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My First Impressions of Web3

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Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#81

Post by jeroenhd »

arcticbull wrote: post #39

I'll be honest I had no idea that access to Ethereum is effectively gate-kept by two centralized entities (Infura, Alchemy). I knew there were only one or two true Ethereum full-nodes, but the impact of that never quite clicked. [edit] By "full node" I meant "archival node."

Bit that it'd be very practical, but the data itself is shared so in theory every company could set up their own API to render the blockchain into a readable, quick to access format. Even the vanished poop emoji NFT would reappear once someone else renders their view on the blockchain in the right way.

The problem with this is that running servers that store and process one or even multiple blockchains in a searchable way is terribly costly and inefficient. In theory the public ledgers are all safe against locking away data, like Google or Microsoft could do with your accounts in the real web, but in practice nobody wants to be the guy making a loss on serving blockchain views.

If web3 ever gets off the ground, it needs more of these access provider companies. Perhaps even a prebuilt system you can throw onto your own server to participate, like IPFS and other existing decentralised systems provide.

I'm still not clear on the actual benefit of the cryptocurrency web other than the concept of "owning things without legal protection or oversight" which I (and I believe most people) have very little interest in if it comes at the premium it comes at today. From a technical standpoint all of this blockchain stuff is awesome, but it's an awesome solution in search of a problem.

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#82

Post by guerrilla »

superfrank wrote: post #47

> People don’t want to run their own servers, and never will This kind of gets at the reason why I think a lot of tech articles/blogs about what the future will be like are just terrible. The wants of someone who is driven enough read and write about the bleeding edge of technology are very, very different from the general population. Like this author says, most people don't want to run their own web server, but I'd…

> The wants of someone who is driven enough read and write about the bleeding edge of technology are very, very different from the general population.

This is very insightful. I wonder what else it applies to. I bet there are tons of media sectors writing to irrelevant but interested audiences.

> People who write these articles need to be thinking about the middle aged woman who still calls every video game system "a Nintendo". There will always be some users for technologies like web3, but until you can clearly demonstrate to that woman that this new technology has value and is easier to use than the status quo, you're never going to get mass adoption.

I don't get it. I thought this used to be common knowledge. I mean it's basically a TV trope, so why and how do industries "forget" this?

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#83

Post by ssss11 »

golf1052 wrote: post #7

This is a really interesting breakdown of web3 (or as he calls it later on web2x2). I haven't dove into the world of web3 yet but it does seem incredibly ironic that there's already seemingly a large amount of consolidation around platforms to make web3 more accessible to people. This is good for early adopters and artists who are generating wealth during the gold rush but I don't think it's good for "web3 the idea"…

It feels like there’s alot of get rich quick types involved (is a gold rush as you say) but over time the decentralised principles will play out

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#84

Post by jfb »

Could it be that people aren't really interested in undoing the mistakes of Web2, but rather just kicking off a new round of consolidation, where they could be the gatekeepers/platform owners?

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#85

Post by spenczar5 »

exdsq wrote: post #77
arcticbull wrote: post #39

I'll be honest I had no idea that access to Ethereum is effectively gate-kept by two centralized entities (Infura, Alchemy). I knew there were only one or two true Ethereum full-nodes, but the impact of that never quite clicked. [edit] By "full node" I meant "archival node."

There’s no real reason for this to be honest. The Web3 projects I’ve worked on tends to fall for centralized services like Infura because of development needs at first and then it’s just easier to use it for production. I’ve made a decent living for the last two years setting up test infrastructure for Web3 projects due to its complex nature. This is true across all blockchains, not just Ethereum. It’s an area ripe f…

New products? Would those be more centralized platforms, or is it feasible for me to connect to the blockchain, verify stuff, and so on if I am running my own server?

It still seems that my users on phones and browsers would need to trust me in that case, right?

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#87

Post by arcticbull »

go_to_moon wrote: post #69
arcticbull wrote: post #39

I'll be honest I had no idea that access to Ethereum is effectively gate-kept by two centralized entities (Infura, Alchemy). I knew there were only one or two true Ethereum full-nodes, but the impact of that never quite clicked. [edit] By "full node" I meant "archival node."

only one or two true Ethereum full-nodes source?

I should have said archival nodes, the ones that keep state back to the genesis block. I don't know if that number is even tracked anywhere. I've read estimates ranging from 2 to 5. I'm trying to find where I read that, happy to be wrong - or right, if anyone has data.

[edit] Here. [1] And here. [2]

  After examining every which way we could think of to add the Trie state to our Ethereum state, we asked Vitalik for assistance. His first comment to us was “oh you’re one of the few running one of those big, scary nodes.” We asked him if he knew of anyone else running a “big, scary node” to see if we could possibly sync with them. He knew of no one, not even the Ethereum Foundation keeps a full archival copy of the Ethereum chain. [2].
[1] https://librehash.org/ethereum-archival-node-review/

[2] https://blog.blockcypher.com/ethereum-woes-d9b2af62da67

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#88

Post by [deleted] »

arcticbull wrote: post #39

I'll be honest I had no idea that access to Ethereum is effectively gate-kept by two centralized entities (Infura, Alchemy). I knew there were only one or two true Ethereum full-nodes, but the impact of that never quite clicked. [edit] By "full node" I meant "archival node."

[deleted]

Re: My First Impressions of Web3

#90

Post by dane-pgp »

CameronNemo wrote: post #35
danielovichdk wrote: post #28

I want to run my own servers. Honestly. It has always been a somewhat easy task if you pick an OS that is secure and stable. And today with all the Foss/oss there are plenty of reasons why I would do it. More Decentralised Please.

Same. I'd like to make this experience better rather than give up and give in to centralization. I know others have different priorities, but I don't need them to use my servers. I just need them to interoperate minimally.

> rather than give up and give in to centralization

As for why Marlinspike might have abandoned the goal of decentralization, I think Upton Sinclair might have some insight.

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