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To start you Tweet off chain, and you only verify on chain. Most of the skeptics here seem to take pride in their shallow understanding of blockchain - most of

To start you Tweet off chain, and you only verify on chain. Most of the skeptics here seem to take pride in their shallow understanding of blockchain - most of these questions are posed with some idea that people want to post a million tweets a day on the Bitcoin blockchain. People smart enough to answer your questions don't actually hang out here - I would know, because I hang out with them where they are welcome. And yes, those people also make a distinction between themselves and the average grifter - something HN fails miserably at.

simooooo 5y ago
epistasis 5y ago
Ok so if the data is off chain for the tweets, that off-chain resource becomes the gatekeeper, doesn't it? I am becoming convinced that there may be value somewhere in this open database, but I'm also convinced that 99% of the people advocating for web3 and making a ton of "money" on current token speculation do not know what this value will be. The most convincing application I can think of is a PGP for the modern world that everyone can use without hours and hours of tech training. But I think there will be more.
- shagie 5y ago
  I'm not entirely sold. Application data... Let's say there's a Great Open Database of microblogging. This is somehow distributed across multiple systems, and sized so that it can handle the load, and provides a query language to make that database useful... Shoot, let's spin up a couple clusters of CouchDB and go from there and build a microblogging platform on top of that? Does it solve the problem? It's trivial for anyone to spin up their own clone of a CouchDB - just replicate it. You want your own uncenersoable copy - its yours. And yes, there are numerous problems with this that as you pull the thread get to the point of "at some point, you're going to have to trust some central authority" That might be where you're getting to the "PGP for the modern world" - though I'm going to contend that every solution has a similar problem of getting the average person to treat their keys securely... and that means having one copy and getting ransomeware or having key stealing malware has become much, much more problematic than it is in today's world. I believe that that social / computer literacy problem needs to be solved for the average person before one can reasonably move forward with PGP for the modern world.
- mattwilsonn888 5y ago
  One base case that seems reasonably compelling is a distributed key store to manage public key exchange without concern of ever being trivially spoofed. I don't think anyone really knows what the right balance of on and off chain data transactions is - it depends a lot on chain efficiency and what can simply be done peer-to-peer. I'm thinking broadly, but the idea of exchanging keys on a distributed system and then engaging in services using those keys peer-to-peer is appealing. You can audit all the software, and you use zero centralized third parties. I think it brings back a DIY attitude to the internet. If you're tempted to lecture me on your thoughts about what 'normal people' want and how its not what I just said, I would pre-emptivly argue you do not consider that normal people often co-opt what the inside few value first, and that if a system like this remains niche I would still value it. Web3 on this site is too much about dunking on grifters and too little about focusing on what the grifters are stealing.

simooooo 5y ago

epistasis 5y ago

Ok so if the data is off chain for the tweets, that off-chain resource becomes the gatekeeper, doesn't it? I am becoming convinced that there may be value somewhere in this open database, but I'm also convinced that 99% of the people advocating for web3 and making a ton of "money" on current token speculation do not know what this value will be. The most convincing application I can think of is a PGP for the modern world that everyone can use without hours and hours of tech training. But I think there will be more.

shagie 5y ago
I'm not entirely sold. Application data... Let's say there's a Great Open Database of microblogging. This is somehow distributed across multiple systems, and sized so that it can handle the load, and provides a query language to make that database useful... Shoot, let's spin up a couple clusters of CouchDB and go from there and build a microblogging platform on top of that? Does it solve the problem? It's trivial for anyone to spin up their own clone of a CouchDB - just replicate it. You want your own uncenersoable copy - its yours. And yes, there are numerous problems with this that as you pull the thread get to the point of "at some point, you're going to have to trust some central authority" That might be where you're getting to the "PGP for the modern world" - though I'm going to contend that every solution has a similar problem of getting the average person to treat their keys securely... and that means having one copy and getting ransomeware or having key stealing malware has become much, much more problematic than it is in today's world. I believe that that social / computer literacy problem needs to be solved for the average person before one can reasonably move forward with PGP for the modern world.
mattwilsonn888 5y ago
One base case that seems reasonably compelling is a distributed key store to manage public key exchange without concern of ever being trivially spoofed. I don't think anyone really knows what the right balance of on and off chain data transactions is - it depends a lot on chain efficiency and what can simply be done peer-to-peer. I'm thinking broadly, but the idea of exchanging keys on a distributed system and then engaging in services using those keys peer-to-peer is appealing. You can audit all the software, and you use zero centralized third parties. I think it brings back a DIY attitude to the internet. If you're tempted to lecture me on your thoughts about what 'normal people' want and how its not what I just said, I would pre-emptivly argue you do not consider that normal people often co-opt what the inside few value first, and that if a system like this remains niche I would still value it. Web3 on this site is too much about dunking on grifters and too little about focusing on what the grifters are stealing.