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> Cryptocurrencies are almost as old as the smartphone. You can't keep promising something useful and never delivering, forever. I’m generally pretty bearish o

> Cryptocurrencies are almost as old as the smartphone. You can't keep promising something useful and never delivering, forever. I’m generally pretty bearish on crypto and the current state of web3, so I’m not here to evangelize for it. But comparing crypto to a smartphone is arbitrary, and the nature of one does not help us understand the acceptable timeframe for development of the other. When I see the “it’s existed for X time and isn’t popular yet so it must not be viable”, a follow up question immediately comes to mind. What is a reasonable amount of time for an emerging technology like this to develop? The modern web took decades to evolve into what it is today (for better or worse). Depending on who you talk to, web3’s goals are just as lofty, and a similar time horizon doesn’t seem unreasonable. With that said, the space still struggles to articulate the real problems it will solve, and time and time again it’s just a solution to those problems, and not necessarily the best one. All of this to say - I’m a web3 skeptic, but we need a better measure of health than the passage of time, or we need a better definition of what an acceptable amount of time actually looks like.

latexr 4y ago
> What is a reasonable amount of time for an emerging technology like this to develop? Suggestion: it depends on the harm it causes in the meantime. If an emerging technology isn’t living up to its promise and the downside is the creators wasting their time, let it go on indefinitely. Maybe they’re having fun. As long as no one is getting hurt, it’s a hobby. If the emerging technology is solving nothing and actively creating new problems, allowing bad actors to consistently hurt others with little to no consequences, and accelerating our demise so a handful of egoistic maniacs can see a number go up in their bank accounts, perhaps it’s time to stop. Put an end to it even sooner if the biggest proponents repeatedly lie and make promises which fail to materialise year after year.
- haswell 4y ago
  I think this is an interesting way to look at it, and probably a good one. But it focuses only on the crypto side of web3, which to me is the least interesting part. To be clear, I personally feel that the next generation of the Internet needs a full reboot. Web3 is the web in name only, and the ideals that crypto bros extol have been hijacked to further these currencies. But until some separation between web3 and “the future of the open web” is clearly created, the current problems with the web3 space will continue to proliferate.
  - NikolaNovak 4y ago
    What IS web3 then? if we take Crypto out, isn't Web 3 basically Web 1? Instead of monolithic social networks of Web 2, We go back to independent self ownership of Web 1 when anybody could run a email or Web server as first class citizen? And if so, hasn't market effectively spoken against it? We CAN have independent self owned systems now ; populace just doesn't give a damn - you need to be on social network to be seen or heard :-(
- swamp40 4y ago
  > creating new problems, allowing bad actors to consistently hurt others with little to no consequences, and accelerating our demise so a handful of egoistic maniacs can see a number go up in their bank accounts You are 100% correct. It is time to End The Fed.
  - latexr 4y ago
    You left out the beginning of the quote, “solving nothing”. If you want to use my own comment as rebuttal, I ask you argue in good faith. Even if as a thought exercise we equate the two, responding to criticism with “but other systems also have problems” doesn’t absolve you: — Chief, we caught the murderer! — What about the thief that escaped last month? — You’re right chief, I’ll let the murderer go.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
> What is a reasonable amount of time for an emerging technology like this to develop? However much it needs to prove itself, I guess; cryptocurrencies have not proven themselves, I want to add 'yet', but they've had over a decade now and they're STILL suffering from extremely high value variability, energy costs, and scams / crime. That's not a basis to keep building on. And every attempt at moving away from those negatives has failed or ended up being a scam itself.

latexr 4y ago

> What is a reasonable amount of time for an emerging technology like this to develop? Suggestion: it depends on the harm it causes in the meantime. If an emerging technology isn’t living up to its promise and the downside is the creators wasting their time, let it go on indefinitely. Maybe they’re having fun. As long as no one is getting hurt, it’s a hobby. If the emerging technology is solving nothing and actively creating new problems, allowing bad actors to consistently hurt others with little to no consequences, and accelerating our demise so a handful of egoistic maniacs can see a number go up in their bank accounts, perhaps it’s time to stop. Put an end to it even sooner if the biggest proponents repeatedly lie and make promises which fail to materialise year after year.

haswell 4y ago
I think this is an interesting way to look at it, and probably a good one. But it focuses only on the crypto side of web3, which to me is the least interesting part. To be clear, I personally feel that the next generation of the Internet needs a full reboot. Web3 is the web in name only, and the ideals that crypto bros extol have been hijacked to further these currencies. But until some separation between web3 and “the future of the open web” is clearly created, the current problems with the web3 space will continue to proliferate.
- NikolaNovak 4y ago
  What IS web3 then? if we take Crypto out, isn't Web 3 basically Web 1? Instead of monolithic social networks of Web 2, We go back to independent self ownership of Web 1 when anybody could run a email or Web server as first class citizen? And if so, hasn't market effectively spoken against it? We CAN have independent self owned systems now ; populace just doesn't give a damn - you need to be on social network to be seen or heard :-(
swamp40 4y ago
> creating new problems, allowing bad actors to consistently hurt others with little to no consequences, and accelerating our demise so a handful of egoistic maniacs can see a number go up in their bank accounts You are 100% correct. It is time to End The Fed.
- latexr 4y ago
  You left out the beginning of the quote, “solving nothing”. If you want to use my own comment as rebuttal, I ask you argue in good faith. Even if as a thought exercise we equate the two, responding to criticism with “but other systems also have problems” doesn’t absolve you: — Chief, we caught the murderer! — What about the thief that escaped last month? — You’re right chief, I’ll let the murderer go.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

> What is a reasonable amount of time for an emerging technology like this to develop? However much it needs to prove itself, I guess; cryptocurrencies have not proven themselves, I want to add 'yet', but they've had over a decade now and they're STILL suffering from extremely high value variability, energy costs, and scams / crime. That's not a basis to keep building on. And every attempt at moving away from those negatives has failed or ended up being a scam itself.