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Is Web3 anything?

chris-granger.com

441–442 of 442 posts

Re: Is Web3 anything?

#441
post #298
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also add that one of the big fallacies/deceits of blockchain is that it does not allow trustless transactions as the article author suggests, it simply shifts the trust. In the author's example of gathering funds to renovate a neighbourhood park, you'd still need to trust that the contract developers hadn't made a unfixable bug or deliberate backdoor, you'd still have to trust your neighbours to not screw up when…

Great example. I would add here a problem that blockchain solution does not solve and I might say it even makes it hard to fix (but I might be wrong as I don't work with blockchain so maybe I am missing something): This Smart contract about fixing the park is a virtual thing. But if someones does this kind of job then in real life there is usually someone else who will accept and sign that the work was done according…

This is another intractable problem with blockchain and cryptocurrencies, known as "the oracle problem" - in order to do something useful in the real world, it has to interact with the real world in some way. There are various schemes to try to offer solutions for automatable processes, but when human decision-making is involved data still has to come from humans who are "off-chain", i.e. have no direct link with the blockchain or cryptocurrency platform.

Re: Is Web3 anything?

#442
post #68

Escrow services do exist, and usually one of the parties has more power over the transaction than the other. Either the buyer or the seller can cheat the other one out of their money or goods. How do you prove that the package didn’t just contain a heavy brick instead of the promised tablet? I‘m not convinced this can be solved by any kind of contract.

This. The requirement for trust is not eliminated just shifted. That’s the elephant in the room.
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