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Found the linked article http://hackingdistributed.com/2016/06/28/ethereum-soft-fork-... very interesting as it points out the soft fork proposal essentially introduces a 2nd kind of exception semantics into the the Ethereum protocol. This in turn could be converted into a griefing attack on miners supporting the soft fork. The system level semantics and consequences don't really seem to be under control.
Perhaps the next big of development the Ethereum guys need to build is a decentralized court system.
Such a fork would be more difficult in Bitcoin due to their political/financial (not necessarily technical) decentralization. This fork, if it happens, will be proof that Ethereum is far behind bitcoin in terms of decentralization.
To be fair, ethereum is a newer, and more experimental platform- It has many arguable advantages over Bitcoin, but as an etherean I am happy to agree that right now Bitcoin is more established and also may be somewhat more decentralized (given that the ethereum community is giving some deference to the core team at this early stage, in the future this will likely no longer be true)
I think that until Vitalik pulls a Satoshi, Etheruem will never be as decentralized. This has pros and cons, especially with sharding/PoS around the corner.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, ethereum is a newer, and more experimental platform- It has many arguable advantages over Bitcoin, but as an etherean I am happy to agree that right now Bitcoin is more established and also may be somewhat more decentralized (given that the ethereum community is giving some deference to the core team at this early stage, in the future this will likely no longer be true)
Definitely agree with that. I'm a big fan of Ethereum, just very unhappy about this fork. I think that until Vitalik pulls a Satoshi, Etheruem will never be as decentralized. This has pros and cons, especially with sharding/PoS around the corner.
Such a fork would be more difficult in Bitcoin due to their political/financial (not necessarily technical) decentralization. This fork, if it happens, will be proof that Ethereum is far behind bitcoin in terms of decentralization.
Wouldn't a fork imply more decentralization? Multiple active forks would imply multiple actors working to their own agendas towards different objectives/goals and no central fiat to realign their interests. That would certainly sound more decentralized to me. (The block size tangle and the inability for Bitcoin to fork recently to deal with that almost certainly sounded like a power/political centralization problem to this lay observer from what I was reading, but I've managed to stay somewhat unfamiliar with much of the technical nuance.)
It seems to me like a truly decentralized system would likely be prone to forking. The issue should likely not be whether the system can fork (and how difficult it might be), but how the system handles forks when it does fork.
(This is the "DVCS criteria": a DVCS must realize that merges must be common and handle sometimes heavily divergent forks well and with grace, otherwise it is a bad DVCS that users will hate.)
Perhaps the next big of development the Ethereum guys need to build is a decentralized court system.
Or perhaps if you want mutable contracts based on intent, you could use one of the 253 legal systems that already provide you with that.
What's unfortunate is that it's taking the form of a dystopia. Instead of realizing that humans are a factor of the equation, and people doing business in God faith... We're entering a ruthless period where anything goes, and because it's all anonymous no one feels bad about it.
There's crazy potential in the ideas here, but it's way too Wild West.
Bitcoin has reversed funds multiple times via hard forks. The only thing this article proves is that ethereum is young
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or perhaps if you want mutable contracts based on intent, you could use one of the 253 legal systems that already provide you with that.
There's boatloads of value in a decentralized block chain approach to legal organizations.... What's amazing here is the ethereal guys are forging new territory for truly global and potentially leaderless commerce. What's unfortunate is that it's taking the form of a dystopia. Instead of realizing that humans are a factor of the equation, and people doing business in God faith... We're entering a ruthless period wher…
Bitcoin has reversed funds multiple times via hard forks. The only thing this article proves is that ethereum is young
The only time you are probably talking about is when someone made a block with a 9 billion bitcoin reward. Even then, they just convinced the miners to start a different chain. Thus, the chain with the 9 billion coins block just died. So yea, no reversal without a signature, ever!