Exactly. A decentralized reference to a centralized server isn't decentralized.
purplepony
Yeah, I'm realizing that and it feels great.
I'd love to hear this e-mail analogy.
If the data was actually stored in the blockchain, then it would have some chance of being valuable, but every NFT, except I believe Bitcoin's newest, just stores a link in the chain which links to the image or whatever. As long as that's the standard it's not going to see use by anyone but scammers.
It's also very nice to know that I get a choice. Like, if I enjoy an instance, I can give them a $5-$10 donation and that will be worth tons more than any ads I wasn't going to watch anyway. Once I get a bit more used to these instances, since I'm fortunate enough to be able to, I fully intend to pay some part to help them run. I get there are people who would rather watch ads, but this feels so much better to me.
It's so exciting to have another paradigm shift afoot. I feel a little regretful (not sure that's the right word here) that I wasn't born early enough to grow up with the rise of internet forums. It's not all bad because I also would not grown up during this great time of queer development, but it would've been neat. So now I get to live through and experience a similar time with web3 type stuff. The whole concept makes my little CS heart smile.
Full-time lurker here, I'm trying, but going from content consumption to content sharing is a weird mindset change.
These comments inspire me so much to get back into my self-hosting. Right now, I'm running