The Cost of Doing Business

Development

So for the first time in almost a year (summer 2021) I opened up MySQL workbench and my Node.JS files and actually got my old code working. There was a problem with security that I still haven't fully figured out. Basically Node.JS refused to connect to Hive nodes because quote:

Didn't failover for error code: [CERT_HAS_EXPIRED]
(node:2448) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: FetchError: request to https://api.hive.blog/ failed, reason: certificate has expired.

After literally hours of trying to figure out what the actual fuck was wrong, some websites simply suggested I set a variable called rejectUnauthorized to false. Other people in the comments said this is a terrible solution because it completely disables all the security of SSL connections. I didn't change this variable (because I didn't really know how to), but I did change my connection from https to http and it worked. I 'fixed' it. Of course I can't really trust any of the information I receive from a node who's certificate hasn't been validated, but from what I read online, it's fine to disregard security in this way if you're just testing the code locally and not using it on a finished product that's been deployed out into the world.

Witness partner @rishi556 did not approve...

Told me I should never use http and to cease and desist immediately. Told me I should try @deathwing's node... which actually ended up working perfectly. Just another reason to vote @deathwing I suppose. I checked ten other Hive nodes and none of them worked... only @deathwing's.

Of course I assume that the real issue is still on my end, and that @deathwing's node is simply robust enough to mitigate my own incompetence. I already updated the API using npm install @hiveio/dhive but perhaps Node.js itself needs some kind of upkeep that I'm not aware of.

Cost is what you pay; value is what you get.

Overhead Costs

Every business has to deal with overhead costs. You might sell $1M worth of product, but only make $50k after paying employees and taxes and rent. That's just the way it is. Many corporate business models operate on razor thin profit margins. This is why many of them would never accept Bitcoin as payment. The volatility of cryptocurrency could put them out of business just from random bad luck.

This idea of overhead costs also applies to the programming example above. I might jump down some rabbit hole for hours about SSL security (or any topic really) that really has nothing to do with the thing I actually want to accomplish (development of Magitek on Hive). Then at the end of the day I realize zero progress has been made on the actual goal. Not great!

Infrastructure

This is another big problem in cryptocurrency: the infrastructure doesn't exist. Thus, most developers spend a lot of their time simply building the roads they want to drive on, when all they really wanted to do was build the car. It's more than twice as much work. Until we streamline documentation and infrastructure to get us where we want to go, we'll be stuck driving in the mud until those roads get built.

Payoff is all or nothing.

I've never been paid for any of the dev work I've done around here because I've never actually launched a working product that people actually use. That's the name of the game in programming, and also why so many people are willing to code-monkey away at some dead-end job with zero ownership of the thing they build. It's much safer to simply get paid by the hour than it is to invest in yourself and try to build a product that generates an income.

In fact, most people can't afford to invest in themselves and are basically forced to take such jobs. I'm one of the lucky ones that can do whatever they want, and yet I'm still faced with the same problem. Do I spend thousands of hours learning Javascript and Typescript and Node.JS and HTML and CSS and React and Chrome Extensions and SQL and Hive API and god knows whatever else? Or do I just write a blog post about whatever I feel like and get the guaranteed income? For the last year, I've chosen the latter. It's easy and it's consistent.

Bear markets are for building.

That's the nice thing about this market crash. I'm kinda like, "Oh shit maybe I should work on something that creates some real value!" At the end of the day I have the knowledge to create my own coin that acts as a safe haven during times of uncertainty like we are seeing today. I don't want to be running around creating a dozen different coins with little to no use-case; a clone of some other has-been product. Everything I build will be connected to Magitek and the Hive ecosystem. Not at all interested building anywhere else.

I think this is something that the vast majority of people don't seem to understand. Sure, users on Hive can pick up and move to other networks. The contact switch and overhead cost of such a thing is minimal. Devs, on the other hand, can not leave so easily. If you spent multiple years learning the codebase of something you're not going to pack up and leave just because maybe that thing over there is a little bit better. The other network basically has to be superior in every way before it starts leeching actual devs into the ecosystem, and even then it's a slow process.

So many people think that Hive is down and out and, what? Fucking Jack Dorsey is going to magically launch some network that has a better distribution and censorship resistance on the first day of launch? These fears are not based on reality. It's simply not possible. Not only that, but open source networks just don't really compete with one another. Most competition is rooted in intellectual property and regulations. Those mechanics simply can't exist in the cryptoverse. The synergy is real. It's ten times easier for one project to lend value to another than it is for that project to leech value from others. This is something VCs will never understand. The cutthroat capitalists on this world are never going to be able to unlearn what they have learned.

Conclusion

I'm sure I could write more, but I think I'm gonna go ahead and get back to my javascripts. Bottom line is that if overhead costs didn't exist we'd all be millionaires and running our own businesses. Interestingly that's what healthy capitalism depends on: everyone being both a consumer and a producer of goods and services. Maybe crypto can lower the bar once we develop the infrastructure to accomplish such a feat.

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