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It’s not still the early days of blockchain

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Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#401

Post by rank0 »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #37
throwawaylinux wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the big picture then? I've never got anything concrete that doesn't sound like the usual buzz word snake oil. Blockchains solve the wrong problem for a lot of the proposed applications I've seen, like handwaving about "supply chain". The biggest difficulty is not that you don't trust the database, it's that you don't trust the connection between the electronic data and reality. How do you trust a person to ha…

>>So aside from coins, where else is it that you would not trust a central database, but you can verify/trust the entries being added to that database? I would not trust a central database for any application, even those where I have to trust the verifiers of the entries to that database. E.g. I would prefer stablecoins over credit in a bank. With a decentralized database, immutability and permissionlessness are the…

You realize all this web3 stuff runs on top of the internet right?

There are centralized CAs, domain/ip registrars, ISPs…shit even the libraries that comprise your entire computing stack all come from centralized databases!

Your comment is stored on a database.

USDC/Tether have private databases and their collateral is held by third parties in again their own database.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#403

Post by disruptalot »

It's truly incredible that people still confidently proclaim that there is "no use case" today.

Because of the technical nature of the underlying tech, it's hard for the average individual to recognise how and why it's different. However, it's not possible to explain away the particular applications and their properties.

Here are 2 use cases which are live and working today:

-Taking a collaterised USD loan without permission or interference from a third party.

- Creating a public digital object which lives forever and can be exchangeable and extendable without a third party involved.

The immediate response from critics then is to question the validity of the use case. But that requires to admit that the use case is there.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#404

Post by freemanon »

mikeg8 wrote: post #80
freemanon wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i suggest learning it properly before jumping to conclusions. everything has pros and cons. e.g. cars pollute but would you want to go back to riding horses? judge less, learn more

This is always the defense: “you obviously don’t understand it”. Or, maybe there is a good reason this type of article pops to the top of HN every other day. The skeptics have good reason to doubt the viability of all the hype.

is calling out oversimplifcation is also oversimplifying? i'm not arguing that there is no good reason to be sceptic, i'm calling out against forming a strong opinion strongly held on little understanding

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#405

Post by meheleventyone »

ique wrote: post #389
meheleventyone wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is how does additional fund sources prevent people from also using advertising or collecting data? For example subscription services for newspapers often still show ads. Usually additional revenue streams are used to capture more revenue. If the answer to killing the ad funding business model was individuals pay directly it’s going to face a steep uphill battle because right now for most people the cost…

> If the answer to killing the ad funding business model was individuals pay directly it’s going to face a steep uphill Indeed, we tried that and it failed, so we need something else. Blockchain will probably fail because the narrative has been taken over by greed and NFTs. But Web3 will fail because the tech world seemingly (as evidenced by the comments here) have no interest in solving the problems of Web2, rampant…

I personally think that all those things won’t be solved by technology but by social measures like regulation.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#406

Post by baby »

usrbinbash wrote: post #292
SCAQTony wrote: post #139

Very precise criticisms. I wish she would have mention her thoughts on proof-of-stake blockchains.

PoS blorkchains do not solve the first problem completely (they still require an obscene amount of power to do something that can be done way more efficient) but implement an entirely new kind of problem: The more tokens someone already had, the higher his chances in the "stake-lottery". Essentially, PoS makes sure that "he who has the gold makes the rules" becomes hardwired in the system, instead of only being a sid…

No they don’t. They’re pretty green.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#407

Post by meheleventyone »

mirzap wrote: post #393
meheleventyone wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. We got the Internet in the mid-90s and by that point all the utility was totally obvious. Even using services like Wireplay for online gaming showed the potential very clearly. As you note adoption of the Internet is way more tied up in adoption of home computing and the exponential expansion of that. It was a pre-requisite. Blockchain tech on the other hand has no pre-requisites blocking adoption, j…

This is false. You can google what people said about internet in early days. Robert Metcalfe (the inventor of Ethernet) said: "I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse" So people really didn't see potential in early days of internet, except small minority of people. We see same happening now with Bitcoin and blockchain. In 30y someone will point into some (now…

I was giving my own opinion so it by definition can’t be false. You also quote a single person and present that as general sentiment. Can you show definitively that was broadly shared?

You’re also not really addressing the factual point made which was that Internet adoption had the pre-requisite of home computer adoption. Whereas there doesn’t seem to be such a stumbling block for blockchain tech.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#408

Post by TekMol »

meheleventyone wrote: post #378
TekMol wrote: post #45

Depends on how you define early. When comparing the situation of crypto to the internet, I would say we are at around 1997 now. 1996 was the year when Yahoo went public and 2021 was the year when Coinbase went public. The usability of crypto solutions also reminds me of 1997. It is still so bad that it makes them almost unusable. Reminds me of acoustic couplers where you had to manually plug your cable bound phone in…

Adoption of the Internet had serious pre-requisites in terms of the availability of computers in the general population so it’s not really surprising. One thing that was amazing about it was our ability to reuse existing networks to connect them all together.

I would say the pre-requisites are just as high this time. Just very different.

At least you could buy a computer in the 90s.

In my country, you cannot buy crypto anywhere. You have to go through some shady KYC process of a foreign company. Me and almost none of my friends are willing to do that.

And the very few who do are not willing to sell crypto to the others "Uuhhh no, go make your own Coinbase account."

The banks are all "Yeah, we are working on it. We don't know yet when we will offer it. It will take time to figure out the legal and technical aspects.".

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#409

Post by bratwurst3000 »

disruptalot wrote: post #403

It's truly incredible that people still confidently proclaim that there is "no use case" today. Because of the technical nature of the underlying tech, it's hard for the average individual to recognise how and why it's different. However, it's not possible to explain away the particular applications and their properties. Here are 2 use cases which are live and working today: -Taking a collaterised USD loan without pe…

Thirst one…link? And still less efficient then Cryptofree technologie. Second thats how crypto works … thats not a use case cryptobro ;)

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#410

Post by meheleventyone »

TekMol wrote: post #408
meheleventyone wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adoption of the Internet had serious pre-requisites in terms of the availability of computers in the general population so it’s not really surprising. One thing that was amazing about it was our ability to reuse existing networks to connect them all together.

I would say the pre-requisites are just as high this time. Just very different. At least you could buy a computer in the 90s. In my country, you cannot buy crypto anywhere. You have to go through some shady KYC process of a foreign company. Me and almost none of my friends are willing to do that. And the very few who do are not willing to sell crypto to the others "Uuhhh no, go make your own Coinbase account." The ba…

But crypto currencies are not the only potential use of blockchains right?
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