
First impressions of Filecoin - imrehg
https://gergely.imreh.net/blog/2019/02/first-impressions-of-filecoin/
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Ajedi32
Seems a little odd to devote so much of the article to evaluating the user
interface when the current release is aimed at "developers, researchers, and
community members who want to help _make_ Filecoin"[1]. Still, I can see the
potential.

One thing I'm still not sure of is how Filecoin compares with Sia. Based on
the articles I've read so far it seems very similar (except that Sia is older
so its tooling/UI is obviously much more mature). Are there any fundamental
differences I may be missing?

[1]: [https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-
repos/](https://filecoin.io/blog/opening-filecoin-project-repos/)

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hndamien
The main difference is the proof of work algorithm relies on proof of storage.

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nicolashahn
Oof. Manual price setting for the storer/miner, manual storer selection for
the user... Pretty large barriers to mainstream adoption. I'd think that in
order for that to happen, both of these would be totally automatic. Still
needs a lot of work.

~~~
Ajedi32
Which seems totally expected given that the current release was explicitly
stated as being "for development".

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mimixco
The TL;DR: Definitely not ready for primetime.

So many crypto projects lack tooling or a real UI. This is sad and earmarks
the distinction between hobby level tools and those which can be used by
regular people.

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momentmaker
Maybe it's a combination of both the bad UI and lack of real use cases. After
all, if there is a real demand for decentralized storage space, then it
doesn't matter the UI, people will still use it even if it's in beta. The
lever just hasn't been tilted enough with a real immediate need.

~~~
mimixco
I don't think so. You have to have simple UI's and basic tooling before anyone
other than hardcore devs will be interested.

Everything we do with modern website tooling like Shopify was also possible in
1995, but it was too dev-heavy. (I've been in that business since that date.)
The _demand_ was there but the barriers to entry were too hard to overcome.

Fix crypto's UIs and you'll see wider adoption.

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rmorey
Nice article! Thanks for taking the time to write up such a thorough summary

