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The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

(cheapskatesguide.org)
622 points ColinWright | 2 comments | 25 Jan 22 22:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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pavlov ◴[25 Jan 22 23:17 UTC] No.30079513[source]▶
> 'Some people use the term "Web 3.0" to refer only to decentralized blockchain-based networks without considering that all personal websites have essentially the same goals, be they on the regular Internet or on the new blockchain networks. Those who use the term "web 3.0" seem to have forgotten that self-hosted personal websites that run on home servers and are accessible over the regular Internet are inherently decentralized. Unfortunately, despite common goals, some on today's old Internet are hostile to blockchain technology. I am not sure why.'

What goals does today's crypto-token-powered "web 3" vision share with the old Internet? It's not enough to say "well it's decentralized" and do a handwave.

Consider the NFT exploration Moxie Marlinspike did recently:

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

This is essentially a system that lets you buy DRM'd metadata that points to servers owned by a corporation funded by billions of VC dollars, and transactions are recorded on a ledger that spends more power than the entire country of Finland. The only purpose of these activities is to speculate on prices of these make-believe digital assets.

None of these things have anything to with the old Internet: cargo cult DRM, billion-dollar VC funding, enormous energy waste, artificial scarcity where none is needed.

That website on dial-up was slow because of real physical constraints, not artificial constraints erected to make VCs richer at the expense of the planet's ecosystem.

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idiotsecant ◴[25 Jan 22 23:44 UTC] No.30079764[source]▶
It's worth noting that there is a core of people doing real work in crypto who are not trying to peddle NFTs or other sleight of hand rungpulls designed to separate the gullible from their money.

Ethereum, for example, is full of people building interesting things like off-chain low-cost trading using non-interactive zero knowledge proofs and actively working to make crypto less energy intensive and more useful. They don't want to sell you an NFT and it's not part of some elaborate rugpull- There are plenty of examples of people doing this important work because they legitimately believe that a world where fiat control is divorced from the levers of governmental power is a positive change.

There are also, of course, people trying to use those achievements as part of a weird shell game where the end result is giving gullible strangers nothing in exchange for something. That's sort of the human condition.

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gitfan86 ◴[25 Jan 22 23:53 UTC] No.30079836[source]▶
Yes there are people with 100% good intentions working in this space. There were also people with 100% good intentions working at Theranos.
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tata71 ◴[26 Jan 22 00:16 UTC] No.30080040{3}[source]▶
With the obvious exception that...it's impossible to fork an entity like Theranos when they become sufficiently evil such that the community no longer believes in their direction.
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IncRnd ◴[26 Jan 22 00:38 UTC] No.30080178{4}[source]▶
Well, Theranos was a fork of existing, well-understood blood testing methodology. It was a house of cards built out of lies and falsehoods in order to enrich the founder and associates.

Exactly like crypto often is.

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1. tata71 ◴[26 Jan 22 03:18 UTC] No.30081243{5}[source]▶
"www companies are just a way for VCs to make money faster. "
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2. ◴[26 Jan 22 17:11 UTC] No.30088264[source]▶