The vast majority of the stuff on this timeline are hacks and user mistakes, not sure that constitutes a "grift". The only difference between this and all of other tech sectors is they can't cover up the fact they got hacked.

I think the biggest hurdle to web3 is user responsibility and tech savviness. There was an assumption that younger generations would become better at advanced tech as time went on but that doesn't seem to be playing out. Using an iPhone effectively and avoiding online scams are two different skillsets. The problem is rampant in all tech, not just crypto.

Centralized organizations protect users from the absurdly dumb stuff they do. You can't have decentralized institutions and an adult nanny service at the same time.

All that being said, most of HN seems hypocritically upset at crypto. Its a distributed encrypted database, with some having distributed remote procedures. Nothing more than fancy tech. Are people scamming with it? Sure, but people have scammed with everything under the sun since the beginning of time, nothing has changed about human nature.