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First impressions of Filecoin

71 points by imrehg 8y ago

nicolashahn 8y ago
Oof. Manual price setting for the storer/miner, manual storer selection for the user... Pretty large barriers to mainstream adoption. I'd think that in order for that to happen, both of these would be totally automatic. Still needs a lot of work.
- Ajedi32 8y ago
  Which seems totally expected given that the current release was explicitly stated as being "for development".
mimixco 8y ago
The TL;DR: Definitely not ready for primetime. So many crypto projects lack tooling or a real UI. This is sad and earmarks the distinction between hobby level tools and those which can be used by regular people.
- enraged_camel 8y ago
  I think that’s a false dichotomy. Plenty of projects used by regular people have atrocious UIs.
  - mimixco 8y ago
    Indeed. But the learning curve for the current set of crypto wallets and tools is too high to allow any widespread adoption. These cannot be products for devs only or they will never take off. If you want a $1B product to pursue, someone should built decent tooling for crypto.
- momentmaker 8y ago
  Maybe it's a combination of both the bad UI and lack of real use cases. After all, if there is a real demand for decentralized storage space, then it doesn't matter the UI, people will still use it even if it's in beta. The lever just hasn't been tilted enough with a real immediate need.
  - mimixco 8y ago
    I don't think so. You have to have simple UI's and basic tooling before anyone other than hardcore devs will be interested. Everything we do with modern website tooling like Shopify was also possible in 1995, but it was too dev-heavy. (I've been in that business since that date.) The demand was there but the barriers to entry were too hard to overcome. Fix crypto's UIs and you'll see wider adoption.
Ajedi32 8y ago
Seems a little odd to devote so much of the article to evaluating the user interface when the current release is aimed at "developers, researchers, and community members who want to help _make_ Filecoin"[1]. Still, I can see the potential. One thing I'm still not sure of is how Filecoin compares with Sia. Based on the articles I've read so far it seems very similar (except that Sia is older so its tooling/UI is obviously much more mature). Are there any fundamental differences I may be missing? [1]: https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-repos/ https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-repos/
- hndamien 8y ago
  The main difference is the proof of work algorithm relies on proof of storage.
rmorey 8y ago
Nice article! Thanks for taking the time to write up such a thorough summary
Proven 8y ago
Just like I thought. Most people rightly expect something like "a GUI for a decentralized S3" but instead - for the foreseeable future - they should be ready to spend many hours on the forums before they can squeeze out a tiny bit of value out of this thing. In reality best case scenario might be Filecoin becomes a bubble (like Sia did) and early adopters get rewarded for their suffering by getting the heck out near the peak. After years of trying similar projects, I lost interest in them. Too much hassle for a normal busy user who has a life.

71 points by imrehg 8y ago

Oof. Manual price setting for the storer/miner, manual storer selection for the user... Pretty large barriers to mainstream adoption. I'd think that in order for that to happen, both of these would be totally automatic. Still needs a lot of work.

Ajedi32 8y ago
Which seems totally expected given that the current release was explicitly stated as being "for development".

mimixco 8y ago

The TL;DR: Definitely not ready for primetime. So many crypto projects lack tooling or a real UI. This is sad and earmarks the distinction between hobby level tools and those which can be used by regular people.

enraged_camel 8y ago
I think that’s a false dichotomy. Plenty of projects used by regular people have atrocious UIs.
- mimixco 8y ago
  Indeed. But the learning curve for the current set of crypto wallets and tools is too high to allow any widespread adoption. These cannot be products for devs only or they will never take off. If you want a $1B product to pursue, someone should built decent tooling for crypto.
momentmaker 8y ago
Maybe it's a combination of both the bad UI and lack of real use cases. After all, if there is a real demand for decentralized storage space, then it doesn't matter the UI, people will still use it even if it's in beta. The lever just hasn't been tilted enough with a real immediate need.
- mimixco 8y ago
  I don't think so. You have to have simple UI's and basic tooling before anyone other than hardcore devs will be interested. Everything we do with modern website tooling like Shopify was also possible in 1995, but it was too dev-heavy. (I've been in that business since that date.) The demand was there but the barriers to entry were too hard to overcome. Fix crypto's UIs and you'll see wider adoption.

Ajedi32 8y ago

Seems a little odd to devote so much of the article to evaluating the user interface when the current release is aimed at "developers, researchers, and community members who want to help _make_ Filecoin"[1]. Still, I can see the potential. One thing I'm still not sure of is how Filecoin compares with Sia. Based on the articles I've read so far it seems very similar (except that Sia is older so its tooling/UI is obviously much more mature). Are there any fundamental differences I may be missing? [1]: https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-repos/ https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-repos/

hndamien 8y ago
The main difference is the proof of work algorithm relies on proof of storage.

rmorey 8y ago

Nice article! Thanks for taking the time to write up such a thorough summary

Proven 8y ago

Just like I thought. Most people rightly expect something like "a GUI for a decentralized S3" but instead - for the foreseeable future - they should be ready to spend many hours on the forums before they can squeeze out a tiny bit of value out of this thing. In reality best case scenario might be Filecoin becomes a bubble (like Sia did) and early adopters get rewarded for their suffering by getting the heck out near the peak. After years of trying similar projects, I lost interest in them. Too much hassle for a normal busy user who has a life.