What % of the people that use IBAN, know that there is a checksum, know what a checksum even is, or how to apply it?
Thankfully we have banks to deal with that - and legal framework that can help us undo problems.
"But you can use an exchange with ETH!"
Like banks? Making such networks ostensibly not 'decentralized'?
The entire point of Crypto/Blockchain is that is decentralized and is accessible to everyone.
If it requires that we trust 'quasi-centralized nodes' like CoinBase (i.e. banks) then it mostly defeats the purpose. Just use a bank.
At absolute minimum, the purveyors of such tech should be providing 'off the shelf' free wallet software that solves all of these problems of magical knowledge.
All of these arguments are fading quickly and the people doing this are risking a lot of credibility.
We talk about people wasting their time on AdTech, but at least there is actually some value in AdTech. We are facing an entire generation of people doing 'NoTech'. Let's turn this into something useful.
I think you missed that the user went beyond just using something to swap ETH for WETH and instead interacted directly (manually) with the contract, effectively bypassing the safe-guards that are already in place (even without exchanges) to prevent issues.
The user basically guessed that this is how you turn ETH into WETH and vice-versa, without actually reading anything about it.
If the user searched for "How do I turn ETH into WETH?" and read the first few links, they would have avoided this problem. If they made a mistake of entering an invalid address in a wallet for a transfer, the wallet wouldn't allow the transfer in the first place.
> The entire point of Crypto/Blockchain is that is decentralized and is accessible to everyone
Yes, indeed. That also implies that you're responsible enough to have a basic understanding of what you're doing. Or at least recognize that you don't have a basic understanding, and seek to attain one when needed.
It doesn't really matter that 'someone did something they should not'.
People will always press the Magic Red Button without knowing what it does with some, if rare, consistency. That's human nature, ergo, our systems must accommodate.
The fact it's possible to lose $500K whereupon 'nothing can be done about it' is a 'dealbreaker' for this tech.
The truth is, when one goes down the rabbit hole, one discovers that ETH doesn't really solve any problems and creates a bunch of problematic side-effects. When you solve those side-effects you end up with something that looks like a regulated banking system.
There needs to be a new angle/twist or use case that we haven't thought of yet, in order for any of this to make sense. We risk getting into accidents when we drive a car, because the 'upside' of fast travel is worth the risk. There's just no real upside with Crypto yet. NFT was a neat idea, but that's not it either.
> People will always press the Magic Red Button without knowing what it does with some, if rare, consistency. That's human nature, ergo, our systems must accommodate.
Are you also frustrated that you can run `rm -rf --no-preserve-root` on your computer and it's not possible to get back your data unless you had backups since before? Clearly, this is a dealbreaker for UNIX because it allows you to delete your root partition. Why would you ever need that?
> NFT was a neat idea, but that's not it either.
Yeah, no, NFTs were and remain a disgusting idea, but thanks for revealing your opinion on that, makes it easier to understand where the falsehoods in the rest of your message comes from.
Cryptocurrencies give you the OPTION to use a trust-less decentralized system. If that’s not your cup of tea, nobody is forcing you to opt-in to this system. Go use a bank, or a centralized exchange, or whatever makes you happy.
> At absolute minimum, the purveyors of such tech should be providing 'off the shelf' free wallet software that solves all of these problems of magical knowledge.
UI is continually improving and is already much better than in the early days. But the “purveyors of this tech” don’t owe you anything. If you’re not satisfied with the current wallet offerings, you can go build your own, or you can simply choose not to use cryptocurrencies.
If the 'option' implies all sorts of 'costs' (such as lack of oversight, losing money, no insurance') - then it's a choice rational people will not make.
"But the “purveyors of this tech” don’t owe you anything"
You're right.
And it's why nobody in world uses crypto, blockchain or any of this nonsense for doing anything productive and use it solely for trading magic numbers.
Thankfully we have banks to deal with that - and legal framework that can help us undo problems.
"But you can use an exchange with ETH!"
Like banks? Making such networks ostensibly not 'decentralized'?
The entire point of Crypto/Blockchain is that is decentralized and is accessible to everyone.
If it requires that we trust 'quasi-centralized nodes' like CoinBase (i.e. banks) then it mostly defeats the purpose. Just use a bank.
At absolute minimum, the purveyors of such tech should be providing 'off the shelf' free wallet software that solves all of these problems of magical knowledge.
All of these arguments are fading quickly and the people doing this are risking a lot of credibility.
We talk about people wasting their time on AdTech, but at least there is actually some value in AdTech. We are facing an entire generation of people doing 'NoTech'. Let's turn this into something useful.