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Dave Peck

@J12t It’s so comically bad. I think the term “Rube Goldberg” applies: I can admire the extreme feats of engineering derring-do while mostly just being bemused by the outcome.

1 June at 16:58 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mastodon.davepeck.org
4 comments
Johannes Ernst

@davepeck USV wrote about what makes them excited about Farcaster. I note the reasoning applies almost identically to the ActivityPub Fediverse -- the benefits of open, decentralized protocols, a large ecosystem of developers etc. Except for the economic dimension: would be nice to have the integrated ability to send money, I agree. On the other hand, we here don't require messages to be public, which is required for a lot of use cases IMHO.

blog.usv.com/farcaster

1 June at 17:05 | Open on social.coop
Dave Peck

@J12t Yeah. It’s the same motivated reasoning I often encounter when reading about Web3 investments. It’s sorta ironic that they mention SMTP but neglect to note that it’s a blockchain-free open protocol that successfully forms a decentralized social network of, like, literally everyone on the Internet.

1 June at 20:00 | Open on mastodon.davepeck.org
Johannes Ernst

@davepeck it’s almost like the investor mind needs to hear a new technology ingredient— eg blockchain — in order to be able to believe that this decentralization thing is now possible. To answer the question of: why didn’t this happen before and why can it happen now? Blockchain!

I wonder whether we can come up with a secret new ingredient sauce that’s not blockchain but that can play the same role. “It has always been possible” is not quite as credible…

1 June at 20:36 | Open on social.coop
Dave Peck

@J12t Yeah, there is indeed some faith-based presupposing of the solution.

Also: some funds are so heavily invested in the major cryptocurrencies that they might want a new and positive story to tell to try to get the gold rush moving again. Decentralized social networks are a hot topic these days, so why not…

(Nevermind that Web3 has tried it many times before, for instance with the Lens Protocol.)

In fairness, Dixon has been beating this particular drum for 6+ years: davepeck.org/2018/08/16/revisi

@J12t Yeah, there is indeed some faith-based presupposing of the solution.

Also: some funds are so heavily invested in the major cryptocurrencies that they might want a new and positive story to tell to try to get the gold rush moving again. Decentralized social networks are a hot topic these days, so why not…

2 June at 2:16 | Open on mastodon.davepeck.org
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