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

But, aren't you folks web2?

nadh.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 191 posts

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#81

Post by World177 »

pavlov wrote: post #79
World177 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brave Browser states 50M monthly active users [1] and MetaMask states 30M monthly active users. [2] The Chrome extension shows 10M+ [3] which is the source I used. It seems like Daily Active Users (DAU) is more often used than Monthly Active Users (MAU), so I maybe should have stated that in my comment. [1] https://brave.com/2021-recap/ [2] https://decrypt.co/95039/metamask-consensys-30-million-users [3] https://chro…

Ok, thanks, that's useful! I'm glad Brave is doing well. It's not a product for me, but anything that reduces consolidation in the browser market is welcome. To my knowledge, the Chrome Web Store user count represents the number of users with the extension installed who have opened Chrome in the past 7 days. So the 10M+ number for MetaMask includes everyone who installed the extension but isn't actually using it. (Th…

> To my knowledge, the Chrome Web Store user count represents the number of users with the extension installed who have opened Chrome in the past 7 days. So the 10M+ number for MetaMask includes everyone who installed the extension but isn't actually using it.

It's active by default on all websites. As long as it is active, a user can resolve linked ENS domains.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#82

Post by varispeed »

This concept of web3 makes no sense to me. It seems like these are "regular" concepts with blockchain shoehorned in. For instance, I see some web3 messaging thing and it always fails to explain why the blockchain is there for. Sometimes it feels they create a problem only to justify adding crypto to it, when it could be pulled out and replaced with "traditional" tech, but I guess that wouldn't make gullible investors to part with their money?

What am I missing?

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#83

Post by paulgb »

Ambolia wrote: post #29

I have the opposite experience. I haven't heard tech people talk about any hype new thing in years, but heard many non-tech people get into Crypto to try to get rich or tax evasion. A couple of years ago I was hearing sometimes hype about AI, but now it seems to have cooled down a lot. Or hype about the cloud, microservices, IoT, Kubernetes. All of those seem to have cooled down too and all I see now is skepticism ab…

I wouldn’t say AI hype has cooled down; things like Stable Diffusion, Dall-E, large language models, etc. have captured people’s imagination about AI. If anything, it seems like a lot of the crypto hype has been usurped by AI as the market slumped (and as GPUs became affordable again)

I agree that Kubernetes isn’t as hip as it used to be, but that’s mainly because it’s already ubiquitous in enterprise. It lived up to its goal, it doesn’t need the hype.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#84

Post by sebastialonso »

a_c wrote: post #13

Isn't it happening all the time? Web3, crypto, AI, kubernetes, microservices, docker, server side rendering, SPA, react, graphql, backend in frontend, DevOps, DevSecOps, fullstack, mongodb, new features in mongodb that mimic sql, Restful, mobile, django/rails, agile, kanban. Some of them make sense, some of them make sense for some of the people, some will be forgotten from history. And those forgotten, will reemerge…

Some of these things are not like the others, Some of these things just doesn't belong

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#85

Post by mfbx9da4 »

Zanfa wrote: post #30
World177 wrote: post #21

There are really interesting use cases of "Web3" As an example, consider domains. Ethereum Name Service domains are currently one of the most popular. If you use these domains, you instantly have access to the 10,000,000 people using MetaMask, and the 50,000,000 people using Brave Browser. They're actually very powerful when considering the centralization of normal domains. They allow you to create decentralized doma…

And as with anything web3/crypto, this example falls apart completely when you need to consider the reality of domain squatting, trademark issues, domain name theft etc. Cases where you need somebody (e.g. a court) to overrule code-is-law and thus invalidating the entire premise of putting it on the blockchain in the first place.

So much this!

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#86

Post by pavlov »

World177 wrote: post #81
pavlov wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, thanks, that's useful! I'm glad Brave is doing well. It's not a product for me, but anything that reduces consolidation in the browser market is welcome. To my knowledge, the Chrome Web Store user count represents the number of users with the extension installed who have opened Chrome in the past 7 days. So the 10M+ number for MetaMask includes everyone who installed the extension but isn't actually using it. (Th…

> To my knowledge, the Chrome Web Store user count represents the number of users with the extension installed who have opened Chrome in the past 7 days. So the 10M+ number for MetaMask includes everyone who installed the extension but isn't actually using it. It's active by default on all websites. As long as it is active, a user can resolve linked ENS domains.

Right — I actually forgot we're talking about ENS, not wallet users.

The 60M+ user base for ENS-enabled browsers is a genuinely impressive number. But at the same time it's about 1.1% of the world's total internet users. In terms of reach, it's basically like making your product a desktop Linux app — it might be the right choice for some niche, but not for any mass market.

For the actual ENS lookup, I presume Brave and Metamask actually call a service like Infura? It feels like that's a step back for decentralization compared to plain old DNS.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#87

Post by paulgb »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #35
mjburgess wrote: post #4

For the first time my anger over crypto moves into genuine concern. Is an entire generation of young people experiencing a kind of "pokemonisation" of crypto well into early adulthood? In other words, is a generation of 20-somethings wasting the better part of that decade on this tech, in these scams? If so, this feels new (?). We're not talking about the chain-letter crazes of the 20s/30s, the housewife pyramid sche…

Capitalism means that the best and the brightest are working on what makes the most money not on what society needs. However one should not overstate sociopaths. Lots of people are still going into healthcare or teaching because there's more to life than money.

The tragic irony is that many of those teachers’ pension funds were the very ones making it lucrative for sociopaths to build crypto companies by blindly throwing money at them.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#88

Post by greybeardednyc »

I definitely get the whole “web3” is useless argument for a lot of the cases it’s been proposed but like any new technology I think it may find valid use cases somewhere down the line.

One of the few uses for which I am interested is “web3” identity - being able to keep ownership of my identity/credentials. Using, for example, a wallet to sign a message proving I own an address, I can build apps that don’t require me to store any passwords (and not rely on a “trusted” 3rd party to do so either). My app can just store the wallet address (like a username).

To build on this, if that wallet has data associated with it (“assets” it holds) for example, an ENS name, my app can pull that data directly from the contract onchain - instead of showing a public key I can show the users chosen display name, avatar, etc

I’m an old school dev and I wrote off “crypto” for many of the same reasons a lot of you have stated but I have realized there are some interesting cases that could emerge from its usage. Zk (zero knowledge proofs) as a means of reducing the amount of PII data that needs to be exposed to random parties also seems to have some good use cases.

Alas “value” aka money being associated with the usage/tokens makes the landscape much harder to navigate and much more prone to exploitation.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#89

Post by web3isgoing »

Zanfa wrote: post #30
World177 wrote: post #21

There are really interesting use cases of "Web3" As an example, consider domains. Ethereum Name Service domains are currently one of the most popular. If you use these domains, you instantly have access to the 10,000,000 people using MetaMask, and the 50,000,000 people using Brave Browser. They're actually very powerful when considering the centralization of normal domains. They allow you to create decentralized doma…

And as with anything web3/crypto, this example falls apart completely when you need to consider the reality of domain squatting, trademark issues, domain name theft etc. Cases where you need somebody (e.g. a court) to overrule code-is-law and thus invalidating the entire premise of putting it on the blockchain in the first place.

Why does a decentralized protocol need to be amenable to these disputes? Saying “we will have a jury of appointed authorities to manage disputes” defeats the point, and is what ENS tries to avoid.

If apple.eth is held by a squatter, should courts be able to override the protocol to send it to trademark holder Apple? In the end this can get resolved by regular dispute mechanisms but without compromising decentralization and integrity of the protocol.

Re: But, aren't you folks web2?

#90

Post by Barrin92 »

it's an actual plight on the industry. There's now even universities who teach these nonsensical web3 courses that look more like influencer training than computer science. Just out of interest I attended a "web3" conference months ago and that's literally all it was. Hucksters, grifters, social media personalities, bizarre companies where you can't tell what they do even if you talk to them for an hour, and so on.

It makes one embarrassed to work in the field and you really have to ponder how much damage this does in the long term when vital talent is drawn away from engineering and the sciences to this grift.

Post reply on HN