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by alistproducer2 3453 days ago
I feel exactly the way you do. I was initially seduced by Ethereum. So much so I actually read the white paper...all of it and started an Eth meetup. After a few meetings of being the only skeptic in the room, I realized the community's problem is not the tech - it's the community. The cryptocurrency world (at least the one I encountered) is a huge echo chamber filled with people who genuinely believe they are smarter than everyone else. It also only attracts a certain type of person so there is little diversity of thought. For example, there are basically 0 people in that world that think it's necessary to dumb UX down (like hiding crazy hash addresses and not denominating things to 13 decimal places) so it can be used by non-technical folks.

Eth's problem is exactly what you said: it's a solution desperately in search of a problem. I believe there are legitimate reasons to displace decentralized systems, but the market just isn't there yet. The value add just isn't there for anyone but a specific kind of nerd.
2 comments
DennisP 3453 days ago
Actually the Ethereum Name Service was launched recently. It's been in the works for quite a while, but took some time while they worked out a way to dissuade name squatters. The idea from early on was that most people would mostly use names instead of raw addresses.

The fact that things are a bit raw and technical right now is a function of the whole system being less than two years old, and still rapidly changing. But it's already at a point where an Ethereum app can have a nice web UI, and all you need to use it is a Chrome plugin and a little ether.

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Jd 3453 days ago
Same boat here. I co-founded a few Ethereum related meetups, including the Silicon Valley one. I think one of the big problems here is that a lot of the "business thinking" type folks are pushed to the side, as well as some brilliant but non-standard tech minds.

I notice that a few times when various people (including myself) raised critical feedback we were marginalized. I know a few brilliant people who were kicked out of various Ethereum related stack channels for non-conformity, for example.

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