Pretty sure this is because markets are going down. if/when prices go up again headlines will be skepticism disappears as people get into crypto again.
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Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
31–40 of 433 posts
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#32Serious question: What problem does web3 or decentralization fix? - Oligopoly of the hyperscalers -> rent server from small provider like ovh/hetzner/netcup (there is plenty). The reason AWS, Azure and GCP are so popular is because people don't care. - Privavy intrusions -> Adblocker/DNS Blocker/Turn off JS/Use browser settings This won't be fixed by web3, ad monetization and tracking won't magically stop. They exist…
The thing that bugs me is that 25 years in the tech industry and I never heard a single person, engineer or business person, ever use the term "web 3." Then one day a few months ago it seemed like a ton of news outlets dropped articles on the exact same day which started using the term.
It smells like a made up buzz word that did not originate organically. Someone coined this termed and released a bunch of press releases to get it to catch on. I don't even know why people are giving it the time of day. It's someone's marketing speak and it smells awful.
And furthermore, decentralization is not new nor is it unique to the web, nor does this "web 3" garbage have anything to do with the web either. Web 2.0 was also buzzwordish but at least it was referring to a genuine paradigm shift in the way that websites work. The inclusion of the XHR request API in browsers and the birth of publicly available RESTful APIs that web-sites could consume which helped lead to the split between frontend and backend development as specialties that we see today (whether that's a good thing or not is another discussion).
"web 3" is just marketing PR garbage for "crypto is the next big thing ... somehow."
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#33I would separate the crypto craze from Web3 to be honest. On its face it doesn't really have to do with crypto currency at all. A centralization is otherwise no really desirable for many users.
The concept of web3 only exists to further the goals of cryptocurrency speculation, and the proposed technology is in no way distinguishable from cryptocurrency systems, so they really aren't unboxable.
Since any currency is merely an agreement about value between at least two parties, technology itself isn't going to differentiate what is and is not a "cryptocurrency" from "something using a blockchain".
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#34[deleted]
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you enumerate them?
I said "I'd argue" like I would, just as GP said "I'd argue". That means we aren't yet. I just wanted to voice that I disagreed so others could pick it up. Central point of failures, ownership, privacy, etc etc. Obvious stuff I don't want to ramble about. Only HN would try to downplay decentralization, something we know the benefits of, only to bash crypto/web3.
Actually, the benefits of decentralization are worth weighing against the costs of decentralization.
There's a reason that the process of going from web1 to web2 involved quite a bit of centralization. If web3 cannot meet its goals in a way that either maintains those benefits or creates a new benefit that substantively offsets the cost of losing them, people won't care. And if people don't care, this web3 will be as much an empty buzzword as when web3 referred to Siri and Alexa.
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#36Serious question: What problem does web3 or decentralization fix? - Oligopoly of the hyperscalers -> rent server from small provider like ovh/hetzner/netcup (there is plenty). The reason AWS, Azure and GCP are so popular is because people don't care. - Privavy intrusions -> Adblocker/DNS Blocker/Turn off JS/Use browser settings This won't be fixed by web3, ad monetization and tracking won't magically stop. They exist…
The core of it is moving money around without a payment processor. Sending money person-to-person is part of this, the other part is software than can move money natively (and more importantly, atomically with state updates in the software which isn't possible with eg Stripe API calls).
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue the opposite-the benefits of decentralization are clear and concise. edit: Central point of failures, ownership, privacy, etc etc.
What do you think those are, and how much does the average person care? The original web was more decentralized than what web3 proponents are selling, but over time users consistently chose a few major services. Why will they switch back and what will avoid that repeating again?
I guess they care how much they currently care. I don't see why that's relevant when talking about the benefits of decentralization.
"People are too stupid/naive so let's not make anything better for anyone" is essentially what I'm hearing.
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#38It’s pretty cool that I can send $1M to someone without a bank intervening, not to mention that nobody can stop the transaction from happening. And then they can print that out onto a sheet a paper and put it into a vault. Crypto is really great if you’re a drug dealer or some other kind of criminal.
That's a very disgusting generalization of the average crypto user. So since I've been using cryptocurrency for 11 years now, I am definitely a criminal or drug dealer...
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're absolutely inseparable. Web3, at least as I understand its fuzzy definition, is: websites, but... state stored on the blockchain! There are virtually 0 technical reasons for doing this—decentralization and most of the "neat" examples shown (e.g., logging into arbitrary websites without signing up) can be done much better sans-blockchain, using plain old asymmetric keys. What's motivating this is people with d…
Bitcoin doesn't have the capability to do smart contracts. There are bitcoin maximalists that are pretty anti-Web3. Jack Dorsey being one of those people.
Web3 depends on "crypto" (blockchains). "Crypto" does not depend on Web3.
Re: Web3 and crypto skepticism is growing and people are finally starting to listen
#40Crypto has only existed during the greatest and longest bull market of all time. Jury is still out on whether it can survive a prolonged bear market. Web3 consequently is also bound by this. If people are still interested in Web3 when crypto goes down 10% YoY forever then maybe there’s some inherent value there.
in theory, web3 has nothing to do with cryptocurrency per se, and only relies on some blockchain technology, which is itself not bound to the value of the currency it is used by. however, the fact that too many people seem to think that there is in fact a connection between web3 and crypto currency just adds to the smell.
How do you reconcile the fact that most of Web3 is built on Ethereum which only works because miners ("soon to be" stakers) are rewarded for running the blockchain?