tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post8932722136324152057..comments2024-03-28T13:39:27.601-07:00Comments on DSHR's Blog: Another Layer Of CentralizationDavid.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-67502310158013167852022-02-22T16:41:13.981-08:002022-02-22T16:41:13.981-08:00Matt Levine comments on the lawsuit bought by Timo...Matt Levine comments on the lawsuit bought by Timothy McKimmy against OpenSea in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-22/bored-apes-go-to-court" rel="nofollow"><i>Bored Apes Go to Court</i></a>:<br /><br />"The idea of crypto was to create a sort of property that could be evidenced through code, where ownership was decentralized and permissionless rather than intermediated through some traditional authority. And it worked, and NFTs became worth millions of dollars, which made them far too valuable to be subjected to the uncertainty of decentralized permissionless ownership. And so now if someone takes your apes on the blockchain, you can try to get them back in federal court. “Why is this my problem,” the judge might reasonably ask."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-89032484199443837502022-02-09T12:40:55.921-08:002022-02-09T12:40:55.921-08:00The most recent episode of The Economist's pod...The most recent episode of <i>The Economist</i>'s podcast <i>Babbage</i> is <a href="https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2022/02/08/web3-the-latest-silicon-valley-buzzword" rel="nofollow"><i>What is web3?</i></a> features luminaries like Tim O'Reilly and Benedict Evans. And me, as one of the small minority of skeptics standing against a tsunami of hype.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-77610189805522440362022-02-07T06:45:19.958-08:002022-02-07T06:45:19.958-08:00In The Crypto Backlash Is Booming Kaitlyn Tiffany ...In <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/crypto-nft-web3-internet-future/621479/" rel="nofollow"><i>The Crypto Backlash Is Booming</i></a> Kaitlyn Tiffany recounts some of the right-clicker backlash:<br /><br />"The term itself—<i>Web3</i>—was first used by Gavin Wood, the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/web3-gavin-wood-interview/" rel="nofollow">co-founder</a> of the popular Ethereum blockchain, in 2014, in <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/01/04/what-is-web-3-heres-how-future-polkadot-founder-gavin-wood-explained-it-in-2014/" rel="nofollow">an essay</a> now referred to as “seminal” and “classic” by crypto enthusiasts. The vitriol that can erupt anytime his neologism is mentioned—the fuel that often takes these conversations from zero to 100—comes from the creeping feeling that Wood and others’ vision of the future is inevitable, that Web3 will come about in spite of anybody’s reservations, however much it seems to be a scam. The frenzy of speculation is being met with a counter-frenzy of resentment."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-13462826668923702652022-02-02T06:58:19.569-08:002022-02-02T06:58:19.569-08:00Web3 is so last year. Ben Munster announces he is ...Web3 is so last year. Ben Munster announces he is <a href="https://decrypt.co/91393/web4-gm-wagmi-a-thread" rel="nofollow"><i>Building Web4: A Thread About How We Are Going to Make It! </i></a>:<br /><br />"DAOarrhea is an exciting new project leveraging fully composable AI to build on-chain AMMs and liquidity pools that will change the world."<br /><br />And:<br /><br />"We believe there are four key bottlenecks to mass global adoption: poor user interfaces, the high risks involved in token trading, the prevalence of scams and hacks, and Anthony Pompliano.<br /><br />The common denominator to these problems is they all stem from fallible human users.<br /><br />Our solution? It’s simple: Remove the users."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-28382723846271345732022-01-24T15:51:24.411-08:002022-01-24T15:51:24.411-08:00The Economist adopts its typical fence-sitting pos...<i>The Economist</i> adopts its typical fence-sitting posture in <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/will-web3-reinvent-the-internet-business/21807365" rel="nofollow"><i>Will web3 reinvent the internet business?</i></a>. The article isn't well thought out at either the business or technical level.<br /><br /><b>Business</b><br /><br />Aside from crediting the idea that VCs would pour money into businesses that were actually decentralized and thus competitive and low-margin, has <i>The Economist</i> asked itself:<br /><br />- Why is web2 dominated by Facebook and Google?<br />- Could it be because actually interacting with the decentralized technology they ride on is too hard to mere mortals?<br />- How exactly exactly does web3 improve the user experience of interacting with the underlying decentralized technology?<br /><br /><b>Technical</b><br /><br />What Moxie so brilliantly demonstrated was that NFTs have only a <a href="https://blog.dshr.org/2021/04/nfts-and-web-archiving.html" rel="nofollow">notional connection</a> to the thing they represent. They convey no rights over it, they do not guarantee access to it, even if they do provide access they don't guarantee that it is unchanged, and they don't prevent it <a href="https://blog.dshr.org/2021/11/i-confess-to-right-clicker-mentality.html" rel="nofollow">being copied</a>.<br /><br />Has <i>The Economist</i> asked itself:<br />- Is it really credible that the future of Internet business rests on such a shaky foundation?<br />- Why are scams and rug-pulls are so ludicrously easy in web3?<br />- Could it be because the technology is so bad that it is crimogenic?David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-76626127191755041132022-01-21T06:13:00.868-08:002022-01-21T06:13:00.868-08:00Ephrat Livni's Tales From Crypto: A Billionair...Ephrat Livni's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/business/dealbook/web3-venture-capital-andreessen.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Tales From Crypto: A Billionaire Meme Feud Threatens Industry Unity</i></a> explores the fight over "web3" and "decentralizing the Internet" between the people who only have your interests at heart.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-86049449703329715122022-01-20T10:32:32.862-08:002022-01-20T10:32:32.862-08:00Nick Baker's Wall Street Traders Muscle Into t...Nick Baker's <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-19/wall-street-traders-want-crypto-market-profits-and-future-in-the-global-economy" rel="nofollow"><i>Wall Street Traders Muscle Into the Middle of Crypto</i></a> greatly under-estimates Wall St. market makers' role in cryptocurrency markets. The subhead is:<br /><br />"It’s called decentralized finance, but the established pros still want a cut."<br /><br />For a necessary corrective see <a href="https://www.singlelunch.com/2022/01/09/an-anatomy-of-bitcoin-price-manipulation/" rel="nofollow">this</a>.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-87892549986360661112022-01-17T18:46:57.775-08:002022-01-17T18:46:57.775-08:00The Onion’s Guide To Web3 is succinct, readable, a...<a href="https://www.theonion.com/the-onion-guide-to-web3-1848356077" rel="nofollow"><i>The Onion’s Guide To Web3</i></a> is succinct, readable, and insightful.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-4854260881462395902022-01-16T05:48:51.480-08:002022-01-16T05:48:51.480-08:00There's now a site dedicated to showing that W...There's now a site dedicated to showing that <a href="https://web3isgoinggreat.com/" rel="nofollow"><i>Web3 is going just great</i></a>. The most recent posts are:<br /><br />- <a href="https://web3isgoinggreat.com?id=2022-01-15-0" rel="nofollow"><i>Developer apparently rug pulls two NFT projects at once</i></a>.<br /><br />- <a href="https://web3isgoinggreat.com?id=2022-01-14-1" rel="nofollow"><i>An attacker pulls about 350 ETH from Float Protocol's Rari Capital pool</i></a>.<br /><br />- <a href="https://web3isgoinggreat.com?id=2022-01-14-0" rel="nofollow"><i>Voice actor Troy Baker announces his involvement in "voice NFT" project Voiceverse with an antagonistic tweet, shortly before it's revealed that the project stole work</i></a>.<br /><br />- <a href="https://web3isgoinggreat.com?id=2022-01-13-0" rel="nofollow"><i>Token drop for the aptly named WTF token devolves into chaos</i></a>.<br /><br />Web3 really is going great!David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-79175780747942921582022-01-15T17:13:17.365-08:002022-01-15T17:13:17.365-08:00Another article inspired by Moxie Marlinspike is J...Another article inspired by <a href="https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html" rel="nofollow">Moxie Marlinspike</a> is John Naughton's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/15/will-blockchain-fulfil-its-democratic-promise-or-will-it-become-a-tool-of-big-tech" rel="nofollow"><i>Will blockchain fulfil its democratic promise or will it become a tool of big tech?</i></a>. Naughton is appropriately skeptical:<br /><br />"At the moment, for example, the consensus-establishing processes for verifying blockchain transactions requires intensive computation, with a correspondingly heavy carbon footprint. Reducing that poses intriguing technical challenges, but focusing on them means that the engineering community isn’t thinking about the governance issues raised by the technology. There may not be any central authority in a blockchain but, as Vili Lehdonvirta <a href="https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/the-blockchain-paradox-why-distributed-ledger-technologies-may-do-little-to-transform-the-economy/" rel="nofollow">pointed out</a> years ago, there are rules for what constitutes a consensus and, therefore, a question about who exactly sets those rules. The engineers? The owners of the biggest supercomputers on the chain? Goldman Sachs? These are ultimately political questions, not technical ones."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-39739352775394941102022-01-14T09:53:19.039-08:002022-01-14T09:53:19.039-08:00Ben Thompson's OpenSea, Web3, and Aggregation ...Ben Thompson's <a href="https://stratechery.com/2022/opensea-raises-money-bans-nfts-openseas-value-cryptos-aggregators/" rel="nofollow"><i>OpenSea, Web3, and Aggregation Theory</i></a> describes yet another layer of centralization - OpenSea as the dominant aggregator of demand for NFTs:<br /><br />"In fact, what gives Aggregators their power is not their control of supply: they are not the only way to find websites, or to post your opinions online; rather, it is their control of demand. People are used to Google, or it is the default, so sites and advertisers don’t want to spend their time and money on alternatives; people want other people to see what they have to say, so they don’t want to risk writing a blog that no one reads, or spending time on a social network that because it lacks the network has no sense of social."<br /><br />Thus:<br /><br />"This, then, is the reason that OpenSea received its $13 billion valuation: it is by far the dominant market for NFTs; should the market exist in the long run, the most likely entryway for end users will be OpenSea. This is a very profitable position to be in, even if alternatives are only a click away. It’s not like that reduces the profitability of a Google or a Facebook.<br /><br />It is also why OpenSea’s bans have some amount of teeth to them: as I noted, you can still buy and sell these stolen and rip-off NFTs, just as you can still go to a website that is not listed in Google, communicate with a friend kicked off of Facebook, or state your opinions somewhere other than Twitter. The reduced demand, though, lowers the price, whether that price be traffic, convenience, or attention. Or, in the case of NFTs, ETH: not having access to OpenSea means there is less demand for these NFTs, and less demand means lower prices."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-48159620827944866752022-01-13T17:27:37.759-08:002022-01-13T17:27:37.759-08:00Crypto-Savings Lawsuit Puts Principles of DeFi to ...<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-savings-lawsuit-puts-principles-of-defi-to-the-test-11642069806" rel="nofollow"><i>Crypto-Savings Lawsuit Puts Principles of DeFi to the Test</i></a> by Dylan Tokar reports that:<br /><br />"[DeFi] also begs the question: Who’s responsible when things go wrong?<br /><br />That is the question being raised by a class-action lawsuit filed in New York federal court against one such novel DeFi service, a cryptocurrency savings application called PoolTogether. The application, described as a “no loss prize game,” incentivizes users to save their cryptocurrencies by offering them the chance to win awards from the interest generated by the collected funds.<br /><br />The lawsuit, filed by a software engineer named Joseph Kent, has challenged the legality of PoolTogether’s operation, saying the scheme is essentially a lottery and prohibited under New York law."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-78099757959436525582022-01-13T10:07:38.936-08:002022-01-13T10:07:38.936-08:00Via Ed Zitron, we find Parmy Olsen's Web3 Just...Via <a href="https://ez.substack.com/p/nobody-cares-about-decentralization" rel="nofollow">Ed Zitron</a>, we find Parmy Olsen's <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-01-11/signal-founder-marlinspike-gives-web3-nfts-an-emperor-s-new-clothes-moment" rel="nofollow"><i>Web3 Just Had Its Emperor’s-New-Clothes Moment</i></a> - an excellent overview of Marlinspike's argument for the lay person. She concludes:<br /><br />"In acting as gatekeepers of data, Web3 companies have even more insights into what users are doing than companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook.<br /><br />That could become a bigger problem if Web3 companies reach the scale of Big Tech today. Given the strangeness of their mechanics, though, it is hard to see that growth happening anytime soon, if ever."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-88338802222275903972022-01-13T10:02:00.621-08:002022-01-13T10:02:00.621-08:00Ed Zitron writes Nobody Cares About Decentralizati...Ed Zitron writes <a href="https://ez.substack.com/p/nobody-cares-about-decentralization" rel="nofollow"><i>Nobody Cares About Decentralization - They Just Want To Get Rich</i></a>, and he's so right:<br /><br />"The only real idea left was the idea of personal liberty and ownership outside of legacy systems, which Marlinspike has accurately and painfully detailed isn’t the case.<br /><br />That’s why crypto evangelism is so <i>poisonous</i> - because it’s ugly to say “join this system that I’m using so we can both get rich!” It’s much easier to promise dreams of escaping the 9 to 5 and evil “centralized platforms,” using vague dogma to convince people that this is a <i>moral</i> rather than <i>fiscal</i> crusade. The reason you might get rich is because you picked the right side. You are “going to make it” because you made the right moral choice."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-49166654180434517442022-01-11T09:25:12.003-08:002022-01-11T09:25:12.003-08:00The conclusion of Can Duruk's response to Moxi...The conclusion of Can Duruk's response to <a href="https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html" rel="nofollow">Moxie Marlinspike</a>, <a href="https://www.readmargins.com/p/is-web3-faking-it" rel="nofollow"><i>Who is Web3 Really Good for?</i></a>, is:<br /><br />"For many companies in this space, such centralization efforts will seem benevolent as the crypto pie is still growing. But keep your eyes fixated on the future, not the past. They must all be seeing more competition in their future than their past. When that happens, expect even more centralization than there is today. When that happens, the crypto-folk might be left wondering why they let those who built today’s internet with all its problems, own the next one as well."David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.com