• IEatAsbestos@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    The thing is that blockchain technology is actually pretty impressive and has potential to change society. Prove-able digital ownership is massive, but what it is currently used for is literally just a scam. Crypto is too volitile to use as a currency, NFTs are AI generated slop (even though the term NFT should be used in a wider context) and blockchain apps and the general environment are in its infancy, being generous. Until more developments it is either a scam, or a lottery.

    • demesisx@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Agreed on all points. Thanks for speaking reasonably. I too think the technology is INCREDIBLY promising but also acknowledge that it is in its infancy…and will continue to be because of the hivemind.

      I think crypto technologies could work toward making a better democracy and other applications of a public ledger. I think it is currently the best solution to a decentralized, open source way to add incentive to the act of running public infrastucture. It’s actually my hope that perhaps it can be used to incentivize the act of running a lemmy/kbin instance (for instance).

      I absolutely despise the moonboi bullshit and am honestly only in it for the technology and its relevance to the realization of a truly borderless, open source, anarcho-syndicalist, cypherpunk way of life. I want to own my property and I want to help use technology to make corruption impossible…and NFT’s, as a technology, are currently a key part to one of the best solutions to many of these issues. They, like crypto, are misunderstood.

      To analogize my sentiment: it feels like the hivemind is espousing the benefits of for-profit healthcare that kills 70k people/year in the US while Single Payer stares them straight in the face around the world.

      • Smatt@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        it can be used to incentivize the act of running a lemmy/kbin instance (for instance).

        Good comment and I’d just like to say, I see what you did there.

      • teuast@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I want to own my property and I want to help use technology to make corruption impossible…and NFT’s, as a technology, are currently a key part to one of the best solutions to many of these issues.

        are they, though?

        They, like crypto, are misunderstood.

        are they, though? one would imagine that if that was true, they would have demonstrated some capacity for something other than speculating and scamming in the 15-odd years crypto has existed. single payer is a bad analogy because there’s actual hard evidence for it being a better system than what we’re currently doing.

    • ALostInquirer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      blockchain apps and the general environment are in its infancy, being generous. Until more developments it is either a scam, or a lottery.

      Hasn’t this space been going in some capacity for almost a decade, if not a little more, now?

      • teuast@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Yup. This point was also articulated really well by Dan Olson in I think it was the one about “the Metaverse.”

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The “legal ownership, contracts, and money” space has been going on for a few thousand years.

    • PeddlingAmbiguity@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      On every single thread about crypto on the Internet, someone has to make this claim. At some point, someone somewhere has to actually have a real world example of this technology being used in a useful and novel way that isn’t easier and cheaper with other technology. It isn’t happening, it’s been over 10 years, when can we stop using the “in its infancy” argument?

      • IEatAsbestos@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Digital proof of ownership. I dont think you realise how important that could be. Right now NFTs are AI generated PNGs, but if it has its chance it could be fully functional digital paperwork. It doesnt matter if someone can right click save the deed to a house if we know which ones the “real” one. Only one example. And sure the tech has been around for ~10 years but we both know its REALLY been around for ~4. Maybe its going to stay as one big ball of “potential” forever, which seems more and more likely by the day. In a few years time if nothing comes of blockchain tech except more headlines of idiots losing money ill be ready to sign the whole thing off.

        • hark@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Imagine people having the deed to their house on the blockchain and then a scammer transferring ownership through a scam. Imagine a real estate agent writing into the smart contract of your house purchase that they get to also take a percentage of when you sell the house later even if they’re not otherwise involved in that sale. The possibilities are endless! Of course you can avoid these things if you’re technically-knowledgeable and can understand the underlying code, but most people aren’t. Heck, even technically-inclined people have some degree of blind trust. Do you read the source code of all the open source software you run?

          • IEatAsbestos@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Thinking these would only be blockchain issues is naive or dishonest. People sign weird contracts all the time (have you ever read a EULA that you’ve agreed to? Those things are wild), people are falling for nigerian prince schemes RIGHT NOW in the year of our lord 2023, and modern day identity theft is stealing homes without the blockchain. Having an immutable ledger would help rewind things when they go wrong if anything.

            • hark@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              People sign weird contracts but those contracts are written in a human language. What do you think is more likely? The average person being able to read a contract in their native language or the average person being able to read a contract written in whatever the scripting language is provided by some random smart contracts system?

              Yes, people do fall for scams all the time, which was my point. With our existing systems, there are at least ways to undo those transactions. With blockchain you’re out of luck, unless they build in mechanisms to reverse transactions, but then you have the problem of figuring out what transactions are allowed to be reversed and who can reverse them and eventually you end up with a trust-based system.