7 ms·

Spent weeks investigating the mania around web3 and regret to say it does not live up to the hype.

theplumber 5y ago
I think it depends much of expectations. It actually exceeded my expectations. I recently built a small and useless program in solidity and deployed it within few hours. It's definitely better than what we had available years ago (i.e. on bitcoin platform) and I see a future for it. I think it has chances to survive in this age of censorship and surveillance. Something that really surprised me was the signing/metamask integration(a kind of webauthn). I would definitely use that to login into various websites instead of the invasive facebook/google login plugins we see all over the web. There is even something akin to oauth2 but without the requirement to have "developer keys".
- justicezyx 5y ago
  Don't you need to pay someone to deploy the program?
  - lukeramsden 5y ago
    On the testnet you can get free ETH to deploy contract(s).
    - TigeriusKirk 5y ago
      Or run your own private chain/node for trying things out. Recently I've been working at converting an existing web business to web3 (at least my interpretation of web3), with the goal of making it all decentralized. My impression at this point is that it's mostly possible but not all that practical. It might make more sense if I reimagine what the business is, which is part of my exploration here.
  - theplumber 5y ago
    ETH is expensive but there are other "cheaper" blockchains compatible with ETH whose "gas" price is negligible. You can also deploy for free on the "testnet"
    - UncleMeat 5y ago
      A major reason why those blockchains have lower fees is because speculators have not driven up their token price. Unless there is some fundamental reason why the fees will stay low, you've got a time bomb on your hands as soon as people decide that this blockchain is a major speculation vehicle.
      - cqwrtiq 5y ago
        This is an interesting topic that I feel like doesn't get discussed often. Vitalik Buterin posted today about Ethereum's expensive gas fees and the reasoning for it. It boiled down to decentralization vs. more operations per block. Blockchains like Algorand and Solana have large block sizes, so they can keep fees low per block (which they both do a very good job of doing so far, although exactly how cheap they'd be with Ethereum's adoption numbers is still uncertain). Tezos has had more adoptions through NFTs and they've managed to keep transaction fees low as well (although arguably running a Tezos node now requires better hardware specs than it did a few years ago). The tradeoff is that beefy hardware is needed to run a node, which hurts decentralization, as the average participant without deep pockets can't compete. This is part of why Ethereum has high gas costs.
        jazzyjackson 5y ago
        It got discussed a lot - years ago - and is sometimes referred to as the "Block Size Wars" https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_size_limit_controversy https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_size_limit_controversy
- serverholic 5y ago
  "Sign-In with Ethereum" will be huge. I purposefully avoid "Sign-in with Google" because putting too much power in a centralized authority terrifies me. I'd much rather have the convenience of "Sign-In with X" but backed by something I have control over.
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
    Like OpenID?
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - theplumber 5y ago
      OpenID is a closed system both to the end-user and the website owner based on secrets(`state` `code`, developer keys) from identity providers(google/facebook) not cryptography.
    - Uehreka 5y ago
      I’m a long time blockchain skeptic (check my comment history) but I recently came around on the SSO stuff and can vouch for it enough to say the magic words: it is in fact a novel thing that cannot be done without blockchain using pre-existing crypto or auth tech. The reason is: With private key auth alone, you don’t have identity, just a non-human readable public key, and no universally known exclusive association with a particular username. With OpenID or WebAuthn or any of that, you would still need a company or org to keep a centralized database of everyone’s credentials and user info. With Blockchain you don’t: As long as the Ethereum blockchain keeps going, your info (username: “johndoe.eth” public_key: “420abc” avatar: “some HTTP or IPFS url”) will stay stored. This is the exact precise thing blockchains are unusually good at doing, and given how much people these days are hating on big tech companies managing their identities and harvesting data in the process, “SSO with no company attached” seems like a thing people actually want. I’m still highly skeptical of art NFTs and crypto as currency and lots of other blockchain stuff, but in this one case they’ve won me over. This seems legit.
- Uehreka 5y ago
  > I think it depends much of expectations. Agreed (and I agree that ENS and the SSO stuff looks interesting). The problem here is that the crypto community are the ones setting the high expectations.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
moneywoes 5y ago
What did you find?
vvpan 5y ago
Now that's solid analysis right there.

I think it depends much of expectations. It actually exceeded my expectations. I recently built a small and useless program in solidity and deployed it within few hours. It's definitely better than what we had available years ago (i.e. on bitcoin platform) and I see a future for it. I think it has chances to survive in this age of censorship and surveillance. Something that really surprised me was the signing/metamask integration(a kind of webauthn). I would definitely use that to login into various websites instead of the invasive facebook/google login plugins we see all over the web. There is even something akin to oauth2 but without the requirement to have "developer keys".

justicezyx 5y ago
Don't you need to pay someone to deploy the program?
- lukeramsden 5y ago
  On the testnet you can get free ETH to deploy contract(s).
  - TigeriusKirk 5y ago
    Or run your own private chain/node for trying things out. Recently I've been working at converting an existing web business to web3 (at least my interpretation of web3), with the goal of making it all decentralized. My impression at this point is that it's mostly possible but not all that practical. It might make more sense if I reimagine what the business is, which is part of my exploration here.
- theplumber 5y ago
  ETH is expensive but there are other "cheaper" blockchains compatible with ETH whose "gas" price is negligible. You can also deploy for free on the "testnet"
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    A major reason why those blockchains have lower fees is because speculators have not driven up their token price. Unless there is some fundamental reason why the fees will stay low, you've got a time bomb on your hands as soon as people decide that this blockchain is a major speculation vehicle.
    - cqwrtiq 5y ago
      This is an interesting topic that I feel like doesn't get discussed often. Vitalik Buterin posted today about Ethereum's expensive gas fees and the reasoning for it. It boiled down to decentralization vs. more operations per block. Blockchains like Algorand and Solana have large block sizes, so they can keep fees low per block (which they both do a very good job of doing so far, although exactly how cheap they'd be with Ethereum's adoption numbers is still uncertain). Tezos has had more adoptions through NFTs and they've managed to keep transaction fees low as well (although arguably running a Tezos node now requires better hardware specs than it did a few years ago). The tradeoff is that beefy hardware is needed to run a node, which hurts decentralization, as the average participant without deep pockets can't compete. This is part of why Ethereum has high gas costs.
      - jazzyjackson 5y ago
        It got discussed a lot - years ago - and is sometimes referred to as the "Block Size Wars" https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_size_limit_controversy https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_size_limit_controversy
serverholic 5y ago
"Sign-In with Ethereum" will be huge. I purposefully avoid "Sign-in with Google" because putting too much power in a centralized authority terrifies me. I'd much rather have the convenience of "Sign-In with X" but backed by something I have control over.
- yepthatsreality 5y ago
  Like OpenID?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - theplumber 5y ago
    OpenID is a closed system both to the end-user and the website owner based on secrets(`state` `code`, developer keys) from identity providers(google/facebook) not cryptography.
  - Uehreka 5y ago
    I’m a long time blockchain skeptic (check my comment history) but I recently came around on the SSO stuff and can vouch for it enough to say the magic words: it is in fact a novel thing that cannot be done without blockchain using pre-existing crypto or auth tech. The reason is: With private key auth alone, you don’t have identity, just a non-human readable public key, and no universally known exclusive association with a particular username. With OpenID or WebAuthn or any of that, you would still need a company or org to keep a centralized database of everyone’s credentials and user info. With Blockchain you don’t: As long as the Ethereum blockchain keeps going, your info (username: “johndoe.eth” public_key: “420abc” avatar: “some HTTP or IPFS url”) will stay stored. This is the exact precise thing blockchains are unusually good at doing, and given how much people these days are hating on big tech companies managing their identities and harvesting data in the process, “SSO with no company attached” seems like a thing people actually want. I’m still highly skeptical of art NFTs and crypto as currency and lots of other blockchain stuff, but in this one case they’ve won me over. This seems legit.
Uehreka 5y ago
> I think it depends much of expectations. Agreed (and I agree that ENS and the SSO stuff looks interesting). The problem here is that the crypto community are the ones setting the high expectations.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

moneywoes 5y ago

What did you find?

vvpan 5y ago

Now that's solid analysis right there.