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> But if you really want to see the “immune system” shine, mention web3 and smart contracts, and watch the downvotes pour in I'm all for distributed / P2P soci

> But if you really want to see the “immune system” shine, mention web3 and smart contracts, and watch the downvotes pour in I'm all for distributed / P2P social media, but crypto is full of some of the most scammy and downright shameful behavior I've ever seen in my life. Pump and dumps, rug pulls, money laundering. There is a real reason people hate crypto. To tip it off, crypto is one of the least meritocratic things there is. The longer you've been in it, the more people you've scammed, the more you hype, the "wealthier" you are. Crypto smells like a shit and vomit sandwich and people immediately turn their noses. Build P2P social without the crypto angle and you have my attention. I've been wanting p2p (not federated) social media since the 200Xs and the decline of the indie web. Social and news should work like email and BitTorrent, not Facebook or "federated Twitter".

EGreg 2y ago
I have been building it, in fact. https://qbix.com/ecosystem https://qbix.com/ecosystem Do I have your attention now? Ten years and $1 million dollars later, it’s free to use, but we haven’t started promoting it yet, still testing with paying clients: https://github.com/Qbix https://github.com/Qbix Here are some ideas: https://qbix.com/community.pdf https://qbix.com/community.pdf https://qbix.com/alumni.pdf https://qbix.com/alumni.pdf
- echelon 2y ago
  This is interesting, but it feels too platformy for my use. I'd really like to see something 100% like BitTorrent. Instead of trying to build a "you.com" (as in your pdf example), I want a place we're all just a simple disposable signed hash address (that you can change, make public, keep pseudonymous, etc.) - easy and disposable if needed, but also possible to use as the building block of an online presence or brand if your hash becomes well known. Kind of like email, in that sense. The platform doesn't need real time streaming video or video calls. Just text and images to start. P2P Reddit or Twitter. It shouldn't be about building a platform where you attract others to your brand. That can come later. It should be about participating in a swarm and building up a mass of people. An exchange of ideas and information, but where it feels like being in public. Like BitTorrent. Once network effects kick in, you can find the nodes (people, topics, etc.) you care about and want to prioritize in your interest graph.
swalsh 2y ago
> I'm all for distributed / P2P social media, but crypto is full of some of the most scammy and downright shameful behavior I've ever seen in my life. Pump and dumps, rug pulls, money laundering. The SEC's answer no questions, sue first, approach to crypto in general made legitimate players afriad to operate, so the space became dominated by those that didn't care about the law.
- EGreg 2y ago
  Many on HN don’t believe there ARE any legitimate uses of crypto in the first place. Here are some: https://intercoin.org/applications https://intercoin.org/applications But most comments I get are “I stopped reading 2 seconds in when I saw the word Web5.” (We started using it when Jack who founded Twitter, started bluesky, promoted nostr started using it). Here is a graphical presentation that can drive it home: https://intercoin.app/investors.pdf https://intercoin.app/investors.pdf
  - svara 2y ago
    I looked at your links and I still don't get it. I do want to understand. Where is the problem stated, clearly and concisely? What is the solution and why does it require crypto? I say that as someone who read the Bitcoin paper in 2012 and was pretty excited back then. Meanwhile online scams are a bigger industry than the illegal drug trade and bigger than the Australian economy. There are thousands of modern day slaves in call centers in Myanmar and the Philippines with fake social media profiles running pig butchering scams. That industry runs on crypto 100%. I guess that's one "problem" crypto solved. You need some pretty convincing arguments at this point to convince me (and many others) that getting rid of this stuff wouldn't be a big win for humanity.
    - EGreg 2y ago
      The problem is relative to WHOM. Here is the problem statement and solution for community leaders, the same class of decision makers who exited “AOL Keyword NYTimes” in favor of “nytimes.com” on this newfangled protocol called HTTP, with its servers and clients called browsers that people were downloading intercoin.org/currencies.pdf

EGreg 2y ago

I have been building it, in fact. https://qbix.com/ecosystem https://qbix.com/ecosystem Do I have your attention now? Ten years and $1 million dollars later, it’s free to use, but we haven’t started promoting it yet, still testing with paying clients: https://github.com/Qbix https://github.com/Qbix Here are some ideas: https://qbix.com/community.pdf https://qbix.com/community.pdf https://qbix.com/alumni.pdf https://qbix.com/alumni.pdf

echelon 2y ago
This is interesting, but it feels too platformy for my use. I'd really like to see something 100% like BitTorrent. Instead of trying to build a "you.com" (as in your pdf example), I want a place we're all just a simple disposable signed hash address (that you can change, make public, keep pseudonymous, etc.) - easy and disposable if needed, but also possible to use as the building block of an online presence or brand if your hash becomes well known. Kind of like email, in that sense. The platform doesn't need real time streaming video or video calls. Just text and images to start. P2P Reddit or Twitter. It shouldn't be about building a platform where you attract others to your brand. That can come later. It should be about participating in a swarm and building up a mass of people. An exchange of ideas and information, but where it feels like being in public. Like BitTorrent. Once network effects kick in, you can find the nodes (people, topics, etc.) you care about and want to prioritize in your interest graph.

swalsh 2y ago

> I'm all for distributed / P2P social media, but crypto is full of some of the most scammy and downright shameful behavior I've ever seen in my life. Pump and dumps, rug pulls, money laundering. The SEC's answer no questions, sue first, approach to crypto in general made legitimate players afriad to operate, so the space became dominated by those that didn't care about the law.

EGreg 2y ago
Many on HN don’t believe there ARE any legitimate uses of crypto in the first place. Here are some: https://intercoin.org/applications https://intercoin.org/applications But most comments I get are “I stopped reading 2 seconds in when I saw the word Web5.” (We started using it when Jack who founded Twitter, started bluesky, promoted nostr started using it). Here is a graphical presentation that can drive it home: https://intercoin.app/investors.pdf https://intercoin.app/investors.pdf
- svara 2y ago
  I looked at your links and I still don't get it. I do want to understand. Where is the problem stated, clearly and concisely? What is the solution and why does it require crypto? I say that as someone who read the Bitcoin paper in 2012 and was pretty excited back then. Meanwhile online scams are a bigger industry than the illegal drug trade and bigger than the Australian economy. There are thousands of modern day slaves in call centers in Myanmar and the Philippines with fake social media profiles running pig butchering scams. That industry runs on crypto 100%. I guess that's one "problem" crypto solved. You need some pretty convincing arguments at this point to convince me (and many others) that getting rid of this stuff wouldn't be a big win for humanity.
  - EGreg 2y ago
    The problem is relative to WHOM. Here is the problem statement and solution for community leaders, the same class of decision makers who exited “AOL Keyword NYTimes” in favor of “nytimes.com” on this newfangled protocol called HTTP, with its servers and clients called browsers that people were downloading intercoin.org/currencies.pdf