So, if I understand correctly, the content passes use a blockchain system for authentication, but aren’t intended to be used as a currency or investment vehicle and can’t be resold or traded. It just uses a blockchain for authentication. The reason why it blew up is because the payment processor was originally meant for nfts and crypto.
Soooo… Basically it sounds like a bunch of people getting upset for no reason because they think blockchain = crypto. Cool. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful. Tbh I don’t really care about whatever the Mr. Beast thing is, but the fact that people are confusing the two frustrates me because I could see blockchains having legitimate uses, it’s just that scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes have fucked it up.
Maybe it would have turned into an nft scheme, but as it stands right now, it sounds like they were trying to use a blockchain in a legitimate manner.
The decision to use blockchain for this just screams bad decisions (and very likely an attempt to push NFTs or crypto later). There is no reason to use blockchain for authentification in this situation and people are right to be suspicious of a event which does that in this manner.
Right, they could just use pgp if they want some cryptographic authentication methods. Blockchain and other “crypto” shenanigans are strange and full of potential for future up selling/marketing push.
It’s just inherently suspicious, because there is no valid technical reason to do it that way (things just end up being more complicated, more expensive, etc., for no benefit, not to mention the brand damage), unless you have some future plans for it that will involve crypto/NFT crap. The fact that MrBeast has a history with NFTs also doesn’t help.
Or course it’s still pure speculation.
Have they explained why they chose to use it in some plausible way?
As others have pointed out, it’s just a fully public database. Its use case is among trustless parties, and that’s why it fails. At some point, somebody is going to want to take action off the data and that’s going to involve a trusted party enforcing it. Sooo … just have the trusted party host the data (and make it public if you really care). And if all the parties are truly that trustless, 1) why are they dealing with either and 2) get a third party trustee to broker your deals
NFT’s are a form of ownership (I know, I know, of a JPEG). If we leave out the scammy bullshit that NFT’s have been in the past, then there are interesting things you can do with them. One company now is minting NFT plane tickets. The advantage is that if plans change or something you OWN that plane ticket, and could directly sell it on a seconary market or somthing. Another case would be for games. I personally like collector card games, like hearthstone and things like that. However when you play digital card games you never own shit. They could just close ownership down at any point…technically. with a set of NFT cards you 100% own it.
Beyond that, the ownership model in crypto can be empowering to users as well. One insurance company popped up that let you combine your funds with others directly in the form of their risk pools to provide the necessay function that insurance companies currently do and decreasing the amount of liquidity they have to maintain which can lower prices for consumers and provide for growth on your resources.
Not all of these things have succeeded. The main thing is a different take on ownership. Previously it has been that you give money to institutions and it’s yours because you trust them. In crypto it’s yours because that’s how it’s coded in the smart contract. I’m not a maximalist, but I think if that change can be capitalized on in certain cases it could work well.
You can own plane tickets:
No you don’t. Airlines own planes and if they want you to be able to sell your plane ticket they will just allow that. People sell and change their plane tickets all the time. What you cant do if you have your ticket on the blockchain is easily change it to another flight because a storm cancelled the first one because allowing the airline to have that control over your ticket breaks the system.
You own things in games:
The company owns the game. if the company restructures at any point and closes down the servers you will find out that you actually don’t own a game card. You own a very long string of numbers that are useless without the game and the intellectual property of the game
You don’t have to rely on institutions to enforce contracts and ownership:
Nothing makes me sound like an anarchist faster than this kind of bullshit. Contracts are enforced by the dominant state apparatus trough the sanctioned use of violence. No other magic can make you own stuff.
Ownership and contracts as we currently understand them must work like this because most of society is still made out of flesh stone and metal.
I don’t own my house because I pay money for it. that is part of the deal when I moved in, but the main part of the ownership is that I have a deal with the government that they will send armed men to the building I live in if someone else tries to live in it without my approval. I dare you to name any ownership that doesn’t work like that.
That’s a nice pipedream, but why would airlines move to this system? They seem perfectly happy with the current system where you have to pay to change anything.
And the game thing doesn’t make sense. If the game shuts down, where are you going to use your NFT? There’s a few crappy crypto games that have tried making it so items are transferable, but for larger games it sounds like a nightmare to implement.
NFTs are like crypto, a solution in search of a problem. I’ll be honest, I’m anti-crypto and NFTs, but if a valid usecase presented itself I’d be happy to be wrong. I just haven’t seen it yet.
Your second paragraph is where I think the win is. When you have self custody of things, you have more ineroperability and stuff like that. Largely I buy the statement that all this is a solution in search of a problem. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing though. It broadens the possible space of options in the future, which I find to be exciting.
Edit…added the following.shit
There is at least one airline using this NFT model currently, in Argentina I think. It could be that the CEO is using the service because he’s just a crypto maximalist but I believe the win from their point of view is that they get a cut of subsequent secondary sales. They’ve sold the ticket once, maybe you can get a bit more for it.
As far as the card game goes, what your saying, that the game could be shuttered is not different than what we currently have. It’s only different in that you’re able to own the cards while it’s running. Maybe you want to gift your child a good card that you have, you can just send it to them. Impossible currently because you don’t control anything in hearthstone except how much money to spend on packs.
Isn’t blockchain the un-editable database that tracks changes by appending new ones?
How does this benefit an authentication server? Needing it to be decentralized with multiple accurate copies sounds like a recipe for forking your auth server.
I keep saying this; blockchain is just a database and a particularly inefficient database at that. That’s it, that’s all it is, I wish people would stop wanking off over it.
As you say it appends changes, which is a stupidly poor way of doing it because your file size just gets larger and larger over time. It’ll literally never be able to get smaller because of the way it works. It’ll consume more and more resources until eventually the whole planet is either blockchain or we get bored and give up with it.
The only problem it solves is the necessity for decentralisation, but that’s not really a requirement for 99.99% of projects. So it doesn’t really solve that many problems. It’s nice that it’s an option that’s there if you need it but it ridiculous the general public even know about it. It should just be one of those projects that only people who browse GitHub know about.
Basically it sounds like a bunch of people getting upset for no reason because they think blockchain = crypto.
Pretty much, yeah. Seems that people heard the phrase “blockchain” and instantly assumed the idea was to flog NFTs, which is unfortunate for the people behind the platform.
That said, this seems to be yet another example of people using blockchain unnecessarily. Wouldn’t a centralized database/authentication server have been a simpler choice?
Possibly, although there’s also the fact that “blockchain” is the trendy new buzzword that companies like to use because they think it makes them look cool.
It’s past the point where if people want to use block chain tech for a practical purpose they just need to shut up about it and no one will even think about what’s on the back end making a system work. The crypto-bros have been so loud and annoying for too long. No one wants anything to do with it now.
I agree one time use events are not a good use case. The main solution blockchain brings to the table is to be a long-term record keeping system for where blocks in the chain are either non-fungible or act as historical progression of actions. This usage as a short-term verification for a one-time event is not a good fit for blockchain technologies. There is a good reason why it is good enough for banking, but people associate the value on a token as what blockchain is used for when the value is self created by people in control of the blockchain(which is usually the token holders). Blockchain is simple, and people just overthink it as having more than it is because it is “computer stuff.”
“blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes.”
It is pretty simple. Blockchain is record keeping with cryptographic metadata as a form of discerning its place in the blockchain ledger/history.
The integrity verification is up to the creator of the blockchain or community, which is separate from what the blockchain is and acts as a supplementary system. In fact, blockchain can have a “single source of truth” because it depends on who controls most of the verification stake. such as having over 50% of the “mining” capacity coming a single entity will allow that entity to be the single source of truth. There is a risk that a decentralized network can become centralized. Fortunately, blockchains like Bitcoin and ethereum have a large enough pool of decentralized verification “miners” that keep the system from falling into a centralized entity. I remember when Bitcoin first started becoming popular, there were mining pools that were growing large enough that there could be a single centralized mining network that will control it.
You are correct that there is a complexity, but it is not the blockchain itself that is complex. It is the verification we attach to it when it comes to large-scale decentralization efforts.
The entire web3 hype worked on people not understanding it, not particularly surprising that it’s fallout does too. No, most people don’t know what blockchain is beyond blockchain|crypto|web3 = scam.
So, if I understand correctly, the content passes use a blockchain system for authentication, but aren’t intended to be used as a currency or investment vehicle and can’t be resold or traded. It just uses a blockchain for authentication. The reason why it blew up is because the payment processor was originally meant for nfts and crypto.
Soooo… Basically it sounds like a bunch of people getting upset for no reason because they think blockchain = crypto. Cool. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful. Tbh I don’t really care about whatever the Mr. Beast thing is, but the fact that people are confusing the two frustrates me because I could see blockchains having legitimate uses, it’s just that scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes have fucked it up.
Maybe it would have turned into an nft scheme, but as it stands right now, it sounds like they were trying to use a blockchain in a legitimate manner.
The decision to use blockchain for this just screams bad decisions (and very likely an attempt to push NFTs or crypto later). There is no reason to use blockchain for authentification in this situation and people are right to be suspicious of a event which does that in this manner.
Right, they could just use pgp if they want some cryptographic authentication methods. Blockchain and other “crypto” shenanigans are strange and full of potential for future up selling/marketing push.
It’s just inherently suspicious, because there is no valid technical reason to do it that way (things just end up being more complicated, more expensive, etc., for no benefit, not to mention the brand damage), unless you have some future plans for it that will involve crypto/NFT crap. The fact that MrBeast has a history with NFTs also doesn’t help.
Or course it’s still pure speculation.
Have they explained why they chose to use it in some plausible way?
What is the legitimate use you see? People in this post keep saying there are legitimate uses and gives no examples of what that is.
There are no legitimate uses, full stop.
As others have pointed out, it’s just a fully public database. Its use case is among trustless parties, and that’s why it fails. At some point, somebody is going to want to take action off the data and that’s going to involve a trusted party enforcing it. Sooo … just have the trusted party host the data (and make it public if you really care). And if all the parties are truly that trustless, 1) why are they dealing with either and 2) get a third party trustee to broker your deals
NFT’s are a form of ownership (I know, I know, of a JPEG). If we leave out the scammy bullshit that NFT’s have been in the past, then there are interesting things you can do with them. One company now is minting NFT plane tickets. The advantage is that if plans change or something you OWN that plane ticket, and could directly sell it on a seconary market or somthing. Another case would be for games. I personally like collector card games, like hearthstone and things like that. However when you play digital card games you never own shit. They could just close ownership down at any point…technically. with a set of NFT cards you 100% own it.
Beyond that, the ownership model in crypto can be empowering to users as well. One insurance company popped up that let you combine your funds with others directly in the form of their risk pools to provide the necessay function that insurance companies currently do and decreasing the amount of liquidity they have to maintain which can lower prices for consumers and provide for growth on your resources.
Not all of these things have succeeded. The main thing is a different take on ownership. Previously it has been that you give money to institutions and it’s yours because you trust them. In crypto it’s yours because that’s how it’s coded in the smart contract. I’m not a maximalist, but I think if that change can be capitalized on in certain cases it could work well.
So these are the points I can gleam from you.
You can own plane tickets:
No you don’t. Airlines own planes and if they want you to be able to sell your plane ticket they will just allow that. People sell and change their plane tickets all the time. What you cant do if you have your ticket on the blockchain is easily change it to another flight because a storm cancelled the first one because allowing the airline to have that control over your ticket breaks the system.
You own things in games:
The company owns the game. if the company restructures at any point and closes down the servers you will find out that you actually don’t own a game card. You own a very long string of numbers that are useless without the game and the intellectual property of the game
You don’t have to rely on institutions to enforce contracts and ownership:
Nothing makes me sound like an anarchist faster than this kind of bullshit. Contracts are enforced by the dominant state apparatus trough the sanctioned use of violence. No other magic can make you own stuff.
Ownership and contracts as we currently understand them must work like this because most of society is still made out of flesh stone and metal. I don’t own my house because I pay money for it. that is part of the deal when I moved in, but the main part of the ownership is that I have a deal with the government that they will send armed men to the building I live in if someone else tries to live in it without my approval. I dare you to name any ownership that doesn’t work like that.
Guess you won. I’ll just pack up and head out with all my wrongness. 🖖
That’s a nice pipedream, but why would airlines move to this system? They seem perfectly happy with the current system where you have to pay to change anything.
And the game thing doesn’t make sense. If the game shuts down, where are you going to use your NFT? There’s a few crappy crypto games that have tried making it so items are transferable, but for larger games it sounds like a nightmare to implement.
NFTs are like crypto, a solution in search of a problem. I’ll be honest, I’m anti-crypto and NFTs, but if a valid usecase presented itself I’d be happy to be wrong. I just haven’t seen it yet.
Your second paragraph is where I think the win is. When you have self custody of things, you have more ineroperability and stuff like that. Largely I buy the statement that all this is a solution in search of a problem. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing though. It broadens the possible space of options in the future, which I find to be exciting.
Edit…added the following.shit
There is at least one airline using this NFT model currently, in Argentina I think. It could be that the CEO is using the service because he’s just a crypto maximalist but I believe the win from their point of view is that they get a cut of subsequent secondary sales. They’ve sold the ticket once, maybe you can get a bit more for it.
As far as the card game goes, what your saying, that the game could be shuttered is not different than what we currently have. It’s only different in that you’re able to own the cards while it’s running. Maybe you want to gift your child a good card that you have, you can just send it to them. Impossible currently because you don’t control anything in hearthstone except how much money to spend on packs.
Isn’t blockchain the un-editable database that tracks changes by appending new ones?
How does this benefit an authentication server? Needing it to be decentralized with multiple accurate copies sounds like a recipe for forking your auth server.
I keep saying this; blockchain is just a database and a particularly inefficient database at that. That’s it, that’s all it is, I wish people would stop wanking off over it.
As you say it appends changes, which is a stupidly poor way of doing it because your file size just gets larger and larger over time. It’ll literally never be able to get smaller because of the way it works. It’ll consume more and more resources until eventually the whole planet is either blockchain or we get bored and give up with it.
The only problem it solves is the necessity for decentralisation, but that’s not really a requirement for 99.99% of projects. So it doesn’t really solve that many problems. It’s nice that it’s an option that’s there if you need it but it ridiculous the general public even know about it. It should just be one of those projects that only people who browse GitHub know about.
Pretty much, yeah. Seems that people heard the phrase “blockchain” and instantly assumed the idea was to flog NFTs, which is unfortunate for the people behind the platform.
That said, this seems to be yet another example of people using blockchain unnecessarily. Wouldn’t a centralized database/authentication server have been a simpler choice?
By far, which is why many people assumed that the plan was to start flogging NFTs later (once it became more difficult to back out).
Possibly, although there’s also the fact that “blockchain” is the trendy new buzzword that companies like to use because they think it makes them look cool.
It’s past the point where if people want to use block chain tech for a practical purpose they just need to shut up about it and no one will even think about what’s on the back end making a system work. The crypto-bros have been so loud and annoying for too long. No one wants anything to do with it now.
Blockchain is so rarely the right tool for the job that I would be generally skeptical of any project which uses it.
Event tickets are definitely not a good use case.
I agree one time use events are not a good use case. The main solution blockchain brings to the table is to be a long-term record keeping system for where blocks in the chain are either non-fungible or act as historical progression of actions. This usage as a short-term verification for a one-time event is not a good fit for blockchain technologies. There is a good reason why it is good enough for banking, but people associate the value on a token as what blockchain is used for when the value is self created by people in control of the blockchain(which is usually the token holders). Blockchain is simple, and people just overthink it as having more than it is because it is “computer stuff.”
I wouldn’t consider blockchain “simple”. Especially when the alternative truly is simple, where the system is based on a “single” source of truth.
“blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes.”
It is pretty simple. Blockchain is record keeping with cryptographic metadata as a form of discerning its place in the blockchain ledger/history.
The integrity verification is up to the creator of the blockchain or community, which is separate from what the blockchain is and acts as a supplementary system. In fact, blockchain can have a “single source of truth” because it depends on who controls most of the verification stake. such as having over 50% of the “mining” capacity coming a single entity will allow that entity to be the single source of truth. There is a risk that a decentralized network can become centralized. Fortunately, blockchains like Bitcoin and ethereum have a large enough pool of decentralized verification “miners” that keep the system from falling into a centralized entity. I remember when Bitcoin first started becoming popular, there were mining pools that were growing large enough that there could be a single centralized mining network that will control it.
You are correct that there is a complexity, but it is not the blockchain itself that is complex. It is the verification we attach to it when it comes to large-scale decentralization efforts.
Ya, from the article it sounds like people just don’t know what blockchain is?
They know enough to not want to be associated with it.
The entire web3 hype worked on people not understanding it, not particularly surprising that it’s fallout does too. No, most people don’t know what blockchain is beyond blockchain|crypto|web3 = scam.
Or perhaps they do know what it is.