Post 2350920 by alcinnz@floss.social
(DIR) More posts by alcinnz@floss.social
(DIR) Post #2350920 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T00:06:30Z
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Random thought: during the last crypto wars when the US wanted to prevent implementation of effective encryption from leaving the country, we only just dodged by the bullet by yelling "but FREE SPEECH!" (hence code is considered speech, and maybe that's partly why it can be copyrighted). So it's unsurprising we're having the argument again.But also we were arguing that this ban was hurting the economy, and I think it still is. It's what led to the profiling/ad based web of today.
(DIR) Post #2351253 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T00:14:08Z
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To explain, websites a needed a way to cover the (small) cost of making, maintaining, and hosting them. And without decent encryption they needed someone other than their readers to pay. The only business model that could satisfy these needs was advertising.And that became the business model we came to expect websites to use.
(DIR) Post #2351429 by technomancy@icosahedron.website
2018-12-28T00:18:34Z
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@alcinnz "without decent encryption" seems like a big oversimplification; they would have needed a lot more than encryption to cover those costs
(DIR) Post #2351446 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T00:19:22Z
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@technomancy Yes they needed more than encryption, but encryption was a big prerequisite they weren't granted.
(DIR) Post #2352428 by pootz@mastodon.technology
2018-12-28T00:53:06Z
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@alcinnzThis is why I'm a proponent of public server funding as an extension of free speech and democracy.The only way to fund the internet under capitalism are through exploitative means (ads, data mining, etc) or restricting access with paywalls which keeps content restricted to the privileged.Public funding is the only way to keep the net free and safe.
(DIR) Post #2357139 by mjog@octodon.social
2018-12-28T04:23:10Z
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@alcinnz Surely it wasn't lack of encryption (everyone back then who wasn't a spook thought 40-bit DES was okay) but rather inability to clear transactions. This is why services like PayPal and ideas like micropayments were so big. These took off (or didn't) for reasons unrelated to crypto.
(DIR) Post #2360487 by ayo@niu.moe
2018-12-28T07:20:38Z
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@mjog @alcinnz If radio and television has taught me anything, it's that businesses will do everything to throw as much advertising to you as you can tolerate, and then a bit more. I don't think crypto has much to do with that, more likely the general inability and/or unwillingness of people to pay for content combined with the profitability of advertising.
(DIR) Post #2360498 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T07:43:49Z
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@ayo @mjog Yeah, I don't know how much that played into it. But I think it would've been a factor.Then again, who knows?
(DIR) Post #2360832 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T08:05:39Z
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@ayo @mjog What I can be certain of, is that not having an acceptable means to recieve payments didn't help things.
(DIR) Post #2360966 by ayo@niu.moe
2018-12-28T08:15:38Z
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@alcinnz @mjog Definitely agree with that, and I largely blame that on strong anti-money laundering regulations, unreliable payment providers and banks that have no incentive to provide a safe platform for micropayments. Even now that we can use strong crypto, a good and easy micropayments system is still pretty much infeasible.
(DIR) Post #2361635 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2018-12-28T08:49:54.101369Z
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@alcinnz @mjog @ayo In the early web paying for anything was a nightmare. Sites would ask you to send a cheque to an address, fax bank details, or worst of all email credit card numbers.
(DIR) Post #2371327 by charlag@birb.site
2018-12-28T11:47:02Z
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@mjog @alcinnz double that, when people had no idea what cryptocurrencies are they wouldn't risk investing it to pay for sole website
(DIR) Post #2371328 by alcinnz@floss.social
2018-12-28T16:47:56Z
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@charlag @mjog While I don't disagree, here crypto meant cryptography.
(DIR) Post #2372724 by charlag@birb.site
2018-12-28T17:49:29Z
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@alcinnz @mjog oh, I thought you meant people couldn't pay because encryption and thus cryptocurrencies were not ready