24
If someone pitches you on a "great" Web3 project, ask them if it requires buying or selling crypto to do what they say it does.
Sources and Further Reading
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/
https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/03/11/nfts-crypto-grifters-try-to-scam-artists-again/
https://amycastor.com/2021/03/14/metakovan-the-mystery-beeple-art-buyer-and-his-nft-defi-scheme/
https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html
https://blog.mollywhite.net/blockchains-are-not-what-they-say/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/who-goes-crypto-eth-bitcoin-etc-financialization-gamestop-class-wealth/
https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/1478017698676228099?s=20
https://davidgolumbia.medium.com/cryptocurrency-is-garbage-so-is-blockchain-3e80078e77fe
https://marker.medium.com/fintech-is-a-scam-a-listicle-in-eight-parts-7b6161f3a35a
https://naavik.co/business-breakdowns/axie-infinity/#axie-decon=
https://www.gawker.com/culture/the-future-is-useless-expensive
https://twitter.com/NFTtheft
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-05-baseless-nft-hype-hits-a-crescendo-but-its-play-to-earn-thats-worth-watching-opinion
https://www.technollama.co.uk/platform-is-law-the-cautionary-tale-of-stolen-nfts
https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2021/02/12/libra-shrugged-chapter-6-banking-the-unbanked/
https://twitter.com/Bitfinexed
Written and performed by Dan Olson
Crowdfunding: https://www.patreon.com/foldablehuman
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FoldableHuman
00:00:00 Preface
00:01:12 0. In 2008 The Economy Collapsed
00:07:09 1. Bitcoin
00:18:18 2. Ethereum
00:24:34 3. The Machine
00:39:07 4. NFTs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
00:57:54 5. The Unbearable Cringe Of Crypto
01:11:46 6. A Self-Organizing High Control Group
01:16:57 7. Crypto Reality
01:25:36 8. There Is No Privacy On The Chain
01:32:52 9. If This "Looks Like Scam" Then Every NFT Room I'm In Looks Like Scam LOL
01:38:29 10. Play To Earn Exists To Get You To Buy Crypto
01:46:39 11. We're All Gonna Make It And By "We" I Mean "Us" Not You
01:56:08 12. DAOs Exist To Get You To Buy Crypto
02:13:21 13. I Know It's Rigged, But It's The Only Game In Town
It’s long, but well divided into sections and worth every second of it.
These problems are not solved by blockchains.
Between developers pushing updates that users might not necessarily even be aware of or understand the consequences of, proof-of-stake blockchains being open to abuse due to concentration of ownership and thus voting power, proof-of-work blockchains experiencing mining pooling which concentrates effective power in the hands of people who control the pools - centralization of power effectively still remains a problem. It happens differently, on a different level, but it’s far from “solved”.
And federated solutions might even be more resilient to such secondary centralization simply by virtue of operating on the level of communities built around specific instances instead of the whole network.
The basic unit of sustainable human life is a village, not a singular human being. That is still surprisingly valid in the digital world. That’s what blockchain people seem to get wrong.