Remove cryptocurrencies category #6762
Replies: 3 comments 1 reply
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If there is a take that I would emphasise from your proposal, is this one:
I totally agree. Web3, blockchain & cryptocurrencies don't deserve their own category. |
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We've talked about your request at the crates.io team meeting last week:
We hope you can understand our view and why we are choosing to not remove any specific category at this point. |
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Oh my, this issue seems to be all about things I've done :)
This was my reason for adding this category. I'm not a fan of cryptocurrencies at all, but I think it's preferable to have them in one place, where non-interested users won't look, rather than have them pop up all over crates.io. These crates exist, and need to be somewhere. crates.io can't ban them — many people would find it unacceptable, not because they want cryptocurrency crates, but because they don't want crates.io to be judging usefulness of any technology or gatekeep who can use Rust. I am concerned that existence of this category can be perceived as an endorsement. But as you're aware, having a category and describing it negatively is also controversial. So I don't see a winning move here. Switch to blessed tags doesn't change anything. It will be as controversial whether "blockchain" or "cryptocurrency" tag deserves to be highlighted. And if they won't be highlighted, then authors will have an incentive to also tag their crates with "cryptography", "finance" or other more visible tags. |
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Several years ago, it was very easy to give hopeful optimism to cryptocurrency as a new technology. That is no longer the case. There is overwhelming evidence that cryptocurrency has a direct impact on the planet's health, that it features a number of problems which make it unsuitable for general adoption, and that its only practical use is through financial schemes which aim to make a quick buck despite the other issues mentioned.
Given how Rust positions itself specifically as a language aimed at empowering people, particularly those in less fortunate positions than the average tech developer with a cushy salary, it seems extremely insensitive that the Rust project lends legitimacy to cryptocurrencies by including a dedicated category for them on crates.io.
This category was added with minimal discussion and can be superseded by the finance category which was added after the cryptocurrencies category, or the cryptography category which predates it.
Some developers in the ecosystem have already taken a stand on this issue and explicitly delisted the cryptocurrencies category, despite other developers' insistence that such a category is legitimate and that taking a stand is outside the scope of Rust as a project.
I strongly disagree with this approach, since Rust already adopts a code of conduct which explicitly delineates inappropriate behaviour. Criticism of harassment of fellow developers, for example, is explicitly within the scope of the project. If a crate were uploaded to crates.io for the express purpose of harassing someone, it would likely be removed. I feel that taking a stand on a harmful technology like cryptocurrency is well within the scope of the project, but that's not even what I'm asking: I'm asking to simply stop giving cryptocurrency a special position on crates.io by removing its dedicated category. Rust can continue to be as neutral toward cryptocurrencies as they are to puzzle games, which also don't have a dedicated category, but still fit within other, less specific categories.
Cryptocurrency crates can continue to exist, but will not have their own dedicated category. They can continue to use keywords to signal that they're related to cryptocurrency, since these are not curated by the registry and work differently.
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