they bought a lot prestige properties and advertised constantly, so they became the household name for co-working.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#158

He isn't describing the true state of the world. Banks, brokerages, mortgage providers, and medical entities mostly don't use oauth2 and won't use this stuff either. The world is still old school. Grandpa dies and I go find the paper will. I get an affidavit from a lawyer and a death certificate with a seal from the state. I go into the bank with a bunch of papers and they figure out what to do. There isn't a chain o…

This is kind of funny to read, since in Norway basically every interaction with the government (paying taxes, filing for divorce, accessing our health records etc.) is done through an oauth2 system, the same one we use to log in to our bank accounts/get loans through. Most people haven't interacted with the government via paper in years.

https://docs.digdir.no/idporten_overordnet.html

https://www.altinn.no/hjelp/innlogging/id-portenminidbankid/

Some very few non-digital government services remain, unfortunately, and it seems like the storage of wills is one of them. Asset transfer is still going to remain a manual process though, even when digital wills are here, thankfully.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#159
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point was usability. And being (effectively) forced to join / legitimize their hive to get anything done I agree with you on this. For the purpose of login in with a private key, i would prefer some browser extension (or built in the browser) that generates a key from a seed (like a crypto wallet) and only does that. This doesn't exist at this point. > ... not to mention blatant fraud and manipulation aimed spec…

> For the purpose of login in with a private key, i would prefer some browser extension (or built in the browser) that generates a key from a seed (like a crypto wallet) and only does that. This doesn't exist at this point. What about https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-5-overview/ or https://cloud.google.com/titan-security-key/ or https://krypt.co/ (before it was acquired, I still use it though) or any of it's e…

i'm familiar with those (yubikey and titan, didn't knew about krypt). Don't own any of those but always install the FIDO U2F [1] app on my ledger hardware wallets (which is a nice extra).

my issue with using a physical device is that it detracts adoption if there is no other alternative. a browser extension or built-in helps adoption and adoption probably increases the number of people using physical devices.

[1] https://www.ledger.com/fido-u2f

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#160
post #22

I honestly thought this was going to be a joke post because that top image is ridiculous. Maybe I'm just old, but it reads to me as Web 1.0: Great Web 2.0: Ugh, ok Web 3.0: You're serious with this?

I had the same thought. Imagine listing all blockchains in tiny icons you scroll sideways. I suppose that can be done a lot better, but still, who decides which blockchains are included and which are not?

Because that’s insane. Normal users couldn’t deal with that. Highly technical users can’t deal with that. It’s too much of a pain in the ass.

The solution is that there should only be one or two chains that everyone uses. Then there’s only one or two little icons you need.

The people who run the trains could make sure they keep running by having tens of thousands of computers. Of course that cost money. Luckily they get money out of the block chain because they can spend coins.

Of course users don’t really like buying things. Maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to put an ad or two in there to pay for things.

The easiest thing to get users on board is to use brands they trust. No normal person is going to trust everything they have two the Kakarot blockchain with an anime superhero for a logo.

Do you know who people trust? Facebook and Google. If they were to…

Oops. I invented today. Only with much more energy use.

Post reply on HN