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The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

mollywhite.net

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Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#261

Post by oleganza »

If you and all your family and friends live in a country with a single currency, no bombs over yours or their heads, no serious inflation and no foreseeble risk of account freezes/closures, ATM restrictions and economic sanctions, then you probably can argue that crypto is some fringe tech that brings nothing, but PITA and risks.

But many people have themselves or have family/friends that need to save their money, or escape with their money. Or, recently: escape with all banking cards being blocked and find themselves having to live off Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies are solving very real problems right now, for millions of people in Latin America, Asia and Europe:

1. They help remit money across the globe: Hawala network is way more scalable since there is a secure global settlement layer - the blockchain. No need to have 3-4 hops through trusted parties. You can directly exchange cash for bitcoin in one place and the opposite in another.

2. They help moving personal cash across the border: if you can't trust or use your bank, you won't be able to safely move more than a small pack of $$$ through customs. Crypto is your only option to save your money.

3. They help you pay the bills wherever you are regardless of your residence/visa status. You may not be able to open a bank account in a foreign country, but you would be able to book a flight, a place to live, pay for taxi, pay for cellphone, pay for food delivery through crypto-interfaces such as cheapair, travala and gift-card gateways like bitrefill to use amazon/uber/airbnb/careem and thousands of other merchants.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#262

Post by phatfish »

seanhunter wrote: post #241
Animats wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't make much sense for concert tickets, unless you want to enable scalping. The lifetime of a ticket is short.

There are people starting to use NFTs for tickets precisely to circumvent scalpers and allow a legitimate secondary market to exist in which the primary artist benefits from resales. There are real reasons for a secondary market to exist (eg you've got concert tickets and suddenly get sick and can't go or something) the problem right now is that the existing secondary market is broken so prices are insane for the rea…

Email is more operationally complex that setting up an NFT? Fan buys ticket, fan gets an email with a link to "members only club" Discord, fan goes on with their life.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#263

Post by chockchocschoir »

davenaff wrote: post #194
chockchocschoir wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First of all, 63 PB is nothing in terms of cloud storage Not sure why you would compare it to cloud storage, because it's not. Storing files in Filecoin is more like making deals with people who offer space on their hard drives (which as far as I know, doesn't exists besides Filecoin). It also doesn't make sense to compare it to something like S3 as again, it is not cloud storage.

I do think Filecoin is closer to cloud storage than 'free hard drive space'. The hardware requirements for miners (storage providers) are pretty significant and pretty much guarantee that miners are running dedicated hardware. While I'm sure some storage providers operate out of data centers, I don't think a server needs to be located in a data center to be called cloud storage.

> I do think Filecoin is closer to cloud storage than 'free hard drive space'.

But I never said it was "free hard drive space", I explicitly mentioned "deals with people who offer space".

No matter where the data is ultimately stored (in a data center or not), the method for you getting your files to X is not the same in Filecoin as in S3. With S3 you simply upload your file to S3 and you're done. With Filecoin you need to first make a deal with a miner, then you use that deal to store files within the deal you've made, which is vastly different.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#264

Post by chockchocschoir »

bawolff wrote: post #220
chockchocschoir wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First of all, 63 PB is nothing in terms of cloud storage Not sure why you would compare it to cloud storage, because it's not. Storing files in Filecoin is more like making deals with people who offer space on their hard drives (which as far as I know, doesn't exists besides Filecoin). It also doesn't make sense to compare it to something like S3 as again, it is not cloud storage.

What do you think cloud storage is? Its not literally storing things in a "cloud"; a cloud is just someone elses computer. I suppose its the difference between going to a garage sale vs corporate dept store, but at the end of the day what is the difference in the product you are getting?

> What do you think cloud storage is? Its not literally storing things in a "cloud"; a cloud is just someone elses computer.

Yeah, of course, everyone knows this, no one thinks it's some magic storage. That's not what I'm talking about.

The difference is in the interface on how you get your files to some place. With S3 you simply upload the file, and Amazon stores it for you. With Filecoin, it's simply a protocol that allows you to browse everyone who is compatible with the Filecoin protocol, then you make a deal, then you use that deal to upload files. It's like there are many operators like Amazon providing a S3 interface, but first you need to find one you like, then strike a deal.

The workflow is vastly different.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#265

Post by phatfish »

roenxi wrote: post #260
di4na wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None because if it was a high quantity method it would get regulated or banned by society The regulations exist for a reason. The reason crypto do not have them is because there is no quantity. Not because it is magically immune to existing in societies

Society has banned the consumption of illegal drugs (!). How is that ban going vis a vis shutting the market down? Ditto copyright infringement. Some things the government cannot ban. Without the ability to create and control chokepoints like banking institution, it may be impossible to stop people voting with their feet when it comes to international crypto transfers. Especially once people figure out what privacy p…

As the parent said, if Crypto ever became a threat to government control of their economies it will be regulated. In fact the blockchain protocol provides the audit trail to enable the regulation.

Any anonymous chains like Monero will be blacklisted and only exist in an island where its economy is limited to certain illegal commodities, with the off ramp to wash it clean complex.

I don't want some unknown group of Crypto Bros completely outside my control running the economy of my country. At least in a democracy the people have some control.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#266

Post by phatfish »

sneak wrote: post #237
chrischen wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PayPal and bank wire transfers still work in Ukraine, so this not a particularly good example of a crypto use case. Russian hackers demanding ransom payments in bitcoin—thereby circumventing economic sanctions—now that is a legitimately illegitimate use case for crypto.

Try sending PayPal from Russia to Ukraine. PayPal requires identity and permission. I am barred from using it, for example. No barriers to me donating to Ukraine via cryptocurrency.

Ukraine is not short of donations, they don't need money from the country currently destroying their cities and committing war crimes.

What they are asking for is more sanctions (which the Crypto utoptia is supposed to make impossible) to try and force the hand of a mad dictator without ushering in WW3.

Crypto is barely a footnote.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#268

Post by bawolff »

chockchocschoir wrote: post #264
bawolff wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think cloud storage is? Its not literally storing things in a "cloud"; a cloud is just someone elses computer. I suppose its the difference between going to a garage sale vs corporate dept store, but at the end of the day what is the difference in the product you are getting?

> What do you think cloud storage is? Its not literally storing things in a "cloud"; a cloud is just someone elses computer. Yeah, of course, everyone knows this, no one thinks it's some magic storage. That's not what I'm talking about. The difference is in the interface on how you get your files to some place. With S3 you simply upload the file, and Amazon stores it for you. With Filecoin, it's simply a protocol tha…

Vs a cloud provider where there are many companies offering such services, you pick one you like, make a deal, and then upload your file via some standardized protocol (http, ftp, scp, etc)

Not seeing the difference.

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#269

Post by chockchocschoir »

bawolff wrote: post #268
chockchocschoir wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What do you think cloud storage is? Its not literally storing things in a "cloud"; a cloud is just someone elses computer. Yeah, of course, everyone knows this, no one thinks it's some magic storage. That's not what I'm talking about. The difference is in the interface on how you get your files to some place. With S3 you simply upload the file, and Amazon stores it for you. With Filecoin, it's simply a protocol tha…

Vs a cloud provider where there are many companies offering such services, you pick one you like, make a deal, and then upload your file via some standardized protocol (http, ftp, scp, etc) Not seeing the difference.

"Making a deal" here refers to two people interacting in the terms of "Make a offer" -> Waiting time -> "Other party accepts offer" -> Waiting time -> "Upload files" while companies offering file storage is more like "Make subscription service people can sign up to" -> "Someone subscribes" -> "Upload files".

Re: The Edited Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto

#270

Post by jakupovic »

dmitriid wrote: post #255
jakupovic wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible POSIX, 50+ years later it's everywhere. Any project can only hope yo be as successful

It is actually terrible and outdated, and very few systems implement all of it.

Systems such as Linux, MacOS and windows? All terribly broken and unusable. Seriously you need better sources or more experience. POSIX is alive and doing better than ever.
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