Andrew Yang: web3 an extraordinary opportunity to improve the human condition

In a livestreamed discussion about play-to-earn gaming and crypto on March 2 [2022], former Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang called web3 “an extraordinary opportunity to improve the human condition” and “the biggest weapon against poverty that we have.”

From brustein-2022-billion-dollar-crypto

NFTs etc are no different from other "social constructs" like private property

• Misses basic point that land is a rivalrous resource and with or without land titles managed by e.g. government groups of people have organized rules regarding use of land, often in form of exclusive control. Basic point: physical fact of exclusivity of use (at any given time) => exclusivity of control
• NFTs are for digital goods that are non-rivalrous (aka costlessly copyable) by default. Thus
  • a) NFTs are trying to restrict use of something that is intrinsically infinitely copyable (hence maintaining value)
  • b) we already have copyright for this i.e. restricting free use of information goods (so why do we need NFTs)
  • c) NFTs (if they work) create scarcity where none is needed
  • d) NFTs are often for things that have very limited use value (i.e. look a lot like high end art -- which indeed looks a lot like crypto in being a speculative "ball spotting" like phenomenon but which is unlike most of the "real" economy)

Crpto can solve massive coordination problems - June 2022 - Juan Benet

"Still early days" [Ed: indeed]. But what about the few thousand years of existing social and political experimentation.