Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Web3 is centralized

blog.wesleyac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 497 posts

Re: Web3 is centralized

#451

Post by cuteboy19 »

88913527 wrote: post #402
chx wrote: post #288

The problem with web3 is not that it's centralized -- that's irrelevant. The fundamental problem with all crypto"currencies" is as follows: the world uses real currencies and there is only one way this enters into the world of crypto"currencies": by someone selling a coin to someone else. Thus, regardless of what crypto"currency" we are talking about, it would be a zero sum game if not for transaction fees. However,…

If you compare with other asset classes, you'll find a crisis of legitimacy in all of them. Cash: Not backed by anything but literal 'trust' in the government. It's fiat, and has been since 1971. Government Bonds: similar to cash, also relies on the trust and "too big to fail" ethos. Houses: Greater fool theory. People realized they can simply ban building them to make theirs worth more, as the remaining home supplie…

Stocks generate rent and so do houses. That is why these things can continue to grow in value without being called ponzi schemes, though there are certainly speculative phases for both. To compare these things with cryptocurrency is to show a profound misunderstanding of investment. Cryptocurrency does not generate any rent, the sole reason you buy Bitcoin is because you think you might find a greater fool to buy it from you for a higher price. This is identical to how ponzi schemes function

Re: Web3 is centralized

#452

Post by ericd »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #9

The main issue with "Web3" is that it moves records of transactions from many private places to one public place. Sure this one place may not be controlled by a single entity, but it facilitates tracking at an unprecedented level. Cryptocurrencies are the ultimate example of this and are an absolute boon to tax collectors, forensic accountants and fraudsters. In our current economy financial transactions are recorded…

I’m not an expert, but my impression is that lightning makes this not so much the case - that payments are routed through a web of peer to peer nodes and they only do periodic net settlement on the public blockchains.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#453

Post by acdha »

ThalesX wrote: post #450
shrimpx wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I chuckled and was convinced you left out the "/s" but looking at your profile you probably do find it strange.

You made me check out his profile. Do you even know what Truffle does before discrediting one of its developers?

Flip your question around: how much money does he stand to gain from selling to new adopters? Even if you’re striving to be ethical, it’s hard to stay objective when you have a substantial financial win on the line.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#454

Post by tehbeard »

darawk wrote: post #433
tehbeard wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this technology does enable something novel. Digital self-custody of scarce assets is a new thing. ... It gives you a receipt. A digital receipt. That points to a URL that may or may not exist in 10 years?

Why is everyone here so focused on NFTs? I didn't mention NFTs at all. They just happen to be the hot thing to shit on right now. I am not a fan of NFTs. But "digital receipts" are tremendously valuable. Receipts are proof of provenance. Proof of provenance is valuable in many, many applications. But anyways, that isn't the point. The type of digital self custody i'm referring to is for things like stablecoins. Stabl…

> ...Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that derives its value from some underlying external asset, like the U.S. dollar or the price of gold...

That, doesn't seem very decentralized if it has to pinned to something controlled by one entity?

Ok, so self-custody is that you've not got an account with a bank (a "vault" to keep all your money in) that they ultimately control, you're walking around with a wallet, one with a very secure clasp.

That argument kind of makes sense? But a central authority can still squeeze on you just as much, by targeting who you would trade with though, right? The ledger is public, they know who you traded with, they can make life difficult for them until you're not a customer.

> Why is everyone here so focused on NFTs?

Because that's all we here of {$coinname}Coin and blockchain currently, it is the cultural zeitgeist and the face of the tech to the broad public.

Noone's giving a simple explanation that makes sense and gives the killer app features. It's all marketing hype or five dollar words. It took me a good while to realize that "Stablecoins allow you to self-custody dollars" means "bank can't lock me out of my account"

Re: Web3 is centralized

#455

Post by xmprt »

thesuperbigfrog wrote: post #335
btdmaster wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though I generally agree with the sentiment, there is one significant use case -- transferring money across country borders. Currently, transaction fees on cash transactions are much much higher than they are on cryptocurrencies (maybe except bitcoin) and so this would mean that, in theory, they could be used as a way to transfer goods across country borders.

>> there is one significant use case -- transferring money across country borders. Currently, transaction fees on cash transactions are much much higher than they are on cryptocurrencies Ideal for malware ransom payments.

If you think malware ransom payments are the primary use case for transferring money across borders then you should get out of your bubble and make friends with people originating from other countries or with family back in those countries.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#456

Post by jakupovic »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #444
jakupovic wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blockchain is the immutable ledger, a place where if someone writes something down, it is guaranteed to not change, the immutable part. The difference between Blockchain/crypto/bitcoin and YouTube, is that the latter puts no guarantees about the content of a link, we trust Google. If you go further, the content doesn't need to be a simple url, it could be data of any type. People get stuck on "who needs to pay for ur…

>multidimensional point in the current manifestation of what we think as web3/metaverse But this is useless. The video is available with or without the blockchain. If you have DRM on the video, then you don't even need the blockchain. The blockchain can't actually do anything outside itself, and if you are trusting Metaverse.inc to enforce ownership, why can't you trust them to store it too?

The whole point is that metaverse.inc is not owned by Zuckerberg or Google, but requires consensus to be changed.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#457

Post by lgrapenthin »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #451
88913527 wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you compare with other asset classes, you'll find a crisis of legitimacy in all of them. Cash: Not backed by anything but literal 'trust' in the government. It's fiat, and has been since 1971. Government Bonds: similar to cash, also relies on the trust and "too big to fail" ethos. Houses: Greater fool theory. People realized they can simply ban building them to make theirs worth more, as the remaining home supplie…

Stocks generate rent and so do houses. That is why these things can continue to grow in value without being called ponzi schemes, though there are certainly speculative phases for both. To compare these things with cryptocurrency is to show a profound misunderstanding of investment. Cryptocurrency does not generate any rent, the sole reason you buy Bitcoin is because you think you might find a greater fool to buy it…

Cryptocurrencies do generate rent. You can lend them and collect interest on it. Houses don't grow in value because they generate rent - they are deteriorated by residents and need permanent investment in repairs to hold their value. Instead, they grow in value if their environment and surrounding infrastructur improves because more people will want to live there and offer a higher price. Likewise, if more merchants accept a coin, the coin is more valuable because its more flexible.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#458

Post by whodunnit »

deivid wrote: post #128
darawk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree completely. There is a ton to criticize about crypto and "Web3" (I hate the term, tbh). It's rife with scams and unearned wealth. Even the things that aren't outright scams are mostly people selling hype. But this technology does enable something novel. Digital self-custody of scarce assets is a new thing. A thing that nobody could do before this stuff. And if that has utility, then the infrastructure for tradi…

At least my problem with this entire ecosystem is that it enables artificial scarcity on digital goods, which wasn't really feasible before.

Isn’t artificial scarcity kind of the cornerstone of Capitalism? Producers restrict supply to maximize profits.

Re: Web3 is centralized

#460

Post by shrimpx »

ThalesX wrote: post #450
shrimpx wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I chuckled and was convinced you left out the "/s" but looking at your profile you probably do find it strange.

You made me check out his profile. Do you even know what Truffle does before discrediting one of its developers?

I didn’t mean to discredit him. The point is he’s not an unbiased observer.
Post reply on HN