Comment by magicjosh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by magicjosh | Hacker News Reader

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Yeah it's a weird vibe. Imagine if in the early CompuServ days the general person knew about it and thought it was a scam only for scammers, terrorists, and creeps.

As a user, I find it fun to chat with other crypto peeps about what they're doing...but talking to the outside world seems challenging. I can't really explain how "CompuServechain" isn't just a waste of time...but I'm having fun so I just keep doing that. I got a site setup on IPFS and connected to a .eth domain!

Maybe the difference is now people aren't coming to you for help with crypto, whereas maybe they were with CompuServe and smartphones? So you're playing a different role.

Oh you might get a kick out of this index of all decentralized ENS websites: https://esteroids.eth.limo/#/

The only requirement I know is that it's directed through a .eth, so the site itself may be boring. But most sites in the index seem to be hosted on IPFS and some even ask for a wallet to have app functions.

There were certainly people that thought the web was only for weirdos and nerds. I got bullied in school because I was on the web and playing with computers instead of playing sports, etc. Nerds weren't always cool. Life as a nerd got much easier when the money started flowing and it was completely obvious to EVERYONE we were taking over the world.

Thanks for providing the link; the popular selection[1] is most interesting. The entire space has gone so meta (a little on the nose) most don't even realize it... Imagine if all the internet offered for the first 13 years of it's life was different ways to sell you more internet. That's what the entire space looks like at this point and this link is yet another example - there are maybe three instances of destinations that I could see being even remotely useful, interesting, or usable to anyone outside of the cryptosphere.

I've been really excited about the space since at least 2017. After five years without a single "I can't live without this" moment that excitement has waned significantly.

[1] https://esteroids.eth.limo/#/popular

For me that moment is ENS and IPFS which I just learned about a few months ago. I think it's so cool to have a decentralized website and URL and I never want to go back. Had used Tor addresses previously for the DNS part.

I realize this may seem like moving the goalposts -- but have you thought about comparing to the development of the internet instead of web? Arpanet 1971 means 13 years in is 1984. I figure you've thought this through so will have some good points for why web/1991 is a better analogy than arpanet/1971.

All the stuff you wrote here is really good. Could be a blog post instead of these more ephemeral comments.

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