"It's not safe to use web3 unless you're comfortable analyzing decompiled source code" is a super good sign for the future of the ecosystem.

> "It's not safe to use web3 unless you're comfortable analyzing decompiled source code" is a super good sign for the future of the ecosystem.

Plenty of people don't de-compile or read the source, don't engage with random tokens credited to their address, and the ecosystem around using "smart" contracts has grown since 2015. Not my problem if people want to use/trust something else (others audits for example) without putting in any work to learn/observe themselves and engage with random stuff. That's their problem, not mine. Some learn better after going through school of hard knocks anyways.

As a society, we have expected more and more people to learn how to read and write for basic literacy over hundreds of years. Those who know how to read and write code will have a leg up for that expanding literacy set for engaging with digital things and those who don't will be left behind esp as more aspects of life are governed/mediated through code and this goes beyond the whatever is being branded as "web3".

If you don't wanna use it, you are free not to (unless in the case someone hacks your devices from across the world, you don't engage in backups, and the only way to unlock it is to buy some tokens to pay them off; then its just hard choices to make).

> As a society, we have expected more and more people to learn how to read and write for basic literacy over hundreds of years. Those who know how to read and write code will have a leg up for that expanding literacy set for engaging with digital things and those who don't will be left behind esp as more aspects of life are governed/mediated through code and this goes beyond the whatever is being branded as "web3".

We have. We've also extended protections for people lagging behind, for example by putting restrictions on what kinds of contracts can legally be entered into and voiding contracts that one party could not have reasonably been expected to understand, or entered into under duress or undue influence.

None of these protections exist under "smart" contracts, which is exactly why we can't and won't allow code to govern or mediate life as web3 envisions. Your dystopian vision of "oops, you lost your retirement savings because you didn't decompile that contract before interacting with it, too bad", or "oops, you lost your retirement savings because someone beat your wife with a baseball bat until you handed over your private key, sucks to be you"--in short, the dystopia of "code is law"--flies in the face of thousands of years of jurisprudence and civilization. Once the goldrush hype wears off people will realize how heinous the fundamental idea is and dump it in the gutter of history where it belongs.

> We've also extended protections for people lagging behind, for example by putting restrictions on what kinds of contracts can legally be entered into and voiding contracts that one party could not have reasonably been expected to understand, or entered into under duress or undue influence.

And are constantly bypassed in practice by those with more resources than others wrt engaging with the various legal systems (or corruption thereof) around the world.

> None of these protections exist under "smart" contracts

Not true, some people buy off chain legal insurance for a particular juridiction and only deal with protocols they have some legal recourse over. Some use multisig accounts with trusted parties.

> which is exactly why we can't and won't allow code to govern or mediate life as web3 envisions.

There is no shared we though, some individuals (and governments) will adapt to it, some wont, some contracts/cryptocurrencies will survive, some wont, and people will make the convenience trade-offs like they always have had as things change. If you are only willing to try to force someone else to do your dirty work of imposing on peoples freedoms, you'll be behind those who are willing to put you in the ground themselves to defend such irrespective of any particular jurisdictions laws.

> Your dystopian vision of "oops, you lost your retirement savings because you didn't decompile that contract before interacting with it, too bad", or "oops, you lost your retirement savings because someone beat your wife with a baseball bat until you handed over your private key, sucks to be you"--in short, the dystopia of "code is law"--flies in the face of thousands of years of jurisprudence and civilization.

Bad things will continue to happen to some people even with out smart contracts or cryptocurrencies (bad things which don't happen to most people in the course of their lifetime btw), but if you want to live your life in fear as an excuse to not learn and adapt in face of bad things that may happen, that's on you.

> Once the goldrush hype wears off people will realize how heinous the fundamental idea is and dump it in the gutter of history where it belongs.

Yeah, like when people stop being motivated by greed, like when central banks and governments stop debasing their currencies like they have through out history, like when large private banks and service providers stop blocking people from using their platforms, etc. Could happen, I'm not holding my breath.