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Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

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Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#211

Post by betwixthewires »

gotaquestion wrote: post #56
seany wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a real cohort of libertarian folks who really do want digital anonymous cash replacement.

I find it endlessly amusing that the subset of libertarians who love to berate socialism "as never having worked" by pointing to Bolshevik Russia have limitless patience for the at-scale failures of crypto. Obviously not all libertarians, but quite I large number that I've bickered with on HN/Reddit.

There's a big difference here: they're both experiments, one that's already over and failed, the other that's ongoing. We have the power of hindsight with one, the other is still actively being explored. We may find one day soon that it was also a failed experiment and bad idea, but we aren't there yet.

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#212

Post by danans »

dekhn wrote: post #124
Barrin92 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal theory is that it's becoming obvious that the VC model is very limited, i.e. it largely works in sectors where you rapidly scale up a product with zero marginal costs of production which is pretty much only software, and they've run out of social networks to fund. In other sectors be it healthcare, construction, anything involving people or the 'world of atoms' as Thiel liked to put it things aren't going th…

when I worked at a VC (well, volunteered) I recall the tech investors looking at the health investors and boggling. "You ... want ... us ... to ... do ... what?" "Invest in a company and wait 20 years for it to go out of business? hell no, we invest in 10 companies, 9 fail and 1 makes a billion in their first year"

> when I worked at a VC (well, volunteered)

Sorry, since you mentioned I have to ask: Why volunteer at a VC? Shouldn't they have plenty of capital to pay you with?

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#215

Post by tacker2000 »

therealmarv wrote: post #100

I don't get the extreme positions on that. There will be some sort of web3 and will be really relevant for some bigger groups of people. Saying that it should die and (the other extreme) saying "it's the solution for everything" is just ignorant.

This is the most sensible answer. There is probably no black and white outcome here, the web3 stuff will stick around for those who want it and who want to keep it alive. If you don’t understand or need it, just ignore it.

This is just the usual “twitter bait” thats going on now. People are promoting this and then other people feel “threatened” and feel the need to take a position. Same with the whole Metaverse discussion going on now.

Next year it will be something else, ad nauseam.

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#216

Post by krzyk »

gotaquestion wrote: post #56
seany wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a real cohort of libertarian folks who really do want digital anonymous cash replacement.

I find it endlessly amusing that the subset of libertarians who love to berate socialism "as never having worked" by pointing to Bolshevik Russia have limitless patience for the at-scale failures of crypto. Obviously not all libertarians, but quite I large number that I've bickered with on HN/Reddit.

I'm amazed how many Westerners still thinks socialism is "cool".

It is not, because people are not angels. Everyone has their own goals and wants to have something only for themselves. Soviet Russia and Maos China are great examples of cool idea that has no possibility to work in reality. Because people are people, not because they "did it wrong".

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#217

Post by dmitriid »

motohagiography wrote: post #208

The quality of arguments against web3 seem related to a trend where smart people indulge in acting dumb on twitter because it feels powerful. It's just an off the cuff tweet by a giant of our age, not some ex cathedra papal bull. The basic innovation of proof of work is that it sidesteps the need to solve hard economic problems of energy storage and transmission and lets you turn energy where you find it into fungibl…

> Once we figure out solar efficiency and more efficient processors, it's how we can fund colonies on the moon, develop remote regions, and decouple some of our economic activity from geography. It's the most fundamental and pure form of value added manufacturing.

No, we can't. Becuse all energy is going towards bitcoin mining.

> maybe I just don't see how its critics are taking the other side of that bet.

There is no "other side".

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#218

Post by reflexco »

Frondo wrote: post #54
pg_bot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of these "very smart" people were just early adopters of cryptocurrencies? Usually there is a financial conflict of interest which causes people to overlook the extremely negative aspects of web3/cryptocurrencies. Anecdotally I have seen a lot of people who were previously gung-ho cash out and sour on the whole space.

My take on smart people in the crypto space comes down to the Upton Sinclair quote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Ironically the same quote also describes the extreme feelings of the opposite camp.

Established tech companies and their employees have a lot to lose if web3 and related tech would actually become successful.

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#219

Post by hbosch »

motohagiography wrote: post #208

The quality of arguments against web3 seem related to a trend where smart people indulge in acting dumb on twitter because it feels powerful. It's just an off the cuff tweet by a giant of our age, not some ex cathedra papal bull. The basic innovation of proof of work is that it sidesteps the need to solve hard economic problems of energy storage and transmission and lets you turn energy where you find it into fungibl…

I had a friend in college say to me, Web 2.0 is "more than rounded buttons". But, if you looked around in 2009, 2010... well, Web 2.0 was mainly crapware covered in rounded buttons. I guess we got... Farmville?

Similarly, if Web3 wants to be taken seriously it has to provide more than access to private Discords. NFTs are basically a digital lanyard, they get you in and around some niche areas of the web's convention center but once the big show comes and goes what's left? Web3's value prop needs to be greater than "we can see your coins".

Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire

#220

Post by runnerup »

motohagiography wrote: post #208

The quality of arguments against web3 seem related to a trend where smart people indulge in acting dumb on twitter because it feels powerful. It's just an off the cuff tweet by a giant of our age, not some ex cathedra papal bull. The basic innovation of proof of work is that it sidesteps the need to solve hard economic problems of energy storage and transmission and lets you turn energy where you find it into fungibl…

> When you view miners as electricity refineries, it's pretty simple.

What? Just use an RDBMS, it'll "refine" that electricity to the same end product millions of times more efficiently. That's the argument most Web3 critics have.

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