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Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

vitalik.eth.limo

241–250 of 515 posts

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If their vision is "applications" it feels like any price is too high. Would you sign up for hn if it cost 5 cents? Even though that is nothing in terms of money (for most of us), the friction of money actually being involved in and of itself probably makes it not worth it. Especially when its just a silly internet thing.

It's not just sign up though, it's posting comments, upvoting, etc. Every "write" becomes a transaction, many with their own tokens. > the friction of money actually being involved ... makes it not worth it This is it. There are very few people who live for this level of financialisation.

That's not how it works, not every interaction needs to be onchain

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#242
post #181

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One of the things that made me less skeptical of Ethereum was that Vitalik has consistently argued based on his view of "Ether as digital oil to power the blockchain", which is to say that the point is not to just hodl, but to create a core technology that can enable different applications. I still think that we should not forget the "I need a censorship-proof way to send money to someone overseas" story, but mostly…

>the point is not to just hodl, but to create a core technology that can enable different applications This is has been said about every coin since the beginning of crypto.

Absolutely not. Bitcoin's initial narrative was "digital cash", i.e, digital payments and microtransactions. Given that transaction costs became prohibitive, it switched to "digital gold", or store of value, meaning that Bitcoiners defend the idea that Bitcoin's reason d'être is just to hold it.

I've never seen Vitalik or any of the core Ethereum developers talking about the value of Ether being a fundamental metric of any kind. The incentives are made in a way to maximize utility of the blockchain, not the value of its base currency.

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The day a network exists where you can reliably send like $0.001 of value with little/no fees is the day the internet changes forever. So many ideas are infeasible right now because CC fees are high, and making any payment is extremely high friction.

This is something that feels pretty lost in most modern crypto discussion. It's evident in literally the first line of the bitcoin whitepaper: "A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution" If paying a random person online was as easy as dropping a quarter in a cup the internet could be a very d…

I think the part about not going through a financial institution is brought up pretty often, but that line doesn't mention the payment being especially small or quick.

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#244

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Just because you're unfamiliar with the technology doesn't mean it's nonsense. The failing is yours in actually looking into these things rather than trying to be funny. If you explain to most people how a TLS handshake works it will sound to them as equally nonsensical. This technology is complicated, this article is targeted at an audience that understands the technology, not one that needs a "My first introduction…

TLS handshake actually makes sense for average programmers who understand basic cryptography. Ethereums problem is that it is a badly designed clusterfuck. The newer blockchains will likely take over.

That's a pretty bombastic claim with no supporting evidence. What exactly makes the design a clusterfuck, and what do newer chains do that is a significant improvement?

So far all of the alternative chains have been plagued with downtime and centralization of nodes into supernodes (at least in the ones that weren't centralized from the start).

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#245

All this crpyto technology is fascinating. But is it used for anything? I asked this in an Ask HN today, but got no answer so far: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39852389 It looks like not a single HN reader is using blockchain technology for anything. If nobody is using blockchain technology outside of blockchain projects, what are the reasons we expect that some day we will? What could be a near term use case…

Here's a bunch of usecases I put together a while ago https://gist.github.com/hanniabu/32b0f933618a3229efe3fbc01cb...

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#246

As far as I can tell, the only cryptocurrency that actually delivers on its name (i.e. being used as a currency) is Monero. Sure, it's all drugs and stolen credit cards, but it does undeniably solve a real world problem for its users instead of just being used as a vehicle for speculative investment. With that said, I think if anyone comes up with a "killer-app" for crypto, then it'll be on the Ethereum chain. They s…

One of the things that made me less skeptical of Ethereum was that Vitalik has consistently argued based on his view of "Ether as digital oil to power the blockchain", which is to say that the point is not to just hodl, but to create a core technology that can enable different applications. I still think that we should not forget the "I need a censorship-proof way to send money to someone overseas" story, but mostly…

That's what Bitcoin used to be about, before its development team was taken over and it was crippled.

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#247
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Ether as digital oil to power the blockchain” This has made you less skeptical of what he’s peddling? That slogan is a series of red flags in only eight words. He could be selling actual snake oil.

Actual snake oil has actual benefits. It's fake snake oil you want to avoid. Effect of Erabu Sea Snake (Laticauda semifasciata) Lipids on the Swimming Endurance of Mice https://karger.com/anm/article-abstract/51/3/281/41756/Effec...

The origin story of the snake oil trope is kinda cool. Apparently the concept was brought over to the US by Chinese railroad workers. It was made from the oil of the Chinese water snake which is high in omega-3's that actually do reduce inflammation. Unfortunately there were no Chinese water snakes in America, and the American hucksters started juicing rattlesnakes. And then... other even cheaper substitutes like beef tallow, mineral oil and turpentine. [1]

I suspect the Erabu sea snake is the Chinese water snake that was originally juiced? I don't think rattlesnake oil would have the same effect :)

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/26/215761377...

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#248
post #157
post #151

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That's not a killer app. We already have money transfers.

Providing global instant settlement for sub-cent fees? Doubt it.

Then you believe people will use this at a scale worthy of being called a killer app?

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imo this is less of a technical issue and more of a regulatory one in 2024. Sending and receiving large amounts of btc/eth for instance might take a minute. For lower value point of sale transactions you don't really have to wait. And that's money in your pocket at that point not an IOU like a pending transaction at a US bank. Paying capital gains on transactions and constantly changing value dampens adoption quite a…

You could maybe call it a technical issue or an issue of adoption but the fact is that no one is scanning Monero wallet QR codes to buy coffee.

Capital gains tax is not a technical issue per se. People also don't buy coffee with wire transfers, but nobody says wire transfers are a failure. btc/eth are better at doing what wire transfers were designed to do. The point is the tech is much better than people who have been sleeping on crypto seem to realize

Re: Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here?

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As far as I can tell, the only cryptocurrency that actually delivers on its name (i.e. being used as a currency) is Monero. Sure, it's all drugs and stolen credit cards, but it does undeniably solve a real world problem for its users instead of just being used as a vehicle for speculative investment. This is exactly my use case (the former not later) with Monero and it's been amazing. Only marginally more difficult…

So you pay with monero but you still need to give them an address to ship to which some probably store somewhere where the police might eventually find it ? I guess depending on the local police the chances of that leading to any trouble are lower than getting stabbed by a tweaker when you go out into the community to purchase your stuff

Would probably be a lot harder for police to do anything since you could argue someone else did it in an attempt to get you in trouble or whatever.
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