This is actually very interesting and one of the first times I have heard of practical uses of crypto. If credit card or airlines rewards were credited via decentralized private coins, users would have greater ownership of their rewards, and they could be traded in secondary markets.
Airlines do not want this. It's explicitly forbidden in their TOS. It has nothing to do with blockchain/web3.
I know I will never benefit from cashing in miles. It's too restrictive. They make sure you don't end up ahead. Their UI's are shit, it's better to just call on the phone and buy the ticket outright, just cash. And if you can't pay that, don't fly, tell your relative it's not happening and that's it.
Just like I could have gotten better credit by getting a credit card, but nah. Credit...points...fuck that. GPA also, grade point average. No idea what my college GPA even is. Or my credit score, the shitty UI's again, deliberately designed so your credit score is a kick-me. If it is a conspiracy (and patio11 said as much, you're the product in those credit score systems, it's about justifying higher interest on your debts, and getting people to borrow more, pay more interest. It's all usury, usury and nothing else), so if it is a conspiracy, let it continue to be a conspiracy, without my ever bother reading the "Kick me" on my back. Never looking in a funhouse mirror of the shitty UI.
I know that "Kick Me" is there, sure. But give it no weight. Never buying into changing myself to game my credit score. Pay my debts in order from lowest interest to highest, try to pay what ought to be paid, sure, but also default on whom it is right to default. Like if I'm being robbed by the shitty UI? Refuse debt I ought to refuse. And refuse receiving compound interest, tried getting a pure checking account with no savings (no overdraft fee stealing as a result) but banks generally won't do it.
Bottom line, shitty point systems go hand in hand with shitty UI's.
Essentially, don’t discount point systems, and please for the love of god fight through the bad UX when it comes to actually important shit like college and banking.
The only benefit of crypto-coins is that if the airline were to go bankrupt, the coins would still exist and could be used as any other crypto-currency. And the value would probably crash anyways.
Yeah it exists alright.
Because it's just a resurgence of Beanie Babies. It's just this decade's get rich quick scheme
Build cool things and don't hide behind jargon.
We don't call them that because blockchain (as originally intended) should be not be company backed.
> I think we can catalog most of the companies in the crypto scene in this part. Yes, we still have foundations (ETH), but let's be real, they are not the majority.
Ignoring that with its 70% premine, ETH significantly deviates from the decentralization ideal, Bitcoin and Ethereum together do form the huge majority of the cryptospace.
-edit- Just to add clarity, decentralization is necessary becasue inevitably the people we need to hide from, are the same ones in control of the system.
-- William Shakespeare
The use of this term as an insult has some especially nasty history behind it:
