As I get older, I worry about falling behind on technology. I don’t want to be one of those old people who don’t engage with modern tech. I don’t ever want to be like those people afraid of computers, or claim that typing isn’t something someone needs to do, etc.

I am, however, very skeptical of blockchain and ‘Web3’. I just can’t quite get it to work in my mind. Yes, I understand low trust situations, but there are already ways to handle that. I also understand the desire for contracts that are binding and execute without any intervention, but the examples that have been presented to me depend on both parties actually wanting to live in a world where there is no independent control of cash flow. A company may want to manage cash flow by withholding money for a few days, or alternatively, reduce costs by offering to pay sooner than agreed upon, if the recipient agrees to a very slight reduction in the amount they receive.

I have yet to see an actual compelling (to me) use of cryptocurrency. I’ve bought some, and now that it has spiked by 200% and then dropped back down to almost the original value, I don’t see how it’s any ‘better’ than stocks.

The latest craze with NFT’s just seems like money laundering. At this point in time, at least one game publisher is working on creating NFT’s for in game items, which is better… how? Oh, you can have a serial number embedded on your in game character? Okay, why can’t that be done with existing tech – it’s not like it’s hard to keep track of add-ons or stuff that is equipped on your character? Oh, you can transfer ownership? Sure, that could be done using existing tech. You ‘own’ it, the publisher doesn’t? Uh-huh, right until the publisher kills the product that it depends on, which will happen.

In short (ha!), I’m a skeptic. Always looking to be proven wrong, and who knows, maybe in a few years I’ll be a complete convert.

In the meantime, here’s a good read on ‘web3’ : The Web3 Fraud | USENIX