Why does every headline have to be about disrupting?
This doesn't sound like disrupt so much as a method of securing it. Which feels like the opposite of disrupt at least in spirit.
Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
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Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#72The article discusses foreign actors interfering with the election and proposes blockchain as the solution? That's just crazy - with blockchain a state actor just needs 51% of the mining power and they could pwn the election. There's nothing stopping a state actor for getting 51% of the mining power, and it's plausible that's already the case. If you were a government, wouldn't it be worth spending a few million to b…
If you voted, and such a 51% attack happened, you would notice your vote was reverted. Not to mention getting that 51% mining power plus catching up to the blockchain to be able to reverse it is increasingly expensive the more time/blocks it passes since the transaction. So yes it's not "perfect", but it sure looks harder to manipulate than a centralized database server that only requires a simple UPDATE sql query to…
> you would notice your vote was reverted.
How? That means there is a record of my vote tied to my identity. That's not an anonymous ballot. Now you've opened up all sorts of other problems of coercion, etc. You'd have to get your key from the government, so there is a chance to get it. You could track every time someone voted and in which elections which would let you narrow down where they live pretty easily.
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#73I would like to see blochain or maybe just git replace the bill writing process. It would be nice to know who contributed what part to a 2000 page bill
While I doubt it happens any time soon. I would definitely be interested in seeing some sort of git for law solution. Where you can see exactly how many iterations, how many change, and all the minutia of what went into it. And exactly who had their fingers in what pieces. Purely as a academic exercise it would be fascinating to see a law unfold and evolve from the ground up.
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#74Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#75The problem with politics is not the lack of technology. The problem is people. You're not going to fix that with technology. (You're not going to fix people with politics, either.)
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#76What an awful website. After the email popup, I was sure if I was redirected or not. Flashy, confusing and one of those sites where I can't click the back button fast enough.
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#77I don't agree with the "blockchain as a solution to every problem" crowd, but if the blockchain is going to lead to an increase in development and usage of decentralised (not just p2p, but federated, self-hosted etc.) solutions then I say, go for it!
I think the current level of centralisation is not far off from what Tim Wu warns us against in "The Master Switch" [1] and if it's going to take a hip word like the "blockchain" to popularise decentralisation, so be it. I'll take what I can get at this point.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wu#The_Master_Switch
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#78For a period as a child, I was thrown in among the happy-clappy sort of evangelical Christian [1] whose answer to every problem was, "Jesus can help you with that!" No money? Pray to Jesus. Sick? Pray to Jesus. Husband beating you? Pray to Jesus. Not sure if Jesus is real or just Santa Claus for adults? Pray to Jesus! This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly o…
You're assuming or at least implying that everyone in the Blockchain/Decentralization community thinks that Blockchain is the answer to everything which in my experience is not the case.
That's not really what they said though. They explicitly said not every person who is interested in blockchain is behaving like a fundamentalist, but that perhaps people who make the leap from "blockchain works for Bitcoin" to "blockchain is going to change our political system" may be thinking like a fundamentalist.
I would posit that the overwhelming majority of Bitcoin enthusiasts don't think that the blockchain is going to somehow disrupt the massive political machine we have. By nature the problems there are not really technical.
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you voted, and such a 51% attack happened, you would notice your vote was reverted. Not to mention getting that 51% mining power plus catching up to the blockchain to be able to reverse it is increasingly expensive the more time/blocks it passes since the transaction. So yes it's not "perfect", but it sure looks harder to manipulate than a centralized database server that only requires a simple UPDATE sql query to…
> you would notice your vote was reverted. How? That means there is a record of my vote tied to my identity . That's not an anonymous ballot. Now you've opened up all sorts of other problems of coercion, etc. You'd have to get your key from the government, so there is a chance to get it. You could track every time someone voted and in which elections which would let you narrow down where they live pretty easily.
Well in this case such a voting would be done using some variation of a ZK-Snark (or some other cryptographic algo) which would allow you to check your vote counted, yet remain anonymous.
Re: Is Blockchain Technology Going to Disrupt Our Political System: We Hope So
#80For a period as a child, I was thrown in among the happy-clappy sort of evangelical Christian [1] whose answer to every problem was, "Jesus can help you with that!" No money? Pray to Jesus. Sick? Pray to Jesus. Husband beating you? Pray to Jesus. Not sure if Jesus is real or just Santa Claus for adults? Pray to Jesus! This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly o…
> This was an awful experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. When a group of people have exactly one answer to a problem, it's not even worth engaging with them. Even if they have learned to sound reasonable, their conclusion is predetermined. Evangelical fundamentalists of any sort are a waste of time.
I think you've hit the nail on the head with this one. Cryptocoin communities have reached a religious cult status. Ethereum is a good example of this. It's leaders are seen as infallible and omnipresent. Any criticism or voice of reason are quickly silenced and shunned as "shills for bitcoin".
You are absolutely right that it's impossible to engage in a meaningful dialogue with such people who have such constricted views of reality. It's a waste of time and I'm going to cut it out.