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I stopped paying too much attention to NFT image arguments and started looking at blockchain technologies. Things like Arweave, IPFS, EPNS. These are very inter

I stopped paying too much attention to NFT image arguments and started looking at blockchain technologies. Things like Arweave, IPFS, EPNS. These are very interesting projects that I started some draft blog posts about. Also, I do think people are graduating from owning an “image” to seeing them as tickets to something greater. I was a web3 skeptic. You can probably see it in my comment history. However, I really wanted to understand it more and focusing on infrastructure parts that get less media attention is where I’m finding my home. Call it web3, distributed, p2p… whatever. There is some really cool stuff being built that solves things in a novel (to me ) way. I wish more engineers were looking into this from a purely intriguing set of engineering examples.

pavlov 4y ago
There are interesting distributed protocols out there, but they fundamentally have nothing to do with "blockchain". For example IPFS which you mention. What so many people take exception with isn't distributed protocols, P2P, etc. — it's the corruption of these useful, existing technologies to intertwine them with an ecosystem of artificial scarcity metered in cryptocurrencies. This latter is what people call "web3" now. If I make the world's greatest pure-P2P WebRTC application that stores permanent data on IPFS, no web3 proponent will get excited about that because it doesn't include magic beans that could make them rich.
- notfed 4y ago
  To add to this, yes, distributed computing is full of really cool stuff. It's been pumping out tons of solutions to real-world scalability problems for decades. I get the feeling that a bunch of people are just now coming into the conversation with no knowledge of this, and thinking that Blockchain == distributed computing, like it's the first and only kind of distributed algorithm ever to exist or something.
  - todd3834 4y ago
    Do you think it is fair to say distributed computing is part of web3 or has it been defined as only blockchain?
- todd3834 4y ago
  Fair, although I would definitely bucket IPFS in the blockchain category in that it is targeting that community of developers. Also, IPFS isn’t a solution for storing data permanently. Arweave is and I think people would be very excited about that. At least I would if that’s any data point. No magic beans necessary to get me excited. Just cool tech. I can’t be the minority but maybe.

pavlov 4y ago

There are interesting distributed protocols out there, but they fundamentally have nothing to do with "blockchain". For example IPFS which you mention. What so many people take exception with isn't distributed protocols, P2P, etc. — it's the corruption of these useful, existing technologies to intertwine them with an ecosystem of artificial scarcity metered in cryptocurrencies. This latter is what people call "web3" now. If I make the world's greatest pure-P2P WebRTC application that stores permanent data on IPFS, no web3 proponent will get excited about that because it doesn't include magic beans that could make them rich.

notfed 4y ago
To add to this, yes, distributed computing is full of really cool stuff. It's been pumping out tons of solutions to real-world scalability problems for decades. I get the feeling that a bunch of people are just now coming into the conversation with no knowledge of this, and thinking that Blockchain == distributed computing, like it's the first and only kind of distributed algorithm ever to exist or something.
- todd3834 4y ago
  Do you think it is fair to say distributed computing is part of web3 or has it been defined as only blockchain?
todd3834 4y ago
Fair, although I would definitely bucket IPFS in the blockchain category in that it is targeting that community of developers. Also, IPFS isn’t a solution for storing data permanently. Arweave is and I think people would be very excited about that. At least I would if that’s any data point. No magic beans necessary to get me excited. Just cool tech. I can’t be the minority but maybe.