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I am admittedly extremely biased against cryptocurrencies (stop reading unless you're ready for this re-hashed rant), but I don't see how users (read: people wi

I am admittedly extremely biased against cryptocurrencies (stop reading unless you're ready for this re-hashed rant), but I don't see how users (read: people with real money) care about any of this stuff. On-chain games? I don't want to feel like I'm in a laggy casino, I just want to blast zombies with a rocket launcher and I can already do that perfectly fine. Uncensorable Github? Yeah, it's called "git". Decentralized DNS and Postgres? Yeah, it's called "DNS" and "Postgres" respectively. Web3 twitter? > The winning Web3 Twitter will ultimately offer the features we have been eager to see: data truly owned by users themselves, uncontrolled by one entity or even one man, multiple clients permissionlessly built, multiple options of curation algorithms that users can choose from. Congratulations you just described Mastodon and ActivityPub. No blockchain required (though it does depend on those boring web2 technologies like HTTPS and DNS).

tpetry 4y ago
Crypto is still a solution that is searching for the problem it wants to solve.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- hef19898 4y ago
  Crypto did find the problem: How to get VCs invest and a how to dump all on retail investors without an IPO if even a SPAC is too much to bother. Other problems: money laundering, tax evasion and sanction circumvention. All of those are, and I mean that, serious problems to solve for a lot of people with a lot of money on the line.
- therealdkz 4y ago
  the problem it is trying to solve is pretty clear at this point and it is „how to funell money to my pocket”
thefounder 4y ago
I think crypto could help with the dns. I don't like the DNS being owned by various corporations
- olliej 4y ago
  how would crypto help dns?
  - coffeebeqn 4y ago
    Make it a 100x slower?
    - m00dy 4y ago
      Reads on blockchain is fast enough to power dns infrastructure.
      - olliej 4y ago
        I'm fairly sure current DNS infrastructure doesn't use as much power as a country to achieve usable performance. But also reading from the blockchain is not fast, and I don't know why you think that.
        m00dy 4y ago
        Blockchains do not necessarily run on proof of work mechanism. Why do you think reads from the blockchain is slow ?
        olliej 4y ago
        Reads from the blockchain are vastly vastly slower than DNS queries, and even then we have many layers of caching between the root DNS servers and the end user. The important thing is that fundamentally getting usable performance for general users means you are unlikely to ever hit a DNS root server directly. The side effect of that is that any claimed "anti-censorship", etc mechanisms that crypto ostensibly provides immediately disappears - pretty much in line with current restrictions on explicit exchanges accepting transactions involving North Korea, terrorists, etc.
simonmales 4y ago
> On-chain games? I don't want to feel like I'm in a laggy casino, I just want to blast zombies with a rocket launcher and I can already do that perfectly fine. Haven't played any, but I am fan of crypto as a currency. I _think_ the appeal is the rewards earned (whatever token on offer) can be traded outside of the game ecosystem. So people might feel like they are earning real money. Just an assumption.
- blueboo 4y ago
  If it’s fungible and you can trade it in the open market, yes, it feels like real money because it is a few clicks away from converting to real money. So it’s gambling. It’s just gambling—and/or “play to earn”—with all the toxic incentives that brings. The enthusiasm is in this space is just a race to leverage to relative lack of regulation of this form of gambling.
- arlcode 4y ago
  I'm struggling to find a use case where entertainment and "profitable market place" don't collide therefore turning it into work. Once there is real value on the table won't its extraction be optimized as hell by a small group of determined "entrepreneurs". It seems that my (casual Gamer) position will always quickly turn into "customer" in this case. Then it's just a plain old microtransaction (for varying sizes of micro) game. Many people enjoy those (weirdly enough) but once again blockchain adds little.
  - ikt 4y ago
    In this case it seems like it's just an online version of magic which retains the card trading: https://godsunchained.com/ https://godsunchained.com/
    - Zanfa 4y ago
      It can't be a very good game given their main selling point on the landing page is the fact that you'll get paid to actually play it.
- 4y ago
saurik 4y ago
> Uncensorable Github? Yeah, it's called "git". You have to host your git repository at some URL, and the people hosting that URL can be required to pull the content, the hostname can be blocked by firewalls, and the domain name can be revoked at the registrar. "It technically is available, but no one can ever find it" is not "uncensorable".
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

tpetry 4y ago

Crypto is still a solution that is searching for the problem it wants to solve.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
hef19898 4y ago
Crypto did find the problem: How to get VCs invest and a how to dump all on retail investors without an IPO if even a SPAC is too much to bother. Other problems: money laundering, tax evasion and sanction circumvention. All of those are, and I mean that, serious problems to solve for a lot of people with a lot of money on the line.
therealdkz 4y ago
the problem it is trying to solve is pretty clear at this point and it is „how to funell money to my pocket”

thefounder 4y ago

I think crypto could help with the dns. I don't like the DNS being owned by various corporations

olliej 4y ago
how would crypto help dns?
- coffeebeqn 4y ago
  Make it a 100x slower?
  - m00dy 4y ago
    Reads on blockchain is fast enough to power dns infrastructure.
    - olliej 4y ago
      I'm fairly sure current DNS infrastructure doesn't use as much power as a country to achieve usable performance. But also reading from the blockchain is not fast, and I don't know why you think that.
      - m00dy 4y ago
        Blockchains do not necessarily run on proof of work mechanism. Why do you think reads from the blockchain is slow ?
        olliej 4y ago
        Reads from the blockchain are vastly vastly slower than DNS queries, and even then we have many layers of caching between the root DNS servers and the end user. The important thing is that fundamentally getting usable performance for general users means you are unlikely to ever hit a DNS root server directly. The side effect of that is that any claimed "anti-censorship", etc mechanisms that crypto ostensibly provides immediately disappears - pretty much in line with current restrictions on explicit exchanges accepting transactions involving North Korea, terrorists, etc.

simonmales 4y ago

> On-chain games? I don't want to feel like I'm in a laggy casino, I just want to blast zombies with a rocket launcher and I can already do that perfectly fine. Haven't played any, but I am fan of crypto as a currency. I _think_ the appeal is the rewards earned (whatever token on offer) can be traded outside of the game ecosystem. So people might feel like they are earning real money. Just an assumption.

blueboo 4y ago
If it’s fungible and you can trade it in the open market, yes, it feels like real money because it is a few clicks away from converting to real money. So it’s gambling. It’s just gambling—and/or “play to earn”—with all the toxic incentives that brings. The enthusiasm is in this space is just a race to leverage to relative lack of regulation of this form of gambling.
arlcode 4y ago
I'm struggling to find a use case where entertainment and "profitable market place" don't collide therefore turning it into work. Once there is real value on the table won't its extraction be optimized as hell by a small group of determined "entrepreneurs". It seems that my (casual Gamer) position will always quickly turn into "customer" in this case. Then it's just a plain old microtransaction (for varying sizes of micro) game. Many people enjoy those (weirdly enough) but once again blockchain adds little.
- ikt 4y ago
  In this case it seems like it's just an online version of magic which retains the card trading: https://godsunchained.com/ https://godsunchained.com/
  - Zanfa 4y ago
    It can't be a very good game given their main selling point on the landing page is the fact that you'll get paid to actually play it.
4y ago

saurik 4y ago

> Uncensorable Github? Yeah, it's called "git". You have to host your git repository at some URL, and the people hosting that URL can be required to pull the content, the hostname can be blocked by firewalls, and the domain name can be revoked at the registrar. "It technically is available, but no one can ever find it" is not "uncensorable".

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]