Can we stop talking about web3 unless we're talking about an actual spec, service or product?
Sorry, there are none. Only premined ICO scams, crypto speculation and NFT scams/speculation.
Why Web3?
161–170 of 706 posts
Re: Why Web3?
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Most of the decentralization talk is Kabuki and it's still about controlling the platform.
Indeed, a world ruled by feudal lords and corporate fiefs still possesses as little liberty as one ruled by a centralized empire.
Less liberty really as the ability of corporations to intervene in your life far surpasses the capacity feudal states had on a day-to-day basis.
Re: Why Web3?
#163The biggest issue I see for web3 and permissionless data is the same issue we complain about with the Facebook debate...
How do we manage the tradeoff between misinformation and censorship?
Permissionless swings the pendulum to one extreme which would seem to lead to an existential dilemma.
Re: Why Web3?
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a very limited database that is very slow and scales poorly.
The currently most popular implementation of this "open database" (Bitcoin) is indeed slow and scales poorly. But if you start looking into the new ideas, you'll find there are plenty of still decentralized blockchains with much faster confirmation times (even as low as 5 seconds) today.
The amount of space in a Bitcoin block is around 7 TPS.
Other blockchains make decentralization tradeoffs to process more transactions on-chain per second. For example, Ethereum requires better hardware: larger storage, better CPU and more memory. Solana makes even larger tradeoffs: expensive server hardware costing up to $25000, making it pretty much a central service controlled by the few.
The key innovation of Bitcoin is the decentralization; almost anyone can participate and no one can control it. Sacrificing this for negligble is not worth it. Especially since there are smarter ways to scale the system. Even if you could improve throughput by 100x by making the system slightly less decentralized you would still not reach VISA levels of TPS.
The correct way to scale these systems is using off-chain solutions like the Lightning Network. This way you can process millions of transactions per second.
Re: Why Web3?
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Web3 is federated, not decentralized. The distinction is significant.
I like this distinction, but I will note that not all web3 is federated or decentralized. It has been become more of a marketing word for projects which both do and don't adhere to the foundations.
That's a problem I see, too.
A lot of things are far less decentralized/federated in practice then they claim to be.
It's not uncommon that some of the points why something is federated or even decentralized are only there in hypothetical scenarios (let's say in theory) which just don't happen in practice. Not because they technically can't, but because there are no marked dynamics insensitiveing it (probably more the opposite).
Re: Why Web3?
#166I don't like how the extreme hatred toward Web3 has spiraled into "I see no practical application for decentralization". Crypto and blockchain aside, how can you not see the utility in an open firehose database/API without gate keepers? Don't conflate decentralization with blockchain.
Anything "web scale" without gatekeepers is immediately colonized by criminals, neo-Nazis, redpill edgelords, pedophiles, and all other such manner of people who are always looking for a new place to exist after being kicked out of every other one.
Unmoderated discussion doesn't scale. The noise floor rises faster than the population of the service until it collapses under the weight of the trolls.
Re: Why Web3?
#167This argument is simple, but forgets that the Internet has essentially had permission-less databases before, notably in IRC, XMPP, and email. Anyone can run an IRC or XMPP node, anyone can run email. The protocols are open and free (as in money) to use. But time and again the masses of Internet users choose centralized alternatives. It's interesting to see this already playing out in the Web 3 space. Users concentrat…
I think the argument made implicitly is that with web3 you could actually monetize your contribution. If you run an IRC server you (usually) only have cost. One part of web3 is tokens so you can actually earn some fake money by running an IRC server. I think if you look at the economics of that though I don't think it will turn out in your favor. You are either making 10ct a month from it or you'll have to heavily in…
I remember so much of the time I spent on IRC and XMPP overlapped with the period in my life when I had the fewest financial resources. It would have been net negative for me if the popular chat spaces had been accompanied by any kind of toll.
Re: Why Web3?
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just explained why it is. A one line response of "nuh uh" is not convincing.
Its an analogy and diverts from the original point. We were talking about how you were going to solve double spends without a chain. You point about minting another is an interesting point but its not a double spend so we veer off the topic. If we take your point then its the same as saying anyone can create a new crypto and call it Bitcoin. If I have an OG Bitcoin and you have a fake one then you can steel my real o…
> We were talking about how you were going to solve double spends without a chain.
"Double spend" is a cryptocurrency problem, NFTs do not have this problem since unlike "currencies" the goal is to create a "non fungible" record of ownership for an off-chain asset; a chain of digital signatures satisfies this need, the double spend issue is not relevant to the stated use-case.
Re: Why Web3?
#169I think it's really easy to be doubtful about web3, especially given how much BS is floating in the space, and the high amount of pure speculative trades having been made so far. I still believe that there's something there, but I'm not sure what it is. I am also unsure that the current wave of companies will be able to find it. The different between the early adoption of web2 and this current web3 cycle is that web2…
> Perhaps specific aspects of crypto (e.g. NFT used for real estate transactions) will be the killer app? I consider myself to be very good at security, offsite encrypted backups, managing private keys, and other opsec details. But there's no way I'd ever want the ownership of my house or cars or other property controlled by an NFT. If something happens to my private keys, am I stuck with the house forever? If my pri…
> But there's no way I'd ever want the ownership of my house or cars or other property controlled by an NFT.
+1. My dad died in 2015 and the lawyer who held his Will had apparently gone out of business in the early 00s. I spent a lot of time in the probate courts but was eventually able to gain access to the assets so I could clear the estate, settle his debts, and put him to rest. Arbitrated reversibility and sanctioned transfer of title is a feature, not a bug...I feel that point often gets lost in the web3 debates.
Re: Why Web3?
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Decentralized trust could be great, but I wonder how much time actually needs to be spent talking about it vs. actually building it... And the order of operations. Traditionally, you build something great (or an MVP) and market it. The crypto community has been putting the marketing before the building. It's probably uncontroversial to say although cryptocurrency -could- do great things, right now the bulk of trade…
I read an article recently which claimed that the majority of transaction volume is not speculation, but scams, fraud and similar. Like e.g. pyramid schemes. And that is where an average football fan needs crypto, to provide more monetary volume for scams and speculators manipulating the marked to siphon of. Or at least that was the take of the article, I'm not completely sure in either direction.
The difference between "speculation" and "scams, fraud, and similar" is in the eye of the beholder. Lots of people find all crypto to be a giant scam, others find all of it to be a potential investment (hopefully with the understanding that the long-tail of individual investments in the space will go to zero).