Thread by @wtebbens

1/ Very instructive report from Signal founder @moxie Marlinspike about #web3. He dived in and created an NFT dapp and comes with key criticism on #decentralisation flaws of Ethereum ecosystem.
moxie.org/2022/01/07/web…
Let's discuss in context of #holochain [thread]

2/ What’s #web3? If “web1 was decentralised, web2 centralised everything into platforms, and
web3 will decentralise everything again”

3/ web1 was about decentralised open protocols
web2 was about siloed, centralised services by corporations
web3 “is the internet owned by the builders and users, orchestrated with tokens”
source: future.a16z.com/why-web3-matte…

4/ @moxie poses that “A protocol moves much more slowly than a platform” The fact that email still works like 30 years ago can be considered a good thing though

Sure, whatsapp was able to encrypt in one year, much quicker than email, XMPP, or matrix (but Facebook isn’t audited)

5/ Possibly we need protocols that can evolve more easily, at least in certain cases. #Holochain offers protocols implemented at the DNA level that can be forked and keeps all users of the fork in the same distributed network. Opportunities for quicker evolution?

6/ @moxie dives deep in and to understand it he develops his own #NFT dapp for collectively created art (autonomous.graphics) he then uncovers several flaws in the architectures which isn’t as decentralised as expected

7/ in Ethereum, as running your own full node isn’t practically possible anymore (for most computer users) and less so on a mobile, “almost all dApps use either Infura or Alchemy in order to interact with the blockchain.”

8/ “This was surprising to me. So much work, energy, and time has gone into creating a trustless distributed consensus mechanism, but virtually all clients that wish to access it do so by simply trusting the outputs from these two companies without any further verification”

9/ in the case of the NFT dapp, people connect their wallet, mostly on MetaMask to get access to the assets they own, which makes an API call to etherscan, which in turn makes a call to Infura which makes a call to Opensea, where the NFT is hosted.

10/ Holochain does this better in many ways. Peers run apps in a distributed network, and the majority not willing to run apps, connect through the @H_o_l_o hosting network. Network participation is totally free as in freedom, while holo offers hosted access for a price.

11/ The true power however lies in the ways happs are designed, to scale in a decentralised fashion. 1) Small groups of peers automatically validate the network, keeping rogue actors out. 2) DNA (the core rules of a happ) is easily forked, helping the evolution of the community,

cont'd
3) holochain is not a blockchain but uses cryptographically distributed hashtables (like Bittorrent), adding security and keeping things lightweighted (no need for general ledgers nor global consensus in most apps)

12/ Blockchains are designed to be a trustless network of peers, but not really such that “it’s really possible for your mobile device or your browser to be one of those peers”
→ Holochain does (no mobile yet though!) and focuses on the ease for new participants to become peers

13/ “But you can’t stop a gold rush“, says @moxie criticising the speculative crypto token economy, and I couldn’t agree more.

14/ Holochain builds a commons-based p2p network complemented with a holo hosting network with built-in mutual credit backed by hosting capacity. This is designed for a stable value, countering speculative behaviour, favouring app publishers, hosts and users.

15/ He concludes: “We should accept .. that people will not run their own servers by designing systems that can distribute trust without having to distribute infrastructure”
@moxie “anticipates and accepts the inevitable outcome of relatively centralized client/server relations”

16/ note that Signal is open source but centralised architecture. But we could design and organise differently? Right, holochain is trying to move all centralised parts out, though the holo hosting is still a centralised part.

17/ moxie: “uses cryptography (rather than infrastructure) to distribute trust.”
-> exactly what holochain is doing

18/ “We should try to reduce the burden of building software. At this point, software projects require an enormous amount of human effort.”
Definitely a key priority for #holochain.
Notice the impressive efforts in the community, w/ tools for scaffolding, HDK, launcher...

cont'd
the #compository to develop with reusable components, @neighbourhoods for building social apps w/ interconnected reputation interchange, etc

19/ and with an active community running DevCamps, mutual support forums, meetups and online training sessions like Holochain in action

20/ All in all I read @moxie’s criticism as very valuable and mostly agreeable and something that the Holochain network is addressing. Of course the devil is in the details, to make sure all parts are decentralised, code shared openly, dev work easier and no future centralisation