Is it possible to be in the middle? I LOVE the idea of cryptocurrency, Web3 and DeFi. I HATE that a ton of activity in the space is scammy.
Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
281–290 of 316 posts
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have read plenty about them and it's still possible to track those coins through various means using various pieces of metadata. The worst problem with them is probably that the privacy gains are basically useless if you ever plan to cash out on a legitimate exchange. >But it's not essentially true, and with education, & software, & further technical advances, far more privacy than we have now is possible Yeah and…
Before, I could think you were simply misinformed. But when you say "I have read plenty about them and it's still possible to track those coins through various means using various pieces of metadata", you're either lying or unable to understand what you've read. I could give you my Zcash z-address right now, & there's no way known to cryptographic science for you to know its balance, when and how much ZEC it has rece…
I have spread no falsehoods. None of what you're saying matters, you're still hung up on what's technically possible in ideal circumstances when that's irrelevant to most people, it's irrelevant to most users of security software, and even most users of Zcash. Everything you're saying is technically correct and I agree with it but you've missed the basic point which is how that only applies if you only conduct every transaction in your whole life in Zcash using z addresses and you never plan to cash out or comply with accounting laws, which nobody does and will never actually happen on a large scale because it's inconvenient and unrealistic. If you actually do that you'd be the first person I've ever heard of, so I hope you can understand how unusual that is and how pointless it is for you to be trying to push this angle. Just stop, the harm you're doing from this is much worse than anything I could possibly say. You could actually stand a chance to convince me of whatever it is you're trying to say if you didn't take this very bad angle of trying to dump theory on people when you very well know that's unrealistic, combative and not convincing. Why are you doing this? Please just have a normal discussion and stop with this. You're clearly a very smart person and you don't need to resort to this negative attitude.
This is a general problem with zero knowledge proofs by the way, you can use them all you want but they ultimately mean nothing when some other party that actually has the knowledge leaks it. And since the blockchain is required to be public there's going to be so much publicly generated metadata available that it eventually makes no difference what you hide behind a ZKP, the information leaks are built into the system. The weirdest and most self-defeating part of your comment is this:
>would only indicate that I have interacted with the network, and likely sent transactions at cerain times
Sorry but this is identifying metadata. It gives away a lot about you depending on who you are. I don't know why you wrote this and then wrote the rest of your comment trying to claim that I'm promoting falsehoods, when you refuted yourself in your own comment! I hope you were honest and forthcoming about these problems in your advisory position.
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#283For those who don't know web3 is the idea of building a web on a decentralized blockchain. I think more specifically the idea is to replace the need for name servers with a blockchain protocol. Like anything blockchain there is no real solution for how to handle records becoming stale over time without a central authority that manages disputes. I find it ridiculous that this idea even got to occupy the name as I thin…
But from what I've read, there is still reliance on centralised APIs which still run on traditional servers and infrastructure. https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might be right. But just like crypto bros co-opted the term, it could very well be co-opted again by whatever tech seems like the next big thing after "everything is blockchain" fades into obscurity
I suspect the term will have become tainted before that happens. "Metaverse" has turned into hollow nonsense within the last few months. But what do I know? I'm still sore that "content creator" now means "social media person" rather than "someone who creates content".
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Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Scarcity is bad. We could just print money and all be rich? If you value money, and you think that compensation for work can be paid with money, then compensating the work that went into creating digital goods seems appropriate. Should compensation for digital goods be through donations?
> compensating the work that went into creating digital goods seems appropriate. Should compensation for digital goods be through donations? I consume digital goods all the time, and I pay for them with money. Money is an inflationary asset that I keep in order to pay people. It is not an investment, it's value (in my country, the US) is stable, and I get paid in money. There is no cryptocurrency that shares these ch…
> I consume digital goods all the time, and I pay for them with money.
Do you have an example of one that's not digitally scarce or donation based? Or is donation the future?
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
Before, I could think you were simply misinformed. But when you say "I have read plenty about them and it's still possible to track those coins through various means using various pieces of metadata", you're either lying or unable to understand what you've read. I could give you my Zcash z-address right now, & there's no way known to cryptographic science for you to know its balance, when and how much ZEC it has rece…
I have spread no falsehoods. None of what you're saying matters, you're still hung up on what's technically possible in ideal circumstances when that's irrelevant to most people, it's irrelevant to most users of security software, and even most users of Zcash. Everything you're saying is technically correct and I agree with it but you've missed the basic point which is how that only applies if you only conduct every…
Your claim was that it was possible to “track those coins”.
Your insistence, wordiness, & goalpost-shifting can’t cover up that you’re trying to assertively bluff knowledge of things you don’t understand, like a child trying to pretend they’re an adult. The adults aren’t fooled!
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is beautiful.
its the web3 equivalent of an antique that failed to sell on ebay. interesting, but it's easy to draw wrong conclusions like "nfts are dead". market size and volume tell a different story.
Oh I'm very aware that it doesn't tell the whole story. I think that some guy who thought he would strike it huge by buying Jack Dorsay's tweet in NFT form then resell it multifold while donate half the profits to a charity then realizing he way overpaid for it feels like a good story to me on it's own. It's a great analogy for the market but probably not accurate on the whole.
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to be clear, I have no idea who those people are or what their accomplishments are, but I do know and trust Guido's 1) intellect, and 2) judgment, so I'm inclined to trust a known factor over three unknown ones. And he's known for good reason. Reputation is a thing. I figure I'm not alone.
There's much better arguments for/against crypto than appeals to authority. Consequently, you then cited an appeal to majority to defend your appeal to authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum Granted, the crypto debate on HN is pretty well hashed & Guido's tweet doesn't add anything to the discussion besides making clear where he stands on th…
I don't care about logical fallacies in this case because the world doesn't work in a purely logical way. If programming was purely logical, it wouldn't be so fad-driven, for instance. And reputation ends up being one of the best ways to filter out useless noise in basically every useful discovery system we programmers have come up with.
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. If the OP were implying that, what would you say to that?
That it doesn't seem to be generally true, and is incredibly rare... so the real issue seems to be that people outside of the Silicon Valley VC scene can get rich "without doing actual work"?
I don't think it's incredibly rare, I've known plenty of people to start with nothing and get "rich", as in, worth enough to retire by 40. Unless your idea of rich is like 7 zeroes.
Re: Guido van Rossum: Let Web3 die in a flaming ball of fire
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
its the web3 equivalent of an antique that failed to sell on ebay. interesting, but it's easy to draw wrong conclusions like "nfts are dead". market size and volume tell a different story.
Oh I'm very aware that it doesn't tell the whole story. I think that some guy who thought he would strike it huge by buying Jack Dorsay's tweet in NFT form then resell it multifold while donate half the profits to a charity then realizing he way overpaid for it feels like a good story to me on it's own. It's a great analogy for the market but probably not accurate on the whole.
right, can't imagine whats going through their mind right now.
he could have gotten a reasonable price (though perhaps still a loss) if he tried to list with sotheby. curation matters.