and the ponzi scheme argument is very tired. there are far better arguments against crypto at this point if youre going to be on the anti train.
Many of us have a practical attitude which is effectively that the technology has massive potential, and at the same time, that it's probably overvalued for the current state of technology.
Of course, overvalued is subjective. It could all still amount to nothing, but it could also replace tons of legacy/traditional infrastructure and systems, and/or create a new global financial layer based on currencies whose supplies can't be manipulated by governments. The valuation is of course massively coupled to the perceived potential and the varying levels of conviction speculators have in it, which incentivizes a lot of disingenuous behaviours.
The only exciting potential use case of crypto that I've seen so far are DAOs, but I'm not convinced that there's any reason why they need to be on a blockchain instead of postgres or sqlite.
You have an easy way to win the argument, a simple proof by example will be enough to prove me wrong. So please list the amazing scientific breakthroughs or concrete examples of web3 tools that my mother could use.
my main argument with your arguments is that close mindedness and flippancy doesn't get us anywhere.
OK, what are they?
I definitely agree that a TON of the crypto space is super scammy, and think it's an absolute shame, I don't blame anyone for being scared off.
The advantage it has over IPFS is guaranteed permanence and the incentivization is core to that functionality.
Mostly it is Ethereum which is the prime enabler of all of the things you listed above. ICOs, Tokens, DAOs, NFTs, Web3 and expensive gas fees. All of it.
Every, single feature it has introduced has created tons of scams in the crypto universe with the users who are new to this are none the wiser.
This is why we need a crash to get rid of the crypto hype-squads and focus on actually useful blockchain projects that are fast, scalable, cheap, affordable and are regulated which make it harder to create such scams that Ethereum consistently enables.
Cryptocurrencies that do not fit in future regulations will simply not survive. Especially the meme-coins.
I have friends who are artists and musicians who completely drank the koolaid and are convinced that NFTs and web3 will liberate them from poverty. They will repeat all of the talking points about blockchains but have no idea what a database is. I ask them to show me a web3 website and they can't name one, show me someone they know who buys NFTs and they can't name any.
Here are some recent quotes from one of my friends:
"crypto is fairly new it’s quantum mechanics as well."
"NFTs make you a shareholder"
"yeah the Internet didn’t exist until people applied concepts to it as well. blockchain is a system where new concepts can exist on the Internet. "
"the meta data you're able to embed can be anything now so creators can make any type of art. whereas before it was just mp3 or MP4 but now u can monetize any type of digital content"
"You can protect your music or visual via an NFT and control the royalty split "
"Having the ability to retain royalties to creators is a feature we’ve never had we can sell links to exclusive bonus content, recipes, any idea whereas u post it on reg social media and it’s unprotected w no protection "