[cslarson]

Nothing really has surprised me more than how difficult it had been for a lot of you to understand what the value is here.

It is a database with a new property: data and rules for manipulating data can be fixed. Yes inefficient in iops but who cares - it allows a whole new class of activity.

[brandonmenc]

We understand it.

We just find the claims dubious and the side effects horrible.

Also, like, prove that it's useful. We're still waiting.

[cslarson]

The side effects may be horrible but almost certainly not in the naive way you imagine.

[cbozeman]

I also struggle to understand how the users of HN don't see, what I think is to any thinking person, the clear advantages of values of blockchain systems.

Immutable ledgers with permanently recorded and inalterable activity make many issues with not only fiat currency desirable, but the applications into other areas are, quite honestly, limited only by the imagination of those who develop the technology further.

[tibbar]

But in practice, what new applications does this actually unlock? When do you need to cut out the middleman to this extent? For serious transactions you typically want a reputable middleman who is licensed and insured and accountable to the justice system. Blockchain sounds good, except that now you lose all of those legal and financial guarantees and have to track everything yourself. And everything you do is probably now public, too.

I don’t think this is a failure of imagination as much as a sober awareness of the many problems with blockchain. I will say that some alt coins have much better privacy properties so hey, there could be more to all this in a few years.

[ehnto]

> but the applications into other areas are, quite honestly, limited only by the imagination of those who develop the technology further.

Could you offer some examples? I keep seeing this as some kind of new frontier of functionality and yet not a single answer to anyone asking for useful applications built on blockchains that aren't currency.

[cslarson]

Not just currency but pretty much all financial services. I have blockchain based assets and have used an Ethereum based service to borrow against them to help buy a house. Tokens are an almost unimaginably large and general concept and will be applied to many things (real work assets, stocks, loyalty programs, etc.) and provide much more flexibility for how they are used, distributed and exchanged. DAOs are organizational structures that are built, generally, off of token based membership. This is also a huge landscape for social coordination.

A lot of this is just new, though. So explaining like this can only go so far and ultimately it must be experienced, like the original web in the 90s.

[rasguanabana]

I don’t clearly see how it’s ground-breaking. Non-repudiation could be achieved long before blockchain, because we have cryptography and can sign stuff.

[cslarson]

Yes you can get pretty far just signing stuff but without general availability of those attestations you are quite limited.

That's a reasonable way to describe programmable blockchain - availability for these attestations.

[kranke155]

Here's a good article about web3 that no one here will read - https://continuations.com/post/671863718643105792/web3crypto...

[tedeh]

230 points by fandorin 3 days ago | flag | hide | past | favorite | 545 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29746046

[kranke155]

yep, and every nonsense criticism of blockchain is repeated in that thread ad nauseam.

[cslarson]

Agreed, this article highlights the important property (decentralized state) that programmable blockchain (web3/ethereum) provide and why that's needed to change the current power dynamics governing web activity.

[kranke155]

HN has adopted a suicidal mindmeld on this issue. Can't be helped. The discussion will turn around when the first big platforms show up, but by then it'll be too late. HN is FUDing people out of the investment and retooling opportunity of their lifetime.

The criticisms of blockchain now will age just as well as criticism of the web. "Why do I need Amazon if I can just use the neighborhood bookstore?" sums up most criticisms here.

[rvz]

There you go. The blockchains that have utility and use-cases will survive once regulations arrive. Coins that have little use cases, memecoins, etc will wither away.

But of course, another article about Web3 and the anti-web 3 crowd continues to comment on it as if web3 is a nightmare come true.

Here we go again. [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29769291