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Where is a place to get a broader perspective on this? I've tried subreddits for some of the projects, the cryptocurrency subreddit, and google and youtube. I h

Where is a place to get a broader perspective on this? I've tried subreddits for some of the projects, the cryptocurrency subreddit, and google and youtube. I have a lot of difficulty cutting through the noise. (My sense is that projects like Ethereum could be extremely valuable but that its value is currently hurt by the speculation on Ether making transactions far too costly. I'd be very interested in getting exposed to the "quality" projects that are out there but it's hard to filter.)

reedjosh 5y ago
I like https://talesfromthecrypt.libsyn.com/ https://talesfromthecrypt.libsyn.com/ It's ostensibly a BTC podcast, but it's _really_ about much more including second tier networks, altcoin tech, and individual autonomy. Otherwise, getting involved in the code itself does seem to be the only avenue I've found for real learning. There's an O'Reilly book that has you build a blockchain from scratch if you're interested. I'd welcome other suggestions. Oh, also Tezos has most of Ethereum's features, but is already Proof of Stake.
hanniabu 5y ago
I've found r/ethereum to be pretty level-headed. > Ethereum could be extremely valuable but that its value is currently hurt by the speculation on Ether making transactions far too costly FYI the price of ETH does not affect the transaction costs. The fee market is independent. There's solutions to this in place and more being worked on though. The 3 biggest contributors will be EIP 1559 which is meant to level out the fees and make them more predictable, L2 rollups which scale through sidechains that have the each of their blocks confirmed on Ethereum's L1 with proofs, and sharding of L1. Ethereum is currently in a growing pains phase as these L2 options gain more traction/adoption, UX for them improves, and all activity migrates there. The end goal is for a majority of interaction to occur on L2 with L1 being used mainly for a settlement layer.
- samvher 5y ago
  Huh, I totally thought transaction fees were set in Ether and that’s why the costs are so high (in fiat of course). If that’s not it, what makes the transactions so expensive? Lot of competition for limited throughout?
  - TigeriusKirk 5y ago
    Yes, it's competition for limited throughput. Especially with the DeFi boom, fees have been bid higher and higher to be sure transactions are included in an immediate block. Incidentally, if you're looking to keep up with Ethereum in particular, the newsletter Week In Ethereum News is an excellent resource. It's a links-with-descriptve-blurbs kind of thing. It's still a bit of a firehose if you're catching up on the space, but just pick a few items that sound interesting every week. https://weekinethereum.substack.com/ https://weekinethereum.substack.com/
jkepler 5y ago
I would add Andreas Antonopoulos's video, as well as the What Bitcoin Did podcast as good starting points. Also check out the book, Inventing Bitcoin.
- andxor 5y ago
  What Bitcoin Did is run by a toxic Bitcoin maximalist who is totally clueless about the tech and is only in it for the money. Check out Bankless and The Daily Gwei.
megameter 5y ago
It was easier eight years ago, I would just look at Bitcointalk threads and be able to make an evaluation pretty quickly. Small scale, relatively more clued in folks. Now the scale is a problem. There are so many projects I know nothing about. Nowadays I usually go to /r/cryptocurrency/new for the firehose. I do not aim to read everything, just check in and take some notes. What tends to happen on that subreddit is that some really great posts get made but never hit frontpage because they're crowded out by useless memetic content. But you can take individual great posts and turn those into leads by doing some additional legwork. I don't usually talk to those users(I do not want to read comment thread replies and will completely ignore my Reddit inbox, instead I will monitor the thread if it interests me) but I will sometimes browse their post history.

reedjosh 5y ago

I like https://talesfromthecrypt.libsyn.com/ https://talesfromthecrypt.libsyn.com/ It's ostensibly a BTC podcast, but it's _really_ about much more including second tier networks, altcoin tech, and individual autonomy. Otherwise, getting involved in the code itself does seem to be the only avenue I've found for real learning. There's an O'Reilly book that has you build a blockchain from scratch if you're interested. I'd welcome other suggestions. Oh, also Tezos has most of Ethereum's features, but is already Proof of Stake.

hanniabu 5y ago

I've found r/ethereum to be pretty level-headed. > Ethereum could be extremely valuable but that its value is currently hurt by the speculation on Ether making transactions far too costly FYI the price of ETH does not affect the transaction costs. The fee market is independent. There's solutions to this in place and more being worked on though. The 3 biggest contributors will be EIP 1559 which is meant to level out the fees and make them more predictable, L2 rollups which scale through sidechains that have the each of their blocks confirmed on Ethereum's L1 with proofs, and sharding of L1. Ethereum is currently in a growing pains phase as these L2 options gain more traction/adoption, UX for them improves, and all activity migrates there. The end goal is for a majority of interaction to occur on L2 with L1 being used mainly for a settlement layer.

samvher 5y ago
Huh, I totally thought transaction fees were set in Ether and that’s why the costs are so high (in fiat of course). If that’s not it, what makes the transactions so expensive? Lot of competition for limited throughout?
- TigeriusKirk 5y ago
  Yes, it's competition for limited throughput. Especially with the DeFi boom, fees have been bid higher and higher to be sure transactions are included in an immediate block. Incidentally, if you're looking to keep up with Ethereum in particular, the newsletter Week In Ethereum News is an excellent resource. It's a links-with-descriptve-blurbs kind of thing. It's still a bit of a firehose if you're catching up on the space, but just pick a few items that sound interesting every week. https://weekinethereum.substack.com/ https://weekinethereum.substack.com/

jkepler 5y ago

I would add Andreas Antonopoulos's video, as well as the What Bitcoin Did podcast as good starting points. Also check out the book, Inventing Bitcoin.

andxor 5y ago
What Bitcoin Did is run by a toxic Bitcoin maximalist who is totally clueless about the tech and is only in it for the money. Check out Bankless and The Daily Gwei.

megameter 5y ago

It was easier eight years ago, I would just look at Bitcointalk threads and be able to make an evaluation pretty quickly. Small scale, relatively more clued in folks. Now the scale is a problem. There are so many projects I know nothing about. Nowadays I usually go to /r/cryptocurrency/new for the firehose. I do not aim to read everything, just check in and take some notes. What tends to happen on that subreddit is that some really great posts get made but never hit frontpage because they're crowded out by useless memetic content. But you can take individual great posts and turn those into leads by doing some additional legwork. I don't usually talk to those users(I do not want to read comment thread replies and will completely ignore my Reddit inbox, instead I will monitor the thread if it interests me) but I will sometimes browse their post history.