Stories

Comment by oliversild

Comment

Comment by oliversild

I'm not a blockchain developer, nor am I by any means a blockchain or NFT expert (maybe I shouldn't be even talking about this), but I can't figure out why we need blockchain so bad for storing proof of digital assets..

As far as I've understood - NFTs anyways rely on off-blockchain infrastructure that you have to trust your assets to (i.e opensea hosting your picture on their decentralised storage). So isn't the 100% trust/transparency/integrity that you seek from blockchain already somewhat compromised? i.e maybe there's a catastrophic hardware error that wipes all servers where the pictures are stored, big oopsie, no backups.

Meanwhile having blockchain as a storage for ownership records make owning digital assets quite annoying actually. I need to first figure out how to get a wallet, then transfer USD to buy some CC, then potentially pay ridiculous fees to make the transaction and then wait for the transaction to go through. If I invest into NFTs and want to earn return, then probably at one point I need to pay all those fees again to get my USD back. Also there are so many steps where a small typo can ruin your day and also good luck getting your granny to do it. Oh, and all that computing power that is needed.

So... since I already need to trust off-blockchain entity to host my digital asset linked to the NFT, why can't I just trust them (or some other neutral party) to keep a public database of which assets are owned by which public keys. I would still have my wallet of my private keys and can verify my ownership all over the internet.

Maybe it would be a good alternative for NFTs that are for people who don't care about the blockchain and have no problem to trust a third-party organisation to keep track of ownership? In return, it would require less resources (as blockchain could be replaced with any SQL database really), transactions would be instant, fees could be fixed by the marketplace, payments could be made directly with USD or what ever currency. You can still prove your ownership around the web if you own the matching private key... and it's still as "CRYPTO" as NFTs.

Let's say I will make such marketplace. It is maintained by a democratic NGO (funded by marketplace fees) and the database of key/asset ownership is public, it's regularly publicly audited for integrity, etc (basically let's say it's trustworthy enough). Now you can upload any asset and connect ownership to a public key there. If you own the private key, then you can sell/trade, auction, etc the ownership of your item to someone else (just changing the public key who owns the asset on the DB). Would those assets be still as valuable as some of the NFTs are today? Would not using blockchain make these assets somehow less valuable? If the same art would be less valuable on such marketplace, that would open up an entire separate can of worms regarding what is actually creating the value then..

Anyways, I'm not trying to say that blockchain sucks and I wouldn't even have the expertise to make any such claims, but I'm having hard time to understand why do we trust a company to store our assets, but not to storage ownership logs/proof?

Why don't we have an alternative for people who don't have any problems with trusting someone for keeping the database of digital asset ownership. It would be a great alternative that would serve the exact same goal, but would be faster, greener, less expensive, etc.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Replies oliversild · 2022-08-12
Open on HN
Loading the discussion…

Domain filters

Stories from these domains are hidden from every list. Subdomains match too: blocking substack.com also hides danluu.substack.com. Type a domain, or paste a link to block its site, and press Enter.

New collection

Delete this collection?

About YAVCHN

YAVCHN is a reader for Hacker News and Lobsters, with articles and discussions in separate windows or Classic pages.

Created by Paul Parks and built with PUDL.

YAVCHN source code on GitHub

Privacy policy · Terms of use

Help

Keyboard

j / k
Move down and up the story list. The arrow keys scroll whatever has focus.
Enter
Read the marked story in the article reader.
[ / ]
Read the story above or below in the list, in the same article reader. Back returns to the story you came from.
p
Pin or unpin the marked story, which keeps it in Pinned.
n / N
Move to the next or previous top-level comment in the window in front.
c
Collapse or expand that comment.
f
Hide or show the story list.
Esc
Close a menu or this help.
Access key m
Go to the menu bar. Most browsers take it with Alt on Windows and Linux, and Safari with Control and Option.
?
Show this help.

Windows

Each story opens in a window holding its article above its discussion; drag the bar between them to share the room differently. A window can be moved by its title bar, resized from any edge, snapped to a half or a corner by dragging it there, maximised, or minimised to the bar at the foot of the page. Use Window > New reader window to open an empty reader, or Story > Open in new reader window to open another reader for the current article. Docked readers keep their articles when you select another story from the sidebar. Minimized readers can be restored and reused for their site. A window's Previous and Next buttons read up and down the list in the same window.

A link in a comment or an article to another Hacker News or Lobsters thread opens that thread in a window too. A link to a single HN comment opens the comment above its replies.

While a story's window is in front, the Story and Discussion menus in the menu bar hold its commands: pinning, Previous and Next story, sorting, collapsing every thread, jumping to the first new comment. Each window also remembers where you were in its article and discussion, so a reload, or Back to a story that Next took you past, finds your place again. Closing a window forgets it.

The whole arrangement lives in the address, so a bookmark or a shared link brings it back, and Back undoes the last change. Moving between Hacker News, Lobsters, their lists, Pinned and Find changes only the list, and leaves the windows open.

The list

The pin at the start of a row keeps the story in Pinned, and the cross at its end hides it. Pinned can be narrowed by words in the title, site or author, by source, and to the stories you haven't opened yet, and ordered by when you pinned them, by points or by comments; the filters are part of the address, so a filtered view can be bookmarked. Scroll past the end of the list to load more. Domain filters, in the View menu, hide every story from a site.

Collections are named lists of stories. Story > Add to collection files the story in front into one or more of them, and the Collections feed shows them all or one at a time; the menu that chooses collections also creates, renames, and deletes them. A note is your own text on a story. Choose Add note in a story's toolbar to write one; it saves as you type. Rows with a note carry the note mark, and the Notes feed lists every noted story and searches the text of your notes.

Browsing view

View > Windowed and View > Classic select the browsing view and save your default in this browser. Window view reuses a reader for each feed. Classic view opens stories and applets as pages. Open as a page is a one-off action that does not change your saved default. Use the Windowed selector to return an article to a window. Direct page links always open as pages.

Applets

The Applets menu in the menu bar holds three tools, each a window of its own. Replies to me takes your Hacker News user name and lists the replies to your last thirty comments and stories, checking again every three minutes while it is open, and marking what is new since you last marked them read. Look up a user opens a profile on Hacker News or Lobsters, with their submissions and recent comments, as a commenter's name in any discussion does; the bar at the top of a profile looks up someone else in the same window, and Back returns to the one before. Who is hiring? filters the posts of HN's monthly hiring threads by the words you type.

They read only what the sites publish to everyone, so none of them asks for a login, and your user name stays in this browser anonymously and is included in retained applet state when signed in.

Find

Find takes any link and lists every time it was submitted to Hacker News and Lobsters, so you can read each discussion of it.

About

YAVCHN never sees your Hacker News or Lobsters login. The discussion is fetched from each site's public API; to vote or reply, follow the link above the discussion, or the arrow beside a comment, to the source's own site. Without a YAVCHN account, your data stays in this browser. When signed in, pins, collections, notes, blocked domains, and retained reading state are stored with your account and synchronized across devices. Hidden stories and layout stay in this browser. The privacy policy has the details.

Open source: github.com/paulmooreparks/yavchn. Built with PUDL.