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31 votes
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United States Postal Service (USPS) files patent for a blockchain-based voting system
24 votes -
Abuse and harassment on the blockchain
21 votes -
Reddit releases "community points", tokens on the Ethereum blockchain awarded for posts - currently available in /r/cryptocurrency and /r/FortniteBR
20 votes -
For those involved / interested in Web3, what do you make of the near and long term future for it?
Added the qualifier to the title as web3 understandably earns a lot of eyerolls haha. At the same time, a lot of web3 focused places seem to have a specific mindset about what "should" be done so...
Added the qualifier to the title as web3 understandably earns a lot of eyerolls haha. At the same time, a lot of web3 focused places seem to have a specific mindset about what "should" be done so I wanted to ask here.
I worked in the space at startup (ironically making web2 services to assist in web3 so I’m still an extreme novice). But my time there was a constant push / pull between convention and money and innovation and the unknown. The company I was at would try to appeal to big companies in hopes of finding a product market fit, who looked to us for guidance on what to do in this new space where they hoped to make money. Trend after trend would pass and it would be entertained whether we’d jump on it because product market fit.
The most desirable companies were household names with non-web3 userbases because they meant unprecedented reach. But to make web3 approachable to them, you’d have to define a UX that didn’t exist and would be pulled in a tug of war between two forces. The first mindset optimises for the purest idea of giving the user power— UXs that were obvious about the concepts of transactions and transferrable assets. The other wanted to replicate web2 UXs in web3, to the degree that a user gives temporary control of their wallet to a developer so the developer performs transactions as them.
Then, there is the data and pseudonymity piece. Companies have been taught that data is valuable, and one of the values of a blockchain is an identity that exists outside of any one company. But if all of your assets are on a blockchain— either under your public key or perhaps under a few that might transfer assets only between each other— then your identity can be known (not so private) and also cannot be monopolized and sold (because your data is public).
In the background, as this all happens, is the decentralization argument. At the end of the day, my company used EVM nodes operated by another company (which themselves might be wrappers around something offered by AWS). What is meaningful decentralization alongside specialization of labor? What is decentralization in a world that has billionaires and enormous companies who has the means to buy resources and set up tons of nodes?
Being out of the space now, I do think a decentralized database with immutable scripts, user-managed transferrable assets, and transferrable identity has enormous value. But recently I’ve been wondering how much of that can be accomplished in the private sector. In my time there it felt like the startup needs (enterprise customers, increased ARR) constantly compromised the will for innovation efforts.
19 votes -
SSD manufacturers start warning that mining proof-of-space blockchains like Chia Coin will void warranty
14 votes -
Experts criticize West Virginia’s plan for smartphone voting
13 votes -
Sega pulls back from blockchain gaming as crypto winter persists
12 votes -
What is Block.one, the company that just paid a record-breaking $30m for the voice.com domain name?
12 votes -
Analysis of Voatz mobile voting app by MIT researchers finds elementary security flaws
11 votes -
NFTs are legally problematic
10 votes -
There's no good reason to trust blockchain technology
10 votes -
Let me explain blockchain gaming and play-to-earn
9 votes -
How cryptocurrencies actually work
7 votes -
The strange life and mysterious death of Jerrold Haas, co-founder of the educational-blockchain startup Tessr
7 votes -
Oracle taps blockchain to introduce new revenue streams for startups
7 votes -
Grassland: Inverse surveillance via a P2P network of camera + computer vision nodes, serving as a public record of the movments of people and objects.
6 votes -
Blockchain is not only crappy technology but a bad vision for the future
6 votes -
Telegram is auctioning off rare usernames on the TON blockchain
4 votes -
Blockchain technology changes the nature of trust, but it doesn't eliminate the need for it
4 votes -
Researchers have been given a £420,000 grant to explore the potential use of a blockchain-based voting system in Greenland
3 votes -
What do you guys think about Flixxo?
3 votes -
How blockchain is being applied to improve the world and its potential to solve major world problems
2 votes