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Crypto's main issue is not the UX. It's the volatility and costs(i.e merchants pay less for the same crypto). Until these two issues are fixed it makes no sense

Crypto's main issue is not the UX. It's the volatility and costs(i.e merchants pay less for the same crypto). Until these two issues are fixed it makes no sense to use crypto payments unless you are denied access to mainstream payment networks(visa/mastercard). The VPN should be integrated at the OS level not browser level.

bitcoinbutter 8y ago
Crypto in this case is also being used as an authentication / password replacement system. Signing with your wallet address proves you are a specific person. So that alone is a great reason to include the wallet.
- roblabla 8y ago
  I'm not sure how I feel about tying authentication with payment. It means anywhere you log into with this address knows your payment history with this wallet.
- thefounder 8y ago
  >> Signing with your wallet address proves you are a specific person. So that alone is a great reason to include the wallet. No, it doesn't. It just proves that you own/hold a private key. You need to build an identity protocol on top of that if you want to prove that you are a specific person/organization. Such protocols have been around for quite some time before crypto currencies. It's just they don't have a good UX, that's why most websites require a password based authentication instead of a key/certificate. I like a lot JWT/JWT as it has a lot of useful attributes(. e.g the "acr" attribute) so you better start with that than a crypto wallet
  - Shaddox 8y ago
    Can you name a few such protocols? Your statement makes me very curious because as far as I'm aware, key distribution is the core problem of asymmetric cryptography. I can generate a private key and say I'm you, and there's nothing stopping me from doing that. The only solution I'm aware of so far is DNSSec which starts from the operating system level.
  - thinkloop 8y ago
    I think they meant to say a specific "account" rather than getting into person-hood. I have been wanting what the op describes for a long time - why do we have to "create" accounts? Why can't we simply tell the site our account with our request. For a dumb example, having "?publicKey=(key)" in the url. That way the site can know who we are and be able to link our profile, provable by our ability to sign using the private key, does away with login forms, does away with password recovery flow, does away with email single-point-of-failure, allows us to switch profiles easily, etc. It's mind-boggling that every site in the world rebuilds login logic.
cslarson 8y ago
You are equating crypto with payment but it's really moved on from that. The blockchain space really about competing with Ethereum to provide a decentralised platform for applications - what some people term as web3.
- thefounder 8y ago
  I was not aware web 3.0 is a thing yet. Is there any "killer" web 3.0 app? From what I've seen most are small crypto currency apps or web 2.0 apps with a crypto payment/token component. Is IPFS considered Web 3.0 as well?
  - cslarson 8y ago
    Yes, I would say ipfs is an important component of web3. Ethereum has it's own competitor to ipfs called swarm which provides the static content hosting to pair with decentralised database (Ethereum blockchain), and decentralised messaging (whisper), to provide a fully decentralised application platform.
    - tracker1 8y ago
      I'm not sure how a decentralized message application can be safe from flooding.
  - magnamerc 8y ago
    The biggest killer web 3.0 dapp right now is something generally refered to as DeFi (Decentrilized Finance). There are several dapps that make up defi, including MakerDAO, Compound, Uniswap, Dharma, dydx to name a few.
thinkloop 8y ago
These are non-issues in the long-term: > cost All currencies have an acquisition cost, usually in the low percents. Bitcoin is actually on the cheaper end these days at around 10-25 bps. > volatility Prices of things are reflections of the aggregate opinions of those things by everyone in the market. When prices are volatile, that means people's opinions of those things are volatile. And that's because those things have a lot of unknowns associated with them. As time goes on, and society observes the thing more and how it behaves in different circumstances, the better people will be able to predict the effect of future events, and the lower the volatility will be. In a thousand years, for example, when almost any possible event that could have happened to Bitcoin has happened, volatility could be near 0, and price will probably appreciate predictably with population growth.

bitcoinbutter 8y ago

Crypto in this case is also being used as an authentication / password replacement system. Signing with your wallet address proves you are a specific person. So that alone is a great reason to include the wallet.

roblabla 8y ago
I'm not sure how I feel about tying authentication with payment. It means anywhere you log into with this address knows your payment history with this wallet.
thefounder 8y ago
>> Signing with your wallet address proves you are a specific person. So that alone is a great reason to include the wallet. No, it doesn't. It just proves that you own/hold a private key. You need to build an identity protocol on top of that if you want to prove that you are a specific person/organization. Such protocols have been around for quite some time before crypto currencies. It's just they don't have a good UX, that's why most websites require a password based authentication instead of a key/certificate. I like a lot JWT/JWT as it has a lot of useful attributes(. e.g the "acr" attribute) so you better start with that than a crypto wallet
- Shaddox 8y ago
  Can you name a few such protocols? Your statement makes me very curious because as far as I'm aware, key distribution is the core problem of asymmetric cryptography. I can generate a private key and say I'm you, and there's nothing stopping me from doing that. The only solution I'm aware of so far is DNSSec which starts from the operating system level.
- thinkloop 8y ago
  I think they meant to say a specific "account" rather than getting into person-hood. I have been wanting what the op describes for a long time - why do we have to "create" accounts? Why can't we simply tell the site our account with our request. For a dumb example, having "?publicKey=(key)" in the url. That way the site can know who we are and be able to link our profile, provable by our ability to sign using the private key, does away with login forms, does away with password recovery flow, does away with email single-point-of-failure, allows us to switch profiles easily, etc. It's mind-boggling that every site in the world rebuilds login logic.

cslarson 8y ago

You are equating crypto with payment but it's really moved on from that. The blockchain space really about competing with Ethereum to provide a decentralised platform for applications - what some people term as web3.

thefounder 8y ago
I was not aware web 3.0 is a thing yet. Is there any "killer" web 3.0 app? From what I've seen most are small crypto currency apps or web 2.0 apps with a crypto payment/token component. Is IPFS considered Web 3.0 as well?
- cslarson 8y ago
  Yes, I would say ipfs is an important component of web3. Ethereum has it's own competitor to ipfs called swarm which provides the static content hosting to pair with decentralised database (Ethereum blockchain), and decentralised messaging (whisper), to provide a fully decentralised application platform.
  - tracker1 8y ago
    I'm not sure how a decentralized message application can be safe from flooding.
- magnamerc 8y ago
  The biggest killer web 3.0 dapp right now is something generally refered to as DeFi (Decentrilized Finance). There are several dapps that make up defi, including MakerDAO, Compound, Uniswap, Dharma, dydx to name a few.

thinkloop 8y ago

These are non-issues in the long-term: > cost All currencies have an acquisition cost, usually in the low percents. Bitcoin is actually on the cheaper end these days at around 10-25 bps. > volatility Prices of things are reflections of the aggregate opinions of those things by everyone in the market. When prices are volatile, that means people's opinions of those things are volatile. And that's because those things have a lot of unknowns associated with them. As time goes on, and society observes the thing more and how it behaves in different circumstances, the better people will be able to predict the effect of future events, and the lower the volatility will be. In a thousand years, for example, when almost any possible event that could have happened to Bitcoin has happened, volatility could be near 0, and price will probably appreciate predictably with population growth.