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Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

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Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#251

Post by jayd16 »

betwixthewires wrote: post #76
mattlondon wrote: post #67

> We need some way of saying “who we are” on the internet in a consistent manner. That way we can communicate with others in a verified way and associate with digital data that we own. We also often need that data to be interoperable between different web properties. Do we really need this? Do we really want to permanently tie identity across websites like this? I find this initial "need"/justification/requirement qu…

So the thing about this is that there is no need to permanently tie identity across all sites and services you used (and provide), rather, the ability to do so when and where you need to do it. There's nothing requiring a user to use the same identity across every service they interact with, but the option should be there. I wouldn't want my matrix username(s) and my fediverse account(s) tied to my HN username(s), bu…

It doesn't give you that ability though. The reason we use Google and Facebook OAuth is because Google and Facebook did their due diligence with the account. We would just accept any OAuth provider if we didn't care about that validation.

And again, with these web3 identities, centralized services would still be providing the authorization even if they did not provide the authentication. I don't see what web3 identities provide.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#252

Post by alisonkisk »

vsareto wrote: post #195

>The idea here is that you could give keys to your friends and family, or to some sort of business service, then if you lose your key, use your friends to “vouch” for you and move the account to a new key. >You can also do this to require approval from your friends before a certain amount of money moves out of your account, making theft significantly harder. Okay, what if your relationship with those people changes?…

No post body was provided.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#253

Post by alisonkisk »

MBCook wrote: post #160
scotu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same thought. Imagine listing all blockchains in tiny icons you scroll sideways. I suppose that can be done a lot better, but still, who decides which blockchains are included and which are not?

Because that’s insane. Normal users couldn’t deal with that. Highly technical users can’t deal with that. It’s too much of a pain in the ass. The solution is that there should only be one or two chains that everyone uses. Then there’s only one or two little icons you need. The people who run the trains could make sure they keep running by having tens of thousands of computers. Of course that cost money. Luckily they…

No post body was provided.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#254

Post by jayd16 »

serverholic wrote: post #154
roca wrote: post #138

I'm open to the idea that there are real problems that are best solved by PoW/PoS blockchains and smart contracts, so I was hoping this article would reveal one. It doesn't. As mentioned elsewhere, Persona was already a perfectly good technical solution to this, years ago. It failed for various reasons, none of which would be addressed by blockchains/smart contracts. Likewise, the problem of "conveniently and securel…

Have you actually used a web3 website? Once you have your wallet setup it's the most seamless login experience I've ever had. Also, I find it funny whenever someone says something like "web3 doesn't actually solve anything that hasn't been solved by other technologies like X". Then why isn't anyone using X? Why is nobody using Persona or Webauthn despite being "superior"?

>Why is nobody using Persona or Webauthn despite being "superior"?

Because the use case itself is flawed and niche? I don't really want my entire digital life and spending history linked and especially not on a public ledger.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#255

Post by andreilys »

luhn wrote: post #189
carlosdp wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I joined the team at Mozilla that developed Persona as an intern, just as they closed it down. Persona failed because it was fighting against a head-wind of an already established trend of using Google/FB OAuth2, without giving the service provider any new benefits. There was no incentive for a website to actually implement Persona, since it was just another auth provider and users weren't using it. Users didn't use…

> Websites that integrate web3 wallet login do get something new: built-in, straightforward payment rails. I'm not convinced it's that a large benefit. For the foreseeable future, any website that aspires to be anything more than a niche web3 player will need to support web2 auth and web2 payments. So web3 is just adding layers, not removing them. Until web3 becomes powerful enough that you're losing customers becaus…

I'm not convinced it's that a large benefit.

That's because you're not a merchant that has to deal with the monopoly of Visa/Mastercard which inflict high fees on your business and who at a moments notice can bankrupt your business by blocking all payments.

Companies that are built around "SIN" such as weed and porn have basically been strong-armed by this financial monopoly, to the point that Crypto is a welcome addition and which they offer big discounts to users who pay with it.

Additionally, cryptocurrency is not practical as a currency right now because of high transaction fees and slow settlement. This situation won't change until layer 2 networks come of age

There are plenty of L1 solutions like Solana and Avalanche which offer low txn fees and high TPS. L2 networks such as Polygon have already launched and are being used.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#256

Post by latchkey »

yosito wrote: post #108
latchkey wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? BAT was pretty profitable. Showing me a few ads as desktop notifications paid for a lot of my transaction costs in the early days. I just looked, BAT is up 754% over all time.

Twice, on different devices, I tried Brave as my default browser for month with ads turned on, and both times after a month of clicking on ads, the browser still said I had 0.0 BAT.

Sigh, not sure why my first comment was downvoted.

No idea as to why you didn't get any payments, but I do know that you don't have to click on the ads.

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026361072-Bra...

"Users are rewarded for viewing ad notifications as they appear in Brave. Users are not rewarded for clicking on ads."

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#257

Post by andreilys »

thesandlord wrote: post #156
carlosdp wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I joined the team at Mozilla that developed Persona as an intern, just as they closed it down. Persona failed because it was fighting against a head-wind of an already established trend of using Google/FB OAuth2, without giving the service provider any new benefits. There was no incentive for a website to actually implement Persona, since it was just another auth provider and users weren't using it. Users didn't use…

> Websites that integrate web3 wallet login do get something new: built-in, straightforward payment rails. Is this really any better than Apple/Google pay? Those are already set up, trustworthy, I don't need to convert my fiat into a cryptocurrency than can swing in value wildly, and it's super easy to set up with stripe or any of the other platforms that the website is probably already using.

What happens if Visa/Mastercard decides to block the merchant you want to use? Or you yourself are a merchant that gets hit with high fees simply because you're in a business that is deemed "high-risk"

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#258

Post by ShamelessC »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #150
codeptualize wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what bugs me most about this whole web3 situation, if people want to dump their money into these ponzi-scheme pump and dump bs be my guest, but then naming it web3 isn't very nice. To then attach all kinds of good qualities to it that are not shown, nor proven, and often demonstrable incorrect just finishes it off. As you say, a lot of the bigger ideas claimed to be part of this "new" web3 thing aren't new, a…

web3 = Web 4.0 I guess ? (Just like IPv5 never got anywhere ??)

Rebrand, clever.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#259

Post by Sargos »

readams wrote: post #245
Sargos wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you necessarily need blockchain. Can't you just prove that you are who you say by signing something and sending it to the service? It's important to remember that blockchains are just public-key cryptography where you have a private key that can sign things and, importantly, everyone knows everyone else's verified public keys. That's it. It solves the key distribution and verification problem that PGP…

But it doesn't solve that at all since there's no way to tie something on the block chain to the real world. All the same problems of knowing whether some particular PGP key belongs to the person you want apply the same to a wallet address.

I probably should have worded it differently to avoid that connotation. There are a lot of identity protocols but that's not what I was focusing on.

On HN I am Sargos. You know this because I am replying to you and only I can do that with this account. I can also tell you that I'm @JamesCarnley on Twitter but there's no way for you to verify that. If I were using my public key to log into HN and Twitter you would know those are both my accounts and thus my persona is verified across multiple applications. If I were to link my public key to my government's identity database then you'd also be able to verify I am really James in real life as well.

Re: Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1

#260

Post by Sargos »

accountofme wrote: post #248
Sargos wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you necessarily need blockchain. Can't you just prove that you are who you say by signing something and sending it to the service? It's important to remember that blockchains are just public-key cryptography where you have a private key that can sign things and, importantly, everyone knows everyone else's verified public keys. That's it. It solves the key distribution and verification problem that PGP…

How does everyone know everyone's verified public keys? How are they verified? Who does the verification? How do you trust the verifiers? How do you know that person x in the real world has pubkey x?

Verified probably isn't the right word here. Authentic would probably work better.

I as a person have accounts on lots of apps but no real way to prove I own all of them. When you use a public key as your identifier then everyone can verify that the entity that owns Sargos on HN also owns Blah on Reddit if I want them to. Essentially you can trust that the digital entity you are interacting with is the digital entity you knew and trusted on the rest of the web in the past.

If you are using a web3 app and see vitalik.eth then you know for a fact that it's Vitalik Buterin. Unfortunately we only know this for sure because he said that is his address in public but there are many identity protocols trying to solve this problem and if you were to tie your public key to your government's identity database then you would be able to prove real world provenance.

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