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Web 3.0 – The Great Con

davegebler.com

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Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#81

Post by CPLX »

ThomPete wrote: post #37

99% of Web3 is crap. 1% pure gold. Same thing with the first .com bubble. AI have been through this too and is now having a revival. Blockchain and Web 3 is not going anywhere it will just not be championed by the current generation. The coming will use this as it was the most normal in the world.

That’s just wildly incorrect. The early internet was spectacularly useful.

You could suddenly order rare books, book plane flights, find song lyrics, and all sorts of stuff you had wanted to do but couldn’t.

I was there at the time. Every year like 11 new great use cases came along. It’s absolutely nothing like crypto.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#82

Post by zdw »

simple-thoughts wrote: post #42

The author is correct in almost all his criticism. However, there is an emerging core of blockchain media that is providing real entertainment value to users. Bitcoin itself can be viewed as entertainment media rather than financial disruption. Bitcoin has an entertaining albeit misleading story generating a fan club that generates plenty of drama. Web3 takes the ability for blockchain media producers to service cons…

Treating cryptocurrency as being "for the lulz" is probably one of the healthier ways to engage with it.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#83

Post by ajross »

bebtrrr wrote: post #54
ThomPete wrote: post #37

99% of Web3 is crap. 1% pure gold. Same thing with the first .com bubble. AI have been through this too and is now having a revival. Blockchain and Web 3 is not going anywhere it will just not be championed by the current generation. The coming will use this as it was the most normal in the world.

> 1% pure gold Exactly which part of Web3 are you referring to here? I've not seen anything that matches your assessment.

Presumably the brief moment where everyone thought they were going to get stinking rich.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#84

Post by jeroenhd »

juunpp wrote: post #27
yucatansunshine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait I might be out of the loop here, why's the 401(k) a con?

Well, read up on what existed before the 401k in the US, and how retirement works in Europe for comparison. You're betting on stonks going up and then switching to bonds and safer investments closer to retirement, hoping that the caprices of capitalism won't wipe your savings when you need them. Except: https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/401ks-drop-amid-market-turmoil...

European pension funds do exactly the same, the money doesn't just disappear into a vault somewhere. This is good because the profits can help combat inflation over a lifetime of work. The height of the pensions is very much dependent on market factors.

I think a bigger advantage of this system is that the money isn't your responsibility. Many people lack the fiscal responsibility to manage stocks and bonds or will do the smart thing and save up for later when they receive their pay cheque. By shifting responsibility to the individual the most vulnerable of society are most at risk of financial mismanagement and poverty during retirement or even not being able to retire at all.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#85

Post by dwgebler »

version_five wrote: post #80

Looks like this got moved off the front page which is too bad, I would love to see it plastered everywhere for a few days I watched the discussion unfold a bit and it was instructive. Obviously there were a lot of upvotes on the story because I think the thesis is basically commonsense for most people that pay attention. Except for the actual active scammers (or chumps that have somehow been had) who are quickly voti…

Tbh I'm kind of happy for my VPS it's off the front page now.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#86

Post by bigyikes »

eatsyourtacos wrote: post #39
yucatansunshine wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait I might be out of the loop here, why's the 401(k) a con?

Because the entire concept is basically designed to just make the rich even richer and puts way more risk on the individual. Instead of say, social security being significantly higher by people paying more into taxes.. we have convinced people to put money into a 401k.. which is first entirely dependent on "the market", something which is well out of peoples control. The design is that people are 'forced' to contribu…

My 401k is based on a portfolio of companies, each of which is valuable because of their success in the market. This portfolio changes over time as companies rise and fall.

My future social security is based on the promise that future taxpayers will fund it.

I’ll take my real value (401k) over the promise of value in the future (social security).

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#87

Post by qeternity »

chrismarlow9 wrote: post #75
qeternity wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Under a few of these points credit cards should not exist, yet here we are with our overlords. Such as? Credit cards provide huge UX improvements most notably convenience and security. I don't have to carry around lots of cash, and if I have an issue with a transaction, the payment processor can arbitrate the dispute.

Why can't your bank provide all these services direct to your checking account?

Because when you move money from a checking account, it's gone. You might say "ok well just hold the money for a bit" or similar, and congratulations, you've just invented credit.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#88

Post by dwgebler »

bo1024 wrote: post #66

This doesn't seem to cover any new ground or engage with anything interesting outside of finance. Is the author telling all of these researchers (Stanford, MIT, Columbia, etc) that there is nothing interesting or new in blockchain? https://adacrunch.medium.com/cryptocurrency-and-blockchain-r... Disclaimer: I have a small grant from the Ethereum Foundation to research methods of voting and governance/decisionmaking in…

I am saying there's nothing (or very little) interesting or novel in blockchain, yes. I mean that's literally in the article.

a huge ecosystem built on what is in reality a simple data structure which is neither particularly novel nor interesting

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#89

Post by chrismarlow9 »

qeternity wrote: post #87
chrismarlow9 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't your bank provide all these services direct to your checking account?

Because when you move money from a checking account, it's gone. You might say "ok well just hold the money for a bit" or similar, and congratulations, you've just invented credit.

That doesn't answer the question though.

Re: Web 3.0 – The Great Con

#90

Post by ThomPete »

CPLX wrote: post #81
ThomPete wrote: post #37

99% of Web3 is crap. 1% pure gold. Same thing with the first .com bubble. AI have been through this too and is now having a revival. Blockchain and Web 3 is not going anywhere it will just not be championed by the current generation. The coming will use this as it was the most normal in the world.

That’s just wildly incorrect. The early internet was spectacularly useful. You could suddenly order rare books, book plane flights, find song lyrics, and all sorts of stuff you had wanted to do but couldn’t. I was there at the time. Every year like 11 new great use cases came along. It’s absolutely nothing like crypto.

Not everyone agreed it was useful. That's the point.

People laughed at email, buying online, payment was even illegal in the beginning.

I was also there at the time from the very beginning.

This is the same thing. Hype, then crash then re-construction then normalized.

There is so much use for blockchain especially as infrastructure for society and in 10 years from now we will not even be thinking about it.

It's no different.

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