Stop building on blockchain: A Reply from an optimist
Youtube drama finally caught up with IH hasn't it lol
Interesting thread that i love and respect but this sees like its is coming from someone who hates blockchain than someone who is critical of the tech (check @nscalf comment)
Blockchain is promoting scams
Give me one industry that doesn't have scams? Email scams exists, stop building email marketing tools? definitely not.
Yes i agree the moon boys are pumping crypto and promoting scams but doesn't mean the industry is a scam
Blockchain makes the rich get richer
The internet makes the rich get richer, we had a ton of millionaires in the early days of the internet and VCs were there investing and making billions but from that crop of the Rich getting richer we created the most successful crop of self made millionaires, and its cause the rich were getting richer they invested more into the internet and we are here today talking about blockchain
If everyone listened to the nay Sayers saying the internet was useless then we wouldn't have IH would we?
Who made the most money off the internet? the ones who got in early the richest men in the world today are? those who got in early
There's no single industry that doesn't reward early adopters.
The late comers are left holding the bags
You hold the worthless bag when you put in money in squid Game coin. Think about it like investing in companies, will you throw money into a new startup with a shady name and marketing ? no
A good look at ETH would show you how its a platform, why do you hold Microsoft stock? cause you know more products will be developed on the Microsoft.
Remember the internet dummies celebrated that a game will be broadcasted on broadcast.com, which a radio could already do.
Why Blockchain?
Why open source?
With all said Blockchain is faaaaaaaar from perfect and is not ready for mass adoption but zoom out, look at it from the least biased view imaginable.
Can you name 3 crypto use cases that are better than their noncrypto counterparts for the average human? I haven't found many personally. I have found things that benefit people of a certain type, but definitely not the average person.
If you're talking about the average person from the perspective of the world
Blockchain fixing supply chain issues for the average man, now this local farmers don't even know they are using blockchain as there's no token or need to set up a wallet
The core tech of blockchain is what is being used
Just take a look at inflation rate in Africa and its obvious how crypto (blockchain) is helping there, i'm not saying valueless meme coins but stablecoins backed dollar to dollar. You might be from a 1st or 2nd world country but the average man isn't.
Its not so easy to buy dollar without probably getting swindled but go on coinbase buy USDC/USDT and you have the equivalent of a dollar(with interest)
NFTs making the artist who had to beg people to buy his or her work not selling the works easily.
As a critic its easy to point to stickdix and other NFT Collections but again look at it from a completely different angle.
You might say people who buy are buying to resell but i personally own NFTs that i never plan to sell and there are tons of other collectors like me, i do buy some o resell though.
Lets even take a look at NFTs from the tech aspect not the JPEG aspect, There's something call POAP Proof of Attendance Protocol
Basically NFTs that can't be sold but instead are there as a digital certificate of something you've done. For example you contribute to a project, you get the NFTs as a proof that you contributed and can help to get employment
This tech can be used for ticketing, cost zero gas fees and non tradeable.
Blockchain has its flaws but look at the bright side :P
I appreciate you pointing out two things that I didn't think of before.
The common person does not live in a first-world country. This is obvious now that I think about it, but it offered me a better perspective.
The value of a stable coin such as USDT to economies with unstable currencies.
I think you are completely right on the topics above and I will keep them in mind.
Thanks, i'm also not saying blockchain is perfect tho
Its really like the early days of the internet.. In the 90s people thought Email the pinnacle of internet usecase.. Turns out few years later its Facebook that brought mass adoption.
Most people that are using Facebook don't even understand how the internet works. That doesn't stop them from enjoying the benefit / use case of internet.
It'll be the same for blockchain. We're still in very early days of development.
When blockchain has matured and mass adoption happened, people won't even know that they're using blockchain-based technologies :)
My top 3 use cases for crypto (so far) are:
DeFi : We've never ever have a platform that is all inclusive for anyone (with internet connection) to participate and benefit from a decentralized financial services.
NFT : Digital artists can legitimately sell their work of art and feed their family, because now their digital art piece has values (instead of just being a replicable/duplicable file on the internet)
P2E Games : Thousands of students are now doing what they love and earning some money to pay for their education :D
Cheers,
Thanks for your response! I have some questions if you don't mind answering them.
In regards to Defi, I think it is reasonable to say that a financial platform that is not regulated will negatively affect the middle class more than it will help it.
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was created to prevent companies from taking advantage of the average investor.
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
There were rampant issues with fraud. Which were addressed by central agencies in government and private industry.
Banks through their fraud detection software saves customers on average around $100 million a year A bank can take stolen money out of an account, and put it back where it belongs. This would be impossible for crypto. Money lost can never be recovered for crypto.
How could these issues ever be addressed if it goes against the fundamental values the system holds?
As for NFTs, people are buying them on greater fool theory. They can't hang them in any environment that would allow them to show off what they have. Even if they do use some NFT frame, you can post an exact pixel for pixel replica of the same thing on your wall with a digital art frame.
You can't do that with a Degas painting. Some of the paint that existed then doesn't even exist now.
Maybe one day when the price to mint is on the floor it will get widespread adoption. However, I'm willing to bet the average person doesn't even own art if we exclude religious representations. This may change, but NFTs won't be valuable until a world exists where digital assets are seen as more important than the real world.
What makes an NFT valuable if everything that makes it an NFT can be copied?
P2E Games might actually be a net benefit, provided the token the game uses actually ends up keeping its value. Which, is not what crypto is known for.
Hi @adroitboss ; I am new in this forum and I have to say I'm really enjoying the discussion I'm having with people here so far! I came from the savage world of Twitter with all of its hate and rage.. Feels really good to have an actual discussion online!!
I'm no expert in regulations, but I will try my best to address my opinion :)
In crypto, we became our own "bank".
We are responsible for our assets and our own wallets.
The point of being decentralized is so that we are in control of our own asset, but it also carries the heavy burden of responsibilities. Because, as you said, there is no middleman to do fraud prevention, it is really up to us to be alert all the time.
For the case of DeFi, I think a scenario will paint a better picture:
Say there is someone from rural Vietnam and this person got the opportunity to work abroad. Every month this person has to send money back to her parents in the village, and there's 10% remittance for every transactions. In other situation, the person receiving the funds might not have a bank account for many reasons. For example this person doesn't have a birth certificate, thus cannot create their national ID, thus don't have access to financial services such as opening a bank account (unbanked). Crypto can solve this. They can send asset directly from wallet A to wallet B without having to get anyone's permission.
This is indeed a very simple DeFi case to tackle but this is the root solution :) for bigger DeFi functions, if we were to verify the legitimacy of a DeFi platform, we can either check the audits, or we can really dig on the code to see if the smart contract is as what advertised.
Money lost is for ever lost in crypto, but there are ways to mitigate this risks. For example if you are sending large amount of asset, do a test-trx with small amount, If that goes through ; send the rest.
As for DeFi platforms, choose the ones that are reputable and reliable. Or perhaps participate on the chain's Staking programmes (this IMHO the most secure DeFi practice).
--
Regarding NFT, we are barely scratching the surface of its potential. I know a few conventional / offline artists are starting to think to utilize NFT as their physical art's certificate.
What happens for these artists are:
Now with NFT, the source of the art can be traced to the minter.
This is also only looking from the art perspective. We are currently exploring the idea of using NFT for partial property ownership, but its still a long way to go :)
Sorry for the long text :))
Cheers,
Izzurel
I appreciate all of the replies and agree Indie Hackers is a good place to have a discussion instead of non-reflective hate spewing.
I really appreciate the analogy and I also see the transfer of money without needing permission as a compelling use case. It will also help people who have "fallen through the cracks" of the systems currently in place, such as the person in your analogy.
I should also state that I don't believe Crypto is useless. I think @Moyo has made some compelling arguments above as well with the value of a stable coin such as USDT.
However, I believe crypto is portrayed as a magical solution to ALL problems which is the notion I am fighting against. Peer to Peer payments is fantastic, but we shouldn't get rid of banks because I believe they provide a safety net that a lot of people need.
I think NFTs are great as proof of authenticity, but I believe the real value will be when an NFT is paired with real-world assets instead of the buying and selling of digital ones.
For example, what if Nike gave a "free" NFT with all of the purchases of a limited edition pair of sneakers. I think that is a more realistic application of the technology, than what seems to be the more common use case. Anyone who has any audience ever mints a few NFTs to essentially just steal money from their fanbase.
I also can't wait for the dust to settle and the real technological use cases to become prominent so it can be beneficial to society. But it seems like at this moment it is just being used by rich people to take advantage of people with less money and less understanding of how the technology works.
"However, I believe crypto is portrayed as a magical solution to ALL problems"
True, I blame the moon boys who are just trying to pump their bags and make some money