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But, aren't you folks web2?

nadh.in

21–30 of 191 posts

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#21
There are really interesting use cases of "Web3"

As an example, consider domains.

Ethereum Name Service domains are currently one of the most popular. If you use these domains, you instantly have access to the 10,000,000 people using MetaMask, and the 50,000,000 people using Brave Browser. They're actually very powerful when considering the centralization of normal domains.

They allow you to create decentralized domains that are

- Easy to remember

These are better than onions because they're easy to remember. There's no centralized host that can try to change the address to trick other people.

- Censorship resistant

I don't think people here are unaware of how domain seizures have impacted services. The domains are controlled by records on a blockchain.

- Controllable by a single person or smart contract

Domains are controlled by private keys or smart contracts. A small group of 10 people could democratically control a domain when they don't trust each other. A DAO could control vote out the CEO that controls where a domain points, and elect a new CEO. There's lots of use cases here.

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I could write more, but I'm just trying to show that it provides use cases that Web2 does not currently.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#22

For the first time my anger over crypto moves into genuine concern. Is an entire generation of young people experiencing a kind of "pokemonisation" of crypto well into early adulthood? In other words, is a generation of 20-somethings wasting the better part of that decade on this tech, in these scams? If so, this feels new (?). We're not talking about the chain-letter crazes of the 20s/30s, the housewife pyramid sche…

I hang out in spaces for people entering tech, and I see the crypto advocates and grifters creeping in and around these spaces. It's extremely successful. Lately, I'm even seeing crypto grifts specifically aimed at people entering tech from non-traditional backgrounds, weaponising the language and discourse of diversity and empowerment to trick them into not just buying into the grift, but code the grift for them.

For someone entering tech, everything they see is new and exciting and mystical and hard to understand. Without prior context, it's hard to see why overengineered crypto nonsense is different from all the other overengineered nonsense they're learning about at break-neck speed. For many of them, the only reason to enter tech to begin with is to earn a decent living. They lack the technical background to understand if what they're being paid to build is a grift or a legitimate business, and in the current market, it's increasingly in their best interest to not understand the difference.

I believe we lost when we collectively accepted "software is eating the world" as an inevitable positive maxim of our reality. In retrospect, it seems self-evident that the end stage of this ideology-slash-self-fulfilling-prophecy is a socially-legitimized software-based "value" chain that ingests raw wealth and produces absolutely nothing of value.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#23
My kids (now late high school and college) grew up with the smart phones & social media companies. They’re pretty angry about it. Companies who’ve been so fast & loose with their data and their humanity & personage.

So while a lot of wwb3 conversations are about get rich quick crypto schemes, I think the more interesting conversations are about new models of data ownership.

Web 1 was communication via protocol. RSS & email. Web 2 was communication via ad-funded platforms. I hope we find our way back to open protocols with transparency around where & how our data is used and shared.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#24
If there is anything you take from web3 or whatever is that it is a scam.

For decades there is no use case whatsoever and it's just full of grifters trying to get rich.

I would like to challenge these grifters to name a legitimate, functional and valid use case that isn't speculation based or a scam that is part of web3.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#25
post #14

For the first time my anger over crypto moves into genuine concern. Is an entire generation of young people experiencing a kind of "pokemonisation" of crypto well into early adulthood? In other words, is a generation of 20-somethings wasting the better part of that decade on this tech, in these scams? If so, this feels new (?). We're not talking about the chain-letter crazes of the 20s/30s, the housewife pyramid sche…

I whole fully agree with you. That being said, this last sentence… > Someone needs to explain to the developing generation that this isnt the future.

I think crypto is much more like pokemon than "the internet". Much more like "coin collectables" of the 80s, than financial derivatives.

It's an attempt to destabalise domestic and international economic and financial systems that if ever even got close to being useful, would immediately be shut down.

The moment I can walk into a random shop and buy a chocolate bar with cyrpto is the moment the whole system will collapse.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#26
post #20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mastodon is not decentralized, it's federated. So no, it wouldn't fit any common definition of web3.

This. Mastodon basically shards data via instances. If someone shuts one down, the data there is gone. Plus, it's not permissionless. Most instances are invite only.

> Plus, it's not permissionless. Most instance admins first check if they like your face before you get in

Is this really a blocker? If your face is really that objectionable, you can buy your own mastodon-as-a-service for single-digit dollars per month. (1)

This doesn't seem at all "centralised" to me.

1) https://masto.host/

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#28

My kids (now late high school and college) grew up with the smart phones & social media companies. They’re pretty angry about it. Companies who’ve been so fast & loose with their data and their humanity & personage. So while a lot of wwb3 conversations are about get rich quick crypto schemes, I think the more interesting conversations are about new models of data ownership. Web 1 was communication via protocol. RSS &…

The Fediverse could be the solution.

It is kind of Web2.5 because your identity is tied to the traditional DNS system. But if decentralized domains become a thing, that would automatically make the ActivityPub protocol offer decentralized identities.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#29
I have the opposite experience. I haven't heard tech people talk about any hype new thing in years, but heard many non-tech people get into Crypto to try to get rich or tax evasion.

A couple of years ago I was hearing sometimes hype about AI, but now it seems to have cooled down a lot. Or hype about the cloud, microservices, IoT, Kubernetes. All of those seem to have cooled down too and all I see now is skepticism about them or they being used in limited project with limited objectives rather than as an objective in itself that will save us and bring a new Golden Age.

So I would argue that we are in a techno-depression or at least a techno-reasonable period, rather than on a techno-hype period. I may be wrong and this may be my limited environment.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#30

There are really interesting use cases of "Web3" As an example, consider domains. Ethereum Name Service domains are currently one of the most popular. If you use these domains, you instantly have access to the 10,000,000 people using MetaMask, and the 50,000,000 people using Brave Browser. They're actually very powerful when considering the centralization of normal domains. They allow you to create decentralized doma…

And as with anything web3/crypto, this example falls apart completely when you need to consider the reality of domain squatting, trademark issues, domain name theft etc. Cases where you need somebody (e.g. a court) to overrule code-is-law and thus invalidating the entire premise of putting it on the blockchain in the first place.
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