The basic premise of web3 is decentralization of value transfer and digital ownership. Examples of value transfer: payments, swapping assets, escrow, auctions, crowdfunds. Examples of digital ownership: limited-edition art ownership, domain names, collectibles, game assets, shares, access tokens, user accounts, private keys, and maybe eventually other assets.
Real-world use cases could replace parts of PayPal, Patreon, Bandcamp or Kickstarter with a crypto-native solution to decentralize some parts of payments, user accounts, and ownership. Where is the killer Web3 app? It's only been a ~year or so since Web3 has entered mainstream consciousness, and the few-years-old tech is still far from a usable state. Crypto has a long way yet to go: Proof of Stake, rollups, zk privacy preservation, light clients, and a host of other solutions need to be first solved for it to be widely usable. In the meantime, most current Web3 apps are best to view as high-risk "beta" experiments.
> The Web was about making information accessible to all, Web 3 is trying to provide value to a few, where everything is done for the benefit of the few rather than benefit of all.
This is a gross misunderstanding of web3. Take a look at NFT art world, almost all the media and information is freely accessible, to the point that it is regularly ridiculed with "Right Click Save" by the out-crowd. This is distinctly different than Patreon and Bandcamp models, where artists might put digital media behind a paywall, making the information only accessible to a limited few. See more here[1]
Literally everyday there's an article that is posted that completely misunderstands cryptocurrencies and the related ecosystem. The most common critique I see on HN of this is that NFTs are garbage and rug pulls suck.
Thats like saying the modern web sucks because a couple of shitty websites are live and you got your CC stolen by phishing e-mails. It just makes no sense as an argument.
Crypto has a long, long, very long way to go but if folks truly do not believe that transferring something that we believe to have some value (i.e bitcoin, or USD, or whatever) without the need for a middleman, while also keeping your funds truly safe from external control (i.e banks, governments, and the like) then cryptocurrency is simply not for you, full stop thank you for considering it.
In the first world, the full value of such decentralization and trustlessness will never be understood until they get burned like Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Cyprus, and other countries with massive hyperinflation and complete loss of wealth (temporary or not). The daily fluctuations of BTC are literally nothing next to the hyperinflation of the Turkish Lira, the Lebanese pound, the Zimbabwean dollar, and so on.
As a side note, its getting kinda tiring to see these boring, lame takes on crypto which seem as half assed as they are uninsightful posted on HN. Lets get some moderation done on this front IMO.
I don’t think bitcoin actually saves you from these problems. It replaces something like a Swiss bank account with a group of miners who you have never met running code you don’t have time to audit (and probably couldn’t practically speaking), and can’t hire a lawyer to understand for you.
> folks truly do not believe that transferring something that we believe to have some value (i.e bitcoin, or USD, or whatever) without the need for a middleman, while also keeping your funds truly safe from external control (i.e banks, governments, and the like) then cryptocurrency is simply not for you, full stop thank you for considering it.
None of that applies to Bitcoin or any other digital currency. There is always a middle man (and fees), disintermediation is a myth (and don't get me started on decentralization).
Real-world use cases could replace parts of PayPal, Patreon, Bandcamp or Kickstarter with a crypto-native solution to decentralize some parts of payments, user accounts, and ownership. Where is the killer Web3 app? It's only been a ~year or so since Web3 has entered mainstream consciousness, and the few-years-old tech is still far from a usable state. Crypto has a long way yet to go: Proof of Stake, rollups, zk privacy preservation, light clients, and a host of other solutions need to be first solved for it to be widely usable. In the meantime, most current Web3 apps are best to view as high-risk "beta" experiments.
> The Web was about making information accessible to all, Web 3 is trying to provide value to a few, where everything is done for the benefit of the few rather than benefit of all.
This is a gross misunderstanding of web3. Take a look at NFT art world, almost all the media and information is freely accessible, to the point that it is regularly ridiculed with "Right Click Save" by the out-crowd. This is distinctly different than Patreon and Bandcamp models, where artists might put digital media behind a paywall, making the information only accessible to a limited few. See more here[1]
[1] https://mirror.xyz/herndondryhurst.eth/S-W2ZXRbrcy8bVGrKwMXS...