Tag Archives: chainlink

web3

The Real Meaning of Web3 is not yet understood

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Is there a cookie (pie) big enough for us all?

Burning down a straw man before it’s built is a charade and a sham that predictably looks for dreams to kill, just take a peek at various articles predicting the end of web3 before it starts.

Recently there’s been a series of dust-ups and take-down attempts gunning for web3, crypto and anything decentralized or connected to buzz words like, DAOs, Defi, etc.

As logically sound as these diatribes may appear, in every case there’s a fatal flaw that’s oddly never mentioned: that at its essence web3 is a desire, an aspiration and, above all, a proposed remedy to what’s wrong with all that is, internet-wise in the present day.

Maybe it’s because the current wave of developers and venture capitalists that are at the forefront of, supposedly, building a new web, are basing the entire enterprise on a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality.

But will they come? In the end it is the crowds that make the concert. Even something as terrible and flawed as Facebook couldn’t be stopped because the crowds, both fake and, later, real-ish, did come.

Regardless of the theoretical merits of an idea or movement, if the masses do not cooperate in creating critical mass for the idea, there will be no coming out party, ever.

This is the true hope that lies beneath. The dream that dare not speak its name is not based on logic, or realistic viability, it is based on a desire that can’t be stopped, a need that does not just die out because of flawed models of centralized, decentralized or any other wannabe structure of interaction.

Web2 is dying before our eyes. Something will replace it. The rumblings from beneath in a Chinese music app named after the sound a clock makes and even from this very medium are that peer to peer power is what will drive web3 into whatever it will become.

Decentralized? The fight over defining web3 is lost in space

Peer to peer power does not rise from the barrel of a gun or even from the blockchain. It comes from the rejection of hierarchical structures that strangle creativity, and more importantly, that have no place for broadly distributed communication and prosperity to flourish.

The zero-sum mindset that Elon Musk calls wrong and that leads to “morally questionable” acts is not built to last and the top-down economics of 1 Zuckerberg per each billion users is dead and dying fast.

Can there be a Robin hood Parable 3.0: steal from nobody and give to everybody?

The infinite pie theory is the only one that fits and, according to Musk, it’s about the mindset, and adopting it all the way can take you all the way to the promised land.

The TikTok army of souls knows this and will only respond to a sustainable vision of renumeration that is, if not decentralized, at the very least widely distributed, peer-to-peer and devoid of outdated vertical top-heavy crap systems and platforms that do not work for the individual at a broad based level.

The Sun is always shining, even at night

If a “small section of southeastern Utah” can power the energy needs of the entire USA via solar, at a minimal cost compared to setting fossilized forests ablaze, then why can’t the wealth benefits of that energy be distributed across the population in a more equitable way than Malthus and the zero-sum mafia would have you believe is inevitable?

The answer to that question, beyond the benefits of asking it, is beyond the scope here, but in the case of web3 coming about it is not possible to say that it will rise as nothing more than web2 in sheep’s clothing, as Professor Scott would have you believe.

Because it will take a revolution to change and tear down the mistakes of web2 (and some other outdated baggage along the way) and that is already building in the need and desire of the population that “benefits”, or not, from the current system.

The technology that is abandoned will be the tech that is not able to exist in a world where building pyramids of crap for the Pharaohs of Facebook will just not cut it anymore. And, just as web3 already exists, not in structures built to corral and kill its spirit, but in the spirit and the need for a change and better way to make use of the network.

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Business, Crypto, Economics, Finance

Elon Musk is taking sides in the ‘True Battle’ between Crypto & Fiat

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Above:Photo Credit / Unsplash / Collage / Lynxotic

If you are stuck on the word ‘fiat’ this post can help you (everyone else too)

In a single, 14 word reply to a follower (@TheRealShifo) that asked “Yo Elon what do you think about the peeps who are angry at you because of crypto?” He gave a simple answer that is the often unmentioned, yet most important, question regarding crypto vs. fiat, government issued, currency such as the US dollar.

Looking around during the ongoing frenzy surrounding crypto and digital finance you’ll see countless ‘news” stories and blog posts comparing, or pretending to compare cryptocurrencies, especially the two biggest Bitcoin and Ethereum (as coin sometimes referred to as “Ether”) and they virtually always quote the “price” fluctuations of those coins as a certain number of dollars and cents.

Interestingly I have yet to see any of these “comparisons” use the reverse valuation method, such as, “the US dollar is currently worth .00002703 Bitcoin. Can you imagine everything using that as a standard – CNBC quoting stock prices in Bitcoin, your house is “worth” 32 Bitcoins (if you’re in California, for example).

The reason this comes off sounding strange and ridiculous is that all communication related to the US dollar, which has been a fiat currency since abandoning any “backing” (such as gold) and continuing on by decree (or fiat) of the government with no backing other than than decree, also carries a decree (tacit) not to undermine it in public.

So when Elon says:

“The true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter.”

Simple and straightforward and yet intentionally shrouded in mystery

Musk is directly comparing crypto, generally, and fiat currencies around the world that “float” against each other. And by inference, doing so in terms of the difference between a fiat currency like the US Dollar and a crypto currency, like Bitcoin.

A fiat currency is money that is not backed by a physical commodity like gold, but instead backed by the government that issued it. Most modern currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, euro, pound and yen, are fiat money.

from Wikipedia

The term fiat derives from the Latin word fiat, meaning “let it be done” used in the sense of an order, decree or resolution.

— common Definition

The fact that Bitcoin was created as a digital alternative to fiat money stands at the forefront of that point. The fact that it was designed precisely to counter the drawbacks and dangers of a system based on fiat paper money (or digital ledgers of those paper dollars such as your bank balance or any method to keep track of how many “imaginary” paper dollars you “have”) is exactly the real issue at hand.

photo credit: twitter

It’s no secret that many attack those goals and intentions superficially and dismiss the entire discussion with a wave of the hand. They willfully use the complexity of the cryptographic solutions, at the heart of cryptocurrency, as a way to gloss over the real and substantive problems being targeted.

They prey on the ignorance of the majority to try and discount out of hand any value at all for the movement and the various products.

Opening up the door to this exact exchange and characterizing it as a “battle” in one fowl swoop clarifies and simplifies the real issues and the real reason for the existence, and according to many, including Elon Musk, the need for monetary “reform” or change via a shift toward crypto.

Opening up the door to this exact exchange and characterizing it as a “battle” in one fowl-swoop clarifies and simplifies the real issues and the real reason for the existence of, and the need for, monetary “reform” or change via a shift toward crypto.

D.L.

The “price” of Bitcoin or any other crypto currency on any given day has almost nothing whatsoever to do with that debate.

Speculation abounds but not just in Crypto

The “price” is a function of, mostly, speculation and scarcity, due, in the case of Bitcoin to the mining cap, or at least a perceived scarcity. And additionally the various perceived advantages of crypto such as privacy, decentralization, use of block chain systems, etc.

But the price is like the smoke above the battlefield, not the reason for the battle or any indicator who is winning or who is on the side of might or right.

Two major questions that arise from this tweet and the potential shift toward a clearer and simpler dialogue on crypto are the following:

  1. Is crypto generally, and Bitcoin / Ether more specifically established and entrenched enough to withstand the coming backlash from governments that feel threatened and other status quo institutions that will do whatever it takes to discourage or even stamp out crypto usage?
  2. Will the very battle itself, that Elon Musk says is the current “true” battle, bring even more attention to the weaknesses and problems with the current fiat money system and thereby increase, perhaps inadvertently yet massively, the size of the battle and its stakes?

Alternative systems of trade have been tolerated in the US for some time now. How are those air miles doing? What about the chips and points for perks you got at the Indian Casino? Is it too late to outlaw all crypto without causing a revolution in the streets?

The other side of the (clipped) coin

It is truly surprising to see how little is to be found in the media about the deeper reasons for the rise of crypto. How it sometimes seems like direct criticism of fiat currency is almost taboo.

Naturally any internet search will find many “rabbit hole” sources for all kinds of information critical of the current monetary system, the same system the near total collapse of which in 2008 inspired the creation of bitcoin.

It appears that Elon Musk is emphasizing, in a subdued manner, exactly the way that the nonsense-furor over huge price gains or declines is completely missing the actual point. The “true battle”.

Many stories in the media and millions of private comments are currently following a kind of convoluted logic – first the popularity of crypto (which is linked to the unpopularity of the very messed up fiat system) artificially and massively increases prices in many crypto assets.

This “bubble”, a typical outcome of human herding behavior in financial markets, inevitably bursts or sees large setbacks. Then the coin or crypto system itself is blamed for the human stupidity and greed that caused the distortions of price, just like happened in the dot-com bubble and the 2007 housing bubble and subsequent crash.

The difference is that the crypto bubble, in an interesting way, is in reality due to a surge in skepticism toward fiat currencies, a boom in the prevalence of mistrust toward governments and a combination of fear and greed that is growing, not dissipating.

Although many have rightly criticized Elon Musk’s tweets and odd Saturday Night Live appearance, and there is a kind of mini-backlash (growing?) against all things Musk, in this case it is a healthy and wise tweet that we have shown above.

Reframing, or more aptly refocusing the discussion away from prices and speculative profits and back to the real reasons that cryptos were initially created and why it has gained such massive support is a welcome shift. That this reframing comes from the likes of Musk himself, is fitting and who better to put forth a message to simplify and clarify the nature of the real “battle” at hand.

The following video has some interesting data and arguments for, and mainly against, the fiat regime under which we have lived for most of the last century. Although, in a sense, a kind of advertisement for Gold and Silver, the overview is nevertheless accurate and does not exaggerate the dangers and issues that revolve around the fiat system.

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