Dapps
avc.com
avc.com
It's entertaining watching all of the VCs who have made a major bet on crypto, who are now doubling down on what looks more like an overheated casino losing steam. Fred Wilson might end up watching the tide go out on this one. Maybe people will finally remember that he was part of Twitter's clueless board, the one that didn't think it was important to buy Instagram?
The KPCB flops in "green tech, clean energy, etc" were widely reported.[1] Also, the VC firm DFJ and Tim Draper in particular were laughingstocks for investing in the Theranos scam because they didn't do proper due diligence.
>Fred Wilson [...] was part of Twitter's clueless board, the one that didn't think it was important to buy Instagram?
Is there a source that says it was Fred Wilson who blocked the acquisition of Instagram?
The story I read was that both Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook were courting Instagram at the same time.
Jack offered ~$500 million (all in Twitter stock).
Mark offered ~$736 million ($300 million of that in cash).
Basically, Facebook had the more enticing offer.
In 2012, Twitter wasn't generating any profits and didn't have any excess money in the bank to include any cash component to their bid.
On the other hand, Facebook was already profitable for 3 years and had ~$4 billion in cash in the bank even before the IPO in May 2012. Having a stock that was backed by real profits and a war chest of cash lets Facebook make more attractive acquisition offers.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=kpcb+green+tech+lost+money
Vetting a VC only by wins is missing quite a bit of information, presumably. It can at the very least tell you about potential blind spots and some idea how much actual skill may be involved versus luck or even "a broken clock is right twice a day" scattershot portfolios.
A batter can help win a series, especially the World Series, and make all their losses look uninteresting. But you still are going to at least check their batting average if you are looking to trade them.
A horse can win a major stakes race, such as the Kentucky Derby, and bring in a massive purse (and eventual stud rights) that makes any losses look like warmup rounds. But before heading to the betting window you are still going to check if they've lost any big rainy races if it's raining on Derby Day.
A Halo player can win a championship or tournament and no one will question any losses they've had. But you still are going to want some idea of their kill/death efficiency before scouting them for your team in the next deathmatch.
That .300 is considered good today based on the current environment of the sport and in comparison among peer groups. That same .300 looks shabby in a previous era or in particular sub-leagues or among particular types of batters (your benchmark for designated hitters might be higher given their only focus is hits, for instance).
All of it
https://www.yahoo.com/news/instagram-hits-300-million-users-...
Stories is what they introduced to kill Snapchat's growth.
>By default, your data is stored in a dedicated Microsoft Azure Blob. But you can and should connect your Blockstack Browser to your own cloud storage solutions (preferably multiple).
So... what's the idea here? I don't need ethereum to encrypt my data and upload them to various cloud storage services. Sounds to me like blockstack is an app framework like Google Play or the App Store, only you pay with ethereum instead of fiat and your data is encrypted locally before being uploaded. I mean that last bit is definitely a good thing but where's the famous "blockchain technology(c)(tm)" exactly?
Yes. Blockstack only uses the blockchain for name registration. Everything else happens off-chain, so apps work just as fast as they do on the Web.
Just to be clear I'm not saying it's useless, actually being able to host your own data anywhere you want and having "end-to-end" encryption sounds great, I just don't see the "blockchain is going to revolutionize the world" angle.
One I came across recently that looks promising is joy stream:
Joy stream appears to be a service which rewards people for hosting torrents. I could see this being used by a lot of people.
Are their any services that provide usage figures for any of these Dapps? I’d be curious to know how much they are used as I think Dapp usage is a good bellwether for utility token valuation.
I really want to see crypto currency move beyond just being used for speculation.
People are working on Dapps for insurance, lending, prediction markets. It is not practical to take out a loan that is denominated in a volatile currency. Also, If you want to bet on the next president in 2020 for example, it is not practical to make the bet using a volatile currency such as Bitcoin.
This of course assumes that this coin can actually hold its value in the event of a market crash. I also assume it’s not backed by real dollars held in a bank but some kind of basket of other cryptoassets right?
The mechanism by which they maintain stability is quite fascinating. From the whitepaper [2]:
> The Dai Target Price is used to determine the collateral-to-debt ratio of a CDP, and thus the Target Price represents the price at which Dai is backed by collateral in the long term. The Target Price is continuously adjusted according to the current Target Rate. Automatic Target Rate adjustments ensure that the Dai market price remains stabilized around the Target Price in the short term.
> When the market price of Dai is below the Target Price, the Target Rate increases. This causes the Target Price to increase at a higher rate, causing generation of Dai to become more expensive. This leads to CDP users covering their CDPs and leaving the ecosystem, causing the outstanding supply of Dai to decrease. At the same time, the increased Target Rate causes the capital gains from holding Dai to increase, leading to a corresponding increase in Dai demand. This combination of reduced supply and increased demand causes the Dai market price to increase, pushing it up towards the Target Price.
[1] https://medium.com/makerdao/makerdao-and-omisego-announcing-...
[2] https://github.com/makerdao/docs/blob/master/Dai.md#target-p...
I use patchwork everyday, just like FaceBook or Twitter. Content quality is excellent. https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork
That is, if Dapps can be taken to mean distributed apps - instead of just apps on blockchain with consensus.
Centralized servers are extremely good at what they do. I feel like most of the time blockchain isnt needed unless things need to be decentrally verified.
I was considering doing my own 'cryptocurrency', but I decided a centralized server was better for doing the job at hand.
The definition of a "dApp" these days seems to require blockchain, either for storage or for a token ecosystem. This co-opting of the word "distributed" is unfortunate but probably as difficult to fix at this point as the misuse of "crypto".
The closest I've seen to this, eg. an Alexa.com/AppAnnie for Dapps, is https://dappradar.com.
It measures DAUs, transaction counts and daily/weekly tx value (in ETH) across many Ethereum smart contracts. It's not perfect but does provide a decent standardized view of some Dapp usage/traction.
Guy uses it a lot. The video goes into its history and some of the issues that have emerged on the platform.
That’s a big stumbling psychological stumbling block that the “regular” internet doesn’t have.
And I think that fact will shape whether any of us or the regular public ever launch a dapp.
There will be a small set of services I believe which will cross this threshold. Not sure if it will be a large number or not.
It seems to me that the big problem of dapps is not so much the fact that you need to pay to deploy them but that you have to pay so much to do anything meaningful. The system is extremely expensive compared to regular "not-trustless" distributed/cloud computing offerings out there.
For instance while browsing through the blockstack website I saw that the first such application was a "docs suite" (à la office/google docs) called "graphite": https://www.graphitedocs.com
That seemed interesting but my first thought was "man, if they store the files in the blockchain that must be absurdly expensive to use". They probably thought the same so, according to the FAQ at https://www.graphitedocs.com/faq :
>By default, your data is stored in a dedicated Microsoft Azure Blob. But you can and should connect your Blockstack Browser to your own cloud storage solutions (preferably multiple).
Oh. So that makes sense but doesn't that destroy the whole point of it? What if I decide to, say, use OpenOffice on my computer, encrypt the files using GnuPG and then upload them to dropbox, spideroak and some AWS bucket, wouldn't that effectively grant me the same privacy and control over my data?
I'm going to sound like a naysayer but it just looks like yet an other example of using blockchain for the sake of saying that you use the blockchain.
But of course it's just one dapp out of many. Let's see the next one, "stealthy": https://www.stealthy.im/
It's a "A secure decentralized communication platform". Now storing small text messages in the blockchain would still be very expensive but it might be acceptable, especially if you worry a lot about censorship or your message remaining available "forever".
>By default, your data is stored in a dedicated Microsoft Azure Blob. But you can and should connect your Blockstack Browser to your own cloud storage solutions (preferably multiple).
Oh. Nevermind then.
So many users in gitter channels I frequent run into problems with gas.
But one thing is amazing is that once your dapp is deployed your backend is fully permanent and replicated 19,000 times [0] (which is both super good and super bad at the same time - no bug fixes in prod).
I don't know if the word "decentralized" should be used so merrily. Research was published recently [0] showing that the blockchain protocol requires a central authority to prevent coordination failures and externalities. Maybe these "useful decentralized applications" should come with a caution sign to the consumers: "product will not only be slower and more expensive than the centralized alternative, but there is also risk of coordination failure and double-spends".
[0] https://www.tse-fr.eu/publications/blockchain-folk-theorem
In the case of both mesh networks and dapps, I think the greatest potential is in the developing world, where centralized infrastructure is absent or inadequate.
And with applications: some will be more expensive, some won't be. Ethereum developers are already exploring ways for dapps to pay for gas instead of users (searching for link).
I investigated “Dapps” the other day, and I’m struggling to see the point of these. Yes, they use a blockchain to store their data, and their data manipulation logic (“contract”, or schema, and stored procedures as we’d call it in the RDBMS / Monolith days). The UI, and such is all run by some centralized entity. If the App needs cryptocurrency in order to work, you have to run your own wallet.
If (1) I need to run my own “geth” daemon, and (2) some central authority’s ownership is reigns over the apps availability, I don’t see how this is better than the current world. Until there is a Coinbase-like experience to solve (1), I think it’ll be very difficult to get real market adoption. (2) to me strikes a whole set of problems — What’s the point of Dapps? I would think it’d be better if the UI and API was hosted on a blockchain, and there was some kind of UI (browser?) with an embedded wallet, and agent to be able to interact with contracts. I know some of this is in development, but is anyone close to the ability to run a Reddit-like site without the existence of some central authority, along with being economical to run?
A lot of developers choose to have a replica hosted on traditional HTTP for easy onboarding, but the point is that the application itself can be completely decoupled from the developer.
Even if the developer hosts their app on their own domain, there is nothing stopping you from forking it and replicating/hosting it elsewhere. It's like the ultimate extreme of open source, but also applied to APIs that can't be taken away.
For example, you can launch a smart contract which hard-codes an IPFS hash to a GUI that can never be changed, even if the original owner wanted to.
It's more about what can be done, rather than what is being done today. The possibilities are inspiring and attractive.
Also, last I checked, IPFS is not censorship resistant: https://github.com/ipfs/faq/issues/36#issuecomment-140567411
Which wallet? You can use whatever wallet you want which supports the functionality the DApp requires. There are dozens of wallets, some are in-browser.
> Also, last I checked, IPFS is not censorship resistant: https://github.com/ipfs/faq/issues/36#issuecomment-140567411
While I didn't mention anything about censorship, I suggest reading that entire thread and its continuation. All it discusses is the ability to have curated blocklists. It's up to you whether you want to use them or not.
What I did mention is that you don't have to use any specific replication protocol. Don't like IPFS? Use something else.
If you did want to use IPFS and you're concerned about censorship, then consider that IPFS is a distributed hash table protocol with some default client rules. If you don't use their default bootstrapping nodes, you can create your own IPFS network. In fact, IPFS is totally usable in an isolated local network, or even over a sneaker net.
Dapps are still evolving. Some offer utility from fulfilling niches that are vulnerable to centralized power; ie. a decentralized Youtube that won't take down your video. Some are safer/cheaper implementations: ie. Hexel (YC) a platform that lets people create/manage tokens, like if you wanted your community to be able to send/use tokens.
A mistake is assuming you need to put everything on the blockchain, and a new product should be fully decentralized. But in most cases, you can still deliver utility by having only the important pieces on the blockchain.
The blockchain just becomes a source of truth and a protection against DDoS attacks. Past that, all other "transactions" can be done off chain. Future is exciting!
Dapps right now are still a work in progress and very early. Most of the issues you brought up are known in the space and are actively being worked on. For example, UI file storage is being tackled via the work of ETH Swarm + ENS (also Mist browser), EOS Storage, IPFS Filecoin, etc. Running a full node is not necessarily required, you could immediately access a decentralized network via a light client on many platforms.
Ultimately the end goal for Dapps are to merge the benefits of decentralization (always-available, secure, permissionless, distributed, censorship-resistant, etc) into traditional application models, and in some instances create entirely new types of applications.
As I've said before, when consumers speak of "the cloud" they are usually describing something that sounds much more like decentralized platforms than current centralized solutions. Long-term I think decentralized platforms are going to change every industry in some way. Even from just an accounting perspective it's hard to see how this tech won't change the way we manage and transfer funds.
The UI has to be white listed, but dapps can be cached locally. There's a lot of argument about what is centralized and decentralized. It's quite a polarizing debate.
> If the App needs cryptocurrency in order to work, you have to run your own wallet.
To read from the app it generally won't require cryptocurrency.
> (1) I need to run my own “geth” daemon
There are public nodes (i.e. Infura) for Ethereum dapps.
> I would think it’d be better if the UI and API was hosted on a blockchain, and there was some kind of UI (browser?) with an embedded wallet, and agent to be able to interact with contracts. I know some of this is in development, but is anyone close to the ability to run a Reddit-like site without the existence of some central authority, along with being economical to run?
Toshi is developed by Coinbase. There are a few other projects as well like Status. It's very early days though. Blockchain typically has low TPS and the alternatives are very complex. I'm hoping technology like Hashgraph or Hashgraph-like will deprecate state channels and payment channels.
Meta mask keeps your keys locally, but uses an api for publishing transactions / making queries.
F2Pool is one of the biggest pools in Ethereum. It was alleged that they manipulated the Status ICO:
https://themerkle.com/f2pool-allegedly-prevented-users-from-...
They controlled 26.6% of the total Ethereum hashing power.
So, lets say this twitter clone - Peepeth takes off. And then there is someone who wants to post some stuff against F2pool. What is stopping F2pool from manipulating the feed? You might say other miners controlling 75% of the hashrate will pick it up. Sure, you might be correct. But what if the post shits on every other mining pool out there? What happens then? What if the post is time sensitive?
Decentralized apps can only go so far considering there has to be a record for the system to work. And if record keepers manipulate the system it will fail. The question becomes then:
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
It's the difference between 'unstable equilibrium' vs 'stable equilibrium'.
The power of a centralized entity on their service, like twitter on a feed is a stable equilibrium, they can modify something and not face too many repercussions (like when we see what happened with Wells Fargo scandal).
On the other hand, the power of a major player in a decentralized setup is an 'unstable equilibrium', if you modify something into your favor, your power goes away really fast. And cryptocurrency networks have shown that they are extremely sensitive towards any changes or abuse of power made by a major player. It also makes a lot of sense from game theoretic perspective.
The hard fork made by the Ethereum community was such an example, it was so contentious that even though they succeeded, they are very resistant towards any such changes in future.
With Proof of Stake, the 'stability' of unstable equilibrium of F2Pool (presuming F2Pool is a large staking pool at that point) becomes even more unstable. In PoW if F2Pool performs a harmful action, then any attempts to undo that harmful action does not harm F2Pool, they just neutralize their attempt.
Whereas in PoS consensus, any attempts by F2Pool to perform a harmful action would result in them losing their wealth.
Why would you want to mess with your underlying cryptocurrency and threaten your income if you're a mining pool?
Incentives are out of equation when you speak of fault tolerance. Incentives are not calculatable. Only "tolerance" (# of tolerable byzantine nodes) matters. And that's 2 for eth and btc. TWO.
does it, though?
0) Augur, decentralized prediction markets and a very early ICO has reached the bug bounty phase, getting much closer to launch (https://medium.com/@AugurProject/announcing-the-augur-bug-bo...)
1) Golem, another early ICO has launched (https://www.coindesk.com/golem-arrives-one-ethereums-ambitio...)
2) Distense, a decentralized code-cooperative with be running on the Ethereum mainnet in a few weeks (disclosure: my project) (https://disten.se)
3) 550 more live here: https://www.stateofthedapps.com/
Augur has undergone multiple security audits.
https://medium.com/@AugurProject/augur-core-security-audit-r...
If we ever live in a city though I will be the first to put up a system that can run Althea Mesh.
Anything to put a tiny dent in the last-mile providers.
edit: spelling mistakes
(I'd like to see signed messages in Mastodon but that's not a problem inherent to a federated model)
Basically a Dapp is a more neutral platform that costs money. Probably not worth the cost for the average person though.
Especially if there is no friction in paying and apps would subtract little amounts of cryptocurrency and I could review from time to time if all is in check
So is the joke that is this wouldn't happen if their blog was hosted on a dapp?
There's a Dapp for that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System
Interesting points:
- there is no token, and so IPFS isn't as sexy as some of the stuff running on Ethereum
- there may be no role to be played by VCs in advancing IPFS.
There's a lot of innovation going on that ticks both boxes. I'm curious to see how venture funding will adapt (or not).
Filecoin is simply a way to store things in exchange for FIL (or vice-versa). Filecoin does depend on IPFS, but IPFS is a standalone project and does not require Filecoin to be useful.
Disclaimer: I work for Protocol Labs, specifically on the IPFS project
(with credits to https://twitter.com/musalbas/status/973600356377808896)
'what if what people know for free today would be wrapped up in an insane network of constantly negotiating prices for that same information'
and there's this:
>Error establishing a database connection
For instance, you can build a company with [token|share]holders that no one controls -- a true cooperative. (full disclosure I work on this problem)
Yeah, horrible legacy projects that are a pain in the ass to maintain
Source: I am working on a legacy API based on a noSQL database with a very dumb design (because the data was relational of course) in a very large company
How can a "legacy" project be using noSQL? In my company, "legacy" projects are projects that have been around for 10+ years. MongoDB hasn't even been out a full 10 years, yet...
A project doesn't need to be 10+ years old to be legacy.
This API is 3y old, and was the first iteration, the v1, of the company's digital asset management API, it's only maintained for a few teams around the world, whereas the v2 is well crafted and has a way more logical datamodel
Legacy != old
Is that irony?