Friend: Hey, what's your take on all the other cryptos that have popped up in the last 2-3 years?
StJohn Piano: Mostly garbage (99% of everything is garbage). [0] Some interesting ones, which I have not had time to study in detail as much as I would like to.
The vast majority are scammers trying to sell a new coin (or "coin" - sometimes it doesn't actually work) to people who desperately want to believe that there can be a second Bitcoin [1]
So far, I have not seen anyone build an actual son-of-Bitcoin, which could be done (and I have a few ideas about how), and I think will eventually be done, and will run in parallel with Bitcoin, as a backup system.
StJohn Piano: Mostly garbage (99% of everything is garbage). [0] Some interesting ones, which I have not had time to study in detail as much as I would like to.
The vast majority are scammers trying to sell a new coin (or "coin" - sometimes it doesn't actually work) to people who desperately want to believe that there can be a second Bitcoin [1]
So far, I have not seen anyone build an actual son-of-Bitcoin, which could be done (and I have a few ideas about how), and I think will eventually be done, and will run in parallel with Bitcoin, as a backup system.
While I am dubious about the vast majority of new cryptocurrencies / blockchains, I am also aware that, in every new field, it has always been this way. 99% of the experiments in gunpowder, in ships, in organisational systems, in war, peace, trade, and so on, have failed, often expensively and painfully. Nonetheless, despite the failures, the activity / focus / effort / thought going into the blockchain field is increasing exponentially, much as happened during the explosions of Web 1.0 (pages) and Web 2.0 (apps), and out of it will emerge:
- New, useful cryptocurrencies (small transactions)
- Crypto messaging apps (privacy)
- Blockchain-secured social networks (protection from cancel culture, censorship, etc)
- Immutable publishing of everything that matters (as prototyped by Edgecase Datafeed)
- Blockchain companies
- Blockchain states a.k.a. Balaji Srinivasan's idea of the Network State (cf. the idea of the "Nation State")
Web 3.0, driven by blockchain tech, is about transactions. It is the final stage of humanity's transition to a computer-network-based species, in which all money, communication, and authority moves onto secure datafeeds.
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. [2]
I wouldn't pick any other time to be alive.
What a terrifying, marvellous ride it's going to be.
The end of the old world, and the beginning of a new one. All possibilities are on the table. We may collapse into barbarism, or travel to the stars.
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven...
To survive and thrive in such a time, a man must be a combination of Stalin, Buddha, and Feynman.
The best rolemodel is probably Sam, from Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.
Trickster, mystic, warrior, prince, and priest. One must be all of these things, and a little more. (... and what is a scientist, if not a special kind of mystic? He studies Existence / the Mind of God, and its workings... a notebook his prayer wheel, Nullius in verba his mantra... )
It was in the days of the rains that their prayers went up, not from the fingering of knotted prayer cords or the spinning of prayer wheels, but from the great pray-machine in the monastery of Ratri, goddess of the Night.
...
The essence of all things is the Nameless. The Nameless is unknowable, mightier even than Brahma. Things pass, but the essence remains. You sit, therefore, in the midst of a dream.
...
An army, great in space, may offer opposition in a brief span of time. One man, brief in space, must spread his opposition across a period of many years if he is to have a chance of succeeding.
...
You are a fool to speak of last great battles, Sam, for the last great battle is always the next one.
...
The essence of all things is the Nameless. The Nameless is unknowable, mightier even than Brahma. Things pass, but the essence remains. You sit, therefore, in the midst of a dream.
...
An army, great in space, may offer opposition in a brief span of time. One man, brief in space, must spread his opposition across a period of many years if he is to have a chance of succeeding.
...
You are a fool to speak of last great battles, Sam, for the last great battle is always the next one.
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[0]
Sturgeon's law:
Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
Sturgeon's law (or Sturgeon's revelation) is an adage that states that "ninety percent of everything is crap". The adage was coined by Theodore Sturgeon, an American science fiction author and critic. The adage was inspired by Sturgeon's observation that while science fiction was often derided for its low quality by critics, the majority of examples of works in other fields could equally be seen to be of low quality, and science fiction was thus no different in that regard from other art.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
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[1]
i.e. and that therefore they didn't make a mistake by ignoring the first one.
If the customers were sane, they'd be pleased that there's a gold i.e. a way to save money for the future, and they'd buy some and sit on it. But: The actual customer demand over the last few years has been for "a second chance to hit the jackpot". Often, the only product that can satisfy the set of constraints given by such customers is a scam. Various entrepreneurs have therefore provided this product (in quantity!). And - for a moment, a short but wonderful moment - the customer is satisfied with the product.
If the customers were sane, they'd be pleased that there's a gold i.e. a way to save money for the future, and they'd buy some and sit on it. But: The actual customer demand over the last few years has been for "a second chance to hit the jackpot". Often, the only product that can satisfy the set of constraints given by such customers is a scam. Various entrepreneurs have therefore provided this product (in quantity!). And - for a moment, a short but wonderful moment - the customer is satisfied with the product.
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[2]
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
- from A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
- from A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
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