I'm hoping to have a technical discussion, emotions aside.
Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
1–10 of 100 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#2As someone in finance, where blockchain gets brought up alot, this one is easy.
Blockchain is the proverbial solution looking for a problem. As has been pointed out ad nauseam, the blockchain is often just a euphemism for database.
And that's where the backlash comes from, someone says Blockchain for settlement, or blockchain for recording startup up option tracking, or blockchain for tracking, well anything physical or digital.
The problem with these solutions is that almost always, there exists a database doing exactly what the person is proposing we use blockchain for, there aren't any trust issues with the counter parties so distributed consensus doesn't buy you much, often it makes things worse due to its immutability.
Couple that with the fact that many people like the current system, or make money based on the current system and therefor can't see anything broken about it.
Also, the current technology has inertia behind it, the new technology can't be just a bit better, it needs to be much better to displace the incumbent tech, and blockchain just isn't that much better yet for most of the soutions its proposed for.
TL/DR Blockchain is the new NoSql. Awesome, useful in very strict cases, but its currently supremely hyped up and over sold.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#3It's just backlash against the hype. It's sort of hard to have a technical discussion since people aren't usually negative towards it for technical reasons.
Blockchain is a relatively new technology with plenty of promises paired with low understanding.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#4I think the negativity is more focused on the "blockchain will revolutionize x industry" hype than on the blockchain technology itself. I've noticed a similar (and justified) degree of skepticism and fatigue here in regard to all of the AI hype in mainstream media, but nobody is discounting the technical advances made in the field; just the kind of unbridled, naive optimism that played a part in the "AI Winter" of the 80s and could lead to a similar disillusionment with the blockchain.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#5To quote Matt Levine:
"If you announce that you are updating the database software used by a consortium of banks to track derivatives trades, the New York Times will not write an article about it. If you say that you are blockchaining the blockchain software used by a blockchain of blockchains to blockchain blockchain blockchains, the New York Times will blockchain a blockchain about it"
The whole article is fairly insightful, as his often are:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-10/bank-bloc...
The article on the front page about Accenture today is a great example. People are using it as a buzzword. Blockchain isn't snake oil, but it's sure being peddled by a lot of snake oil salesmen.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#6It isn't negative towards the technology. Blockchains solve one problem: distributed consensus among mutually distrustful peers. If there's any existing trust structure, then a blockchain isn't what you need.
In situations where you already have trust but want immutability and cryptographic assurances, you may want to look into Merkle DAGs or other authenticated data structures, which are not blockchains at all. https://cs.umd.edu/~mwh/papers/gpads.pdf
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#7As someone in finance, where blockchain gets brought up alot, this one is easy. Blockchain is the proverbial solution looking for a problem. As has been pointed out ad nauseam, the blockchain is often just a euphemism for database. And that's where the backlash comes from, someone says Blockchain for settlement, or blockchain for recording startup up option tracking, or blockchain for tracking, well anything physical…
I completely agree, it sounds like the forever present problem of wrong tool for the right job.
However it offers the potential to approach problems in a fundamentally different manner. I find myself incredibly curious and fascinated with how it works - then immediately rejected once I see discussions on HN about the blockchain.
According to your bio you've been programming for many years - is an apprehension towards something new a common pattern you've observed?
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#8As someone in finance, where blockchain gets brought up alot, this one is easy. Blockchain is the proverbial solution looking for a problem. As has been pointed out ad nauseam, the blockchain is often just a euphemism for database. And that's where the backlash comes from, someone says Blockchain for settlement, or blockchain for recording startup up option tracking, or blockchain for tracking, well anything physical…
To comment on the use case of faster than T+3 settlements using the block chain. You have to keep in mind many of these instruments trade monthly at best.
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#9It may not be a direct answer to your question, but this article has a cynical (yet technically detailed) perspective on "blockchain" that might give some insight: https://tonyarcieri.com/on-the-dangers-of-a-blockchain-monoc...
Re: Ask HN: Why is the community so negative towards blockchain technology?
#10I'm not negative to blockchains like I'm not negative to linked lists.
I am however sceptical when large amounts of people suddenly decides that they need to swap technology NOW.
Example: javascript. A language that IMO is worse than even php in a number of ways but still manages to attract developer mindshare.
(Yes, I have some experience in classic Javascript / ECMAScript )