HN Explorer

Ask HN: Good Critiques of Web3 and Crypto?

21 points by magicjosh ↗ HN
I can count on one hand the number of solid critiques of web3 I've seen.

Moxie's article is solid [1]. Molly White's stuff is a thoughtful approach from the front-end perspective [2]. Stratechery has some curious diagrams [3].

Currently on the front page is this instant noodle article that reads like something out of Skymall or United Airlines Magazine [4]. I'm looking for more thoughtful stuff like Moxie and Molly have written.

Disclosure: I own crypto stuff

[1] https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html

[2] https://blog.mollywhite.net/abuse-and-harassment-on-the-blockchain/

[3] https://stratechery.com/2022/opensea-raises-money-bans-nfts-openseas-value-cryptos-aggregators/

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30131830

22 comments

[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 105 ms ] thread
shudza
Moxie's analogy about internet, email and gmail was an eye opener for me.
enos_feedler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g

Description:

Written and performed by Dan Olson

Crowdfunding: https://www.patreon.com/foldablehuman

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman

00:00:00 Preface

00:01:12 0. In 2008 The Economy Collapsed

00:07:09 1. Bitcoin

00:18:18 2. Ethereum

00:24:34 3. The Machine

00:39:07 4. NFTs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto

00:57:54 5. The Unbearable Cringe Of Crypto

01:11:46 6. A Self-Organizing High Control Group

01:16:57 7. Crypto Reality

01:25:36 8. There Is No Privacy On The Chain

01:32:52 9. If This "Looks Like Scam" Then Every NFT Room I'm In Looks Like Scam LOL

01:38:29 10. Play To Earn Exists To Get You To Buy Crypto

01:46:39 11. We're All Gonna Make It And By "We" I Mean "Us" Not You

01:56:08 12. DAOs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto

02:13:21 13. I Know It's Rigged, But It's The Only Game In Town

CtrlAlt
+1. Highly informative, well researched and has made me doubt some of my own investments into crypto/NFTs.
magicjosh
Any particular section you recommend starting with? 2 hours whew!
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
[dead] changxi_hn
bvrmn
Just curious why. Millennials can't get new progressive things?
xcdzvyn
This certainly one of the best videos I've seen, but it still inevitably falls into the trap of throwing ad hominem around occasionally. It greatly detracts from its integrity and its façade of neutrality.
magicjosh
Agreed - he has some other good content, like there's a take apart of the editing style of the movie Suicide Squad.
oreally
Are people seeking alternative viewpoints or just dogpiling the same opinions with minor alterations? There's far more criticism of nfts on today's social media channels than the other, I find.

In any case, it's good to keep in mind that more experimentation will come with nfts and that it will continue to evolve into something different. Be open and don't write it off just yet.

swalsh
The more I explore the space, the more it's becoming clear to me that the origional vision of crypto probably isn't going to happen. But that the potential is even greater than the origional vision. Any time I've tried to design systems that tie the crypto world to a physical object that's not easy to verify in a distributed way (so verifying an item is delivered as opposed to what the weather is) it's clear the system is fragile... and the user experience will always be worse than a trusted system.

But digitally native stuff works great (on alternative chains, I haven't had good experiences on ETH... kind of expensive, kind of slow).

The blockchain isn't about digitalizing the real world economy. I think it's about creating a new purely digital economy. Trading digital assets for digital money. Things that can be easily digitalized can fit in this model well. SaSS, Finance etc. things like eCommerce can be partially put on-chain, but the experience is better in a hybrid way. In my vision of the future, a robot that delivers packages might be controlled via an NFT, but a package is not going to be tracked via an NFT.

Also to explore why it might be useful to do some stuff on-chain, it's kind of a chicken and an egg problem. It's better to do it on-chain, because something else on-chain needs it. For example, on-chain cloud hosting is not necessary superior in our current world (but it does exist) but if you're trying to do something else on-chain (like say run an autonomous organization that manages a web service) running the web hosting on-chain is just going to be eaiser to do business.

oreally
Well I'm personally not so sure if the physical items registered on blockchain thing will work out well. The strengths of the blockchain lie in transparency, near-unchangeable rules which produce a degree of reliability, and digital asset tokenization - all experimental, yet has good long-term prospects for a new kind of digital economy. Just that they have to make sure the downside problems are solved for the common man.
dvngnt_
I think concert ticket nfts would be cool. like if you bought a ticket you would receive a commemorative nft. then, you can show off your Woodstock nft to your grandkids like how people save ticket stubs now
smt88
> then, you can show off your Woodstock nft to your grandkids like how people save ticket stubs now

You could do this with your emailed receipt if you wanted.

You could also just take photos of yourself at the event instead. That would probably mean a lot more to your grandkids.

dvngnt_
a receipt is boring, i'm imagining a cute sticker nft commissioned by the artist that fits the theme of the concert. And i'm not suggesting that with concert NFTs we wont take pictures, but i think it can work alongside to enhance the experience and have a verifiable way of determining ownership.
8note
As far as crypto currencies go, the biggest criticism is that it costs money per transaction vs a one time cost for all transactions with cash.

You make the cash once, and it can be used till it wears away to nothing.

The biggest criticisms imo of ethereum/smart contracts is that it's a centralized bottle neck, again due to a cost per transaction, and specifically bidding for transactions.

You're coupling yourself to having one central db for everything everyone is doing, vs having microservices that fail independently. one meme can take down all ethereum transactions by making it too expensive to run a food delivery service. It's centralizing rather than decentralzing

magicjosh
Just to clarify I'm looking for blog posts, articles, videos rather than people to type their opinions here.