For most people, crypto is about money, not tech. Easy money, quick money. Therefore the spam level of any crypto discussion is so huge that the opinion gets drowned out by the propaganda.
You are on a forum that is literally owned by an investment firm. Do you think they invest because of the good of their hearts, or as some kind of charity, or because of "the technology"?
Investments happen because people want to make money, end of story. Not to help other people, because that is called charity.
BUT, that doesn't mean that investing is all about scamming people. It is clear at this point that the best investments are the ones that provide actual value to a lot of people.
To conclude: most things are about money, but that doesn't invalidate the value behind it.
And just like the OP, I agree that on HN these discussions always end up nowhere.
"It's all about money, not technology", and when you talk about technology:
"It's technology looking for a problem", and then you talk about use-cases: "A centralized system is more efficient".
> It smells like the .com boom/bust all over again [..]
Question: does being old enough to have lost money* - and having done so** - back in the .com bubble correlate with whether you're positive or negative about Web3 ?
"This Time Is Different" has been said by sales types since at least the year 1637
* Full disclosure: yes, I am
** Full disclosure: yes, I did .. not enough to have mattered, but enough to [still] remember
I made money during the dotcom era but am still negative because it reminds me of the worst parts of day trading. Not pets.com or Kozmo, which for all of their flaws were at least building something lots of people want to buy (both could have worked with less rushed expansion), but the sleazy pump-and-dump companies which had “here a miracle happens” in their business plans. I remember so many people doing the same “who cares about value, this number is going up!” pitch.
The same exact people that I saw domain squatting and left behind when told to put pop-unders on our pages are now closing their scammy SEO outfits to go full web3.
I've worked in the crypto space for several years as a software developer and I can confirm that this is true. Most projects have no interest in developing the technology. Some communities will actively go out of their way to suppress innovation. There is a lot of 'busy work' going on with many projects going in circles.
Like for example, you work for a company which claims to be working towards certain goals, then when you make some significant progress towards one of the main technical goals as an employee; instead of the project founders being pleased and giving you a bonus and rolling out the new tech to the community, they cancel everything, fire you from your job (or put you in a situation where you are forced to quit) and then they turn the entire community and their social network against you to ensure that you don't succeed outside the company... All against the stated goals of the company/project. True story BTW.
Investments happen because people want to make money, end of story. Not to help other people, because that is called charity.
BUT, that doesn't mean that investing is all about scamming people. It is clear at this point that the best investments are the ones that provide actual value to a lot of people.
To conclude: most things are about money, but that doesn't invalidate the value behind it.
And just like the OP, I agree that on HN these discussions always end up nowhere.
"It's all about money, not technology", and when you talk about technology: "It's technology looking for a problem", and then you talk about use-cases: "A centralized system is more efficient".