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Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

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Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#91

Post by sushidev »

alphager wrote: post #90
sushidev wrote: post #53

I’d say that 95% or more is just scam. People like Sam Bankman Fried. They are all gone or dying now more or less. The strong and real businesses with profits and sustainable revenue models are still up and running. There are quite a few examples. Specifically in web3 (within the blockchain and crypto sphere): https://www.coinbase.com/web3/dapps/swappin-gifts is a real world utility web3 dapp. Maybe the first and onl…

Swappin.gifts is a dApp that allows users to purchase from a selection of thousands of different gift cards using thousands of different crypto currencies over several blockchains. Built on web3, swappin.gifts acts as a new and transformative off-ramp solution. So it's a website that exchanges crypto tokens to overpriced gift cards. Why does this need web3? This could be 3 PHP files on a VPS.

Why anything at all needs to be web3. You have to ask yourself this question. It’s quite a deep rabbit hole - you have to understand some economics and governance in macro in order to see the value. The other way to see the value is if you are unbanked - like a large percentage of the world. If you are in this group, then blockchain technology (and crypto) is a life changer.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#92

Post by ryan_lane »

alphager wrote: post #90
sushidev wrote: post #53

I’d say that 95% or more is just scam. People like Sam Bankman Fried. They are all gone or dying now more or less. The strong and real businesses with profits and sustainable revenue models are still up and running. There are quite a few examples. Specifically in web3 (within the blockchain and crypto sphere): https://www.coinbase.com/web3/dapps/swappin-gifts is a real world utility web3 dapp. Maybe the first and onl…

Swappin.gifts is a dApp that allows users to purchase from a selection of thousands of different gift cards using thousands of different crypto currencies over several blockchains. Built on web3, swappin.gifts acts as a new and transformative off-ramp solution. So it's a website that exchanges crypto tokens to overpriced gift cards. Why does this need web3? This could be 3 PHP files on a VPS.

Also, that looks like money laundering...

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#93

Post by oblio »

nailer wrote: post #75
oblio wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm new at this, I need a bag of potatoes. Where can I buy them with USDC?

Where can I buy them with Fednow?

Right now, probably nowhere, it's just being introduced.

Afterwards, if it's anything like SEPA, aside from my joke "bag of potatoes" comment, everywhere. In Europe you can make SEPA or SEPA backed transfers almost everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#94

Post by oblio »

nailer wrote: post #74
oblio wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which crypto? Where can I pay with it? What if I don't want to have a hardware wallet everywhere with me? Can I cancel transactions and get my money back? Does it use more energy per year than Argentina?

Good questions. Solana is the largest of the cheap/fast networks - I’ve worked in Solana for a year - but Aptos and Sui also have solid tech. You use Safari on your iPhone and unlock your wallet with FaceID. Right now physical stores that take USDC are generally luxury goods marketplaces, physical art galleries, and PC hardware marketplaces. No you can’t cancel transactions after you’ve made them, however there are e…

This sounds promising, I'll get back to you in 10 years.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#95

Post by egorfine »

We're doing fine.

We're in long-term, so scams and hype are something that we try to ignore as we build for practical use cases. But yes, the days of free venture money are over. These are now flowing in the direction of a different two-letter hype.

Source: I am a founder of a web3 startup that has survived a couple of crypto winters.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#96

Post by nailer »

oblio wrote: post #93
nailer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where can I buy them with Fednow?

Right now, probably nowhere, it's just being introduced. Afterwards, if it's anything like SEPA, aside from my joke "bag of potatoes" comment, everywhere. In Europe you can make SEPA or SEPA backed transfers almost everywhere.

I live in Europe and have never seen a single potato retailer advertise SEPA. Electronic payments are all Visa and Mastercard.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#97

Post by nailer »

oblio wrote: post #94
nailer wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good questions. Solana is the largest of the cheap/fast networks - I’ve worked in Solana for a year - but Aptos and Sui also have solid tech. You use Safari on your iPhone and unlock your wallet with FaceID. Right now physical stores that take USDC are generally luxury goods marketplaces, physical art galleries, and PC hardware marketplaces. No you can’t cancel transactions after you’ve made them, however there are e…

This sounds promising, I'll get back to you in 10 years.

A completely reasonable reply. There’s a lot of good tech around, it’s definitely better than HN’s 2017-era crypto knowledge, but it’s not evenly distributed at all. I agree the proof will be in a decade.

Personally I jumped into Linux when it was a joke and everyone used Solaris, Python when it was a joke and everyone used Perl, and virtualisation when nobody would ever use it outside testing. I know I’m early in crypto. I hope it will work out but there’s no guarantees on anything.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#98

Post by nailer »

ix-ix wrote: post #77
nailer wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good questions. Solana is the largest of the cheap/fast networks - I’ve worked in Solana for a year - but Aptos and Sui also have solid tech. You use Safari on your iPhone and unlock your wallet with FaceID. Right now physical stores that take USDC are generally luxury goods marketplaces, physical art galleries, and PC hardware marketplaces. No you can’t cancel transactions after you’ve made them, however there are e…

Oops, during your transfer the value of the currency is now 80% of what it was!

https://www.coinbase.com/converter/usdc/usd

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#99

Post by anacrolix »

austin-cheney wrote: post #82
anacrolix wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a solution to this in https://github.com/anacrolix/btlink . Addressing your specific points: > * No DNS It extends DNS by mapping naming over DHT, and content addressed data to a corner of the existing DNS system (.btlink is the working example given). > * No identity manager Yep > * No shared server. A server is fine so long as you are the only client that can access it as a server or other clients are curren…

My goal is to accomplish Zero Trust Conformance[1]. You cannot do that using web technologies in their current form unless you internalize the centralized aspects of those technologies or validate them under contract. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/zero-trust/zero-t... That is the Microsoft definition. The US Army is forming its own definition because aside from reliance upon cloud vendors as service…

Ok, well the certificate model I described for btlink I would considered "internalized" under your definitions.

Re: Ask HN: What happened to Web3 startups?

#100

Post by troupo »

muzani wrote: post #86
Animats wrote: post #9

See Molly White's "Web 3 is Going Just Great"[1] She keeps a tally of all the scams. The total is now over $67 billion. [1] https://web3isgoinggreat.com/

Nearly all of these are blockchain/NFT stuff and not decentralised internet infrastructure. There's probably more money stolen from physical highway construction than Web3 infra.

> Nearly all of these are blockchain/NFT stuff and not decentralised internet infrastructure.

web3 is 100% blockchain/NFT stuff (aka scams and ponzi schemes) and 0% decentralised internet infrastructure.

Also, internet infra is already decentralised.

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