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What Is Ethereum?

whatthefuckisethereum.com

161–170 of 272 posts

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#161
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would Ethereum “replace Facebook”?

Well, it can't in its present form, but there is a market (me, at least) for a distributed app framework that would be the basis for uncensored (and uncensorable) serverless p2p versions of all your favorite social media.

I don't know about the serverless part, but wasn't this the promise of Diaspora?

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#162
post #151
post #26

There's one point in particular that took me a while to grasp: while you can write code that runs on the Ethereum network, every single node has to process that code. So if, for example, you had a big 3d animation sequence that you wanted to have rendered, you would not just send that code off to the network to be processed. You would have to pay to have every single person on the network process that job for you, an…

> You could use Ethereum to create all kinds of interesting contracts for financial purposes, voting systems, insurance, or whatever else Perhaps you could but currently no one does. There's still not a single real world legal application that needs cryptocurrency. Much as with the pro-life debate (to name a bad phrase) or with global warming now renamed climate change (to name a good phrase) the name of the thing fr…

> global warming now renamed climate change

Actually not true, the phrase 'climate change' has been coined more than half a century ago. The idea that there was a rebranding of the phenomenon is false beyond doubt, and actually hurtful to the process of acknowledging we have a big problem.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#163
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Can you answer it? Assume I'm neither a libertarian nor an anarchist.

During the past decade, the Federal Reserve has created 4 trillion dollars out of thin air in an attempt to prop up the economy. The Fed seems hesitant to unwind that as it carries the risk of harming the economy. Fiat money can always be created out of thin air, and it seems to be proving difficult for those in power to resist that temptation. https://www.thestreet.com/story/14181100/1/the-fed-normalize...

But why is that bad?

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#164
post #151
post #26

There's one point in particular that took me a while to grasp: while you can write code that runs on the Ethereum network, every single node has to process that code. So if, for example, you had a big 3d animation sequence that you wanted to have rendered, you would not just send that code off to the network to be processed. You would have to pay to have every single person on the network process that job for you, an…

> You could use Ethereum to create all kinds of interesting contracts for financial purposes, voting systems, insurance, or whatever else Perhaps you could but currently no one does. There's still not a single real world legal application that needs cryptocurrency. Much as with the pro-life debate (to name a bad phrase) or with global warming now renamed climate change (to name a good phrase) the name of the thing fr…

> currently no one does.

Clearly you haven't done enough research. Have you looked at the ethereum token (ERC20: https://theethereum.wiki/w/index.php/ERC20_Token_Standard) launch contracts? They raise large amounts of money (its actually scary!) and securely and transparently tokens are distributed to participants. These tokens can then represent anything (really anything) from stock (blockchain capital etc), to voting rights in the organisation (districtOx), to a utility token (golem, basic attention token) to allow use for what ever protocol is being developed.

There already are private secure voting systems being researched. Here for example: https://github.com/stonecoldpat/anonymousvoting ZK-snarks is used to ensure privacy.

You can see some of the other applications here: https://dapps.ethercasts.com/ (most of these are just fun ideas, but you don't have to look far to see the potential in them).

There is real utility to Ethereum, it is just very very young as a technology, and all the issues of scalability etc are a work in progress. But if you want to use the trust-less and secure computational power to execute your code (smart contract) you need to buy Ether first. Is that a Ponzi? I think you are unfairly grouping ethereum in the same category as a large number coins that very much are ponzis.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EOS doesn't currently exist. It makes a lot of strong claims, and has delivered none of them yet.

Larimer has delivered them already in his previous projects: BitShares and Steemit. That's more proven track record than what Ethereum had in early 2014, and that didn't stop people from supporting the idea. I for instance have been a strong supporter of Ethereum since day 0, but now I feel EOS (with DPoS and Graphene) is the next step in blockchain tech.

Ethereum had no "solid" value proposition in 2014, and EOS doesn't have one now. You're overstating its proven value. We can share our opinions on the respective projects, but that's different from a demonstrable value proposition.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#166
post #151
post #26

There's one point in particular that took me a while to grasp: while you can write code that runs on the Ethereum network, every single node has to process that code. So if, for example, you had a big 3d animation sequence that you wanted to have rendered, you would not just send that code off to the network to be processed. You would have to pay to have every single person on the network process that job for you, an…

> You could use Ethereum to create all kinds of interesting contracts for financial purposes, voting systems, insurance, or whatever else Perhaps you could but currently no one does. There's still not a single real world legal application that needs cryptocurrency. Much as with the pro-life debate (to name a bad phrase) or with global warming now renamed climate change (to name a good phrase) the name of the thing fr…

Blockchain != crypto currency.

There are quite a few private blockchains that are now running in the financial and healthcare industries at a pretty large pilot programmes that are very functional and bring destinct advantages.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#168
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Can you answer it? Assume I'm neither a libertarian nor an anarchist.

During the past decade, the Federal Reserve has created 4 trillion dollars out of thin air in an attempt to prop up the economy. The Fed seems hesitant to unwind that as it carries the risk of harming the economy. Fiat money can always be created out of thin air, and it seems to be proving difficult for those in power to resist that temptation. https://www.thestreet.com/story/14181100/1/the-fed-normalize...

>During the past decade, the Federal Reserve has created 4 trillion dollars out of thin air in an attempt to prop up the economy.

During the 1840's to 1860's we created billions of dollars out of thin air by mining gold from the ground in California. Fiat currency saves us the digging.

Money is not a static "thing" that definitely exists. Markets need liquidity. QE has provided that liquidity as the vast majority of capital in our society has become locked up by the top 1%. If anything, they could increase the flow of QE because of how low inflation is right now.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#169
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could use Ethereum to create all kinds of interesting contracts for financial purposes, voting systems, insurance, or whatever else Perhaps you could but currently no one does. There's still not a single real world legal application that needs cryptocurrency. Much as with the pro-life debate (to name a bad phrase) or with global warming now renamed climate change (to name a good phrase) the name of the thing fr…

Blockchain != crypto currency. There are quite a few private blockchains that are now running in the financial and healthcare industries at a pretty large pilot programmes that are very functional and bring destinct advantages.

Name some. And then explain why a private blockchain, controlled by a single entity, or a group of companies that trust each other, is better than a database.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#170
post #26

There's one point in particular that took me a while to grasp: while you can write code that runs on the Ethereum network, every single node has to process that code. So if, for example, you had a big 3d animation sequence that you wanted to have rendered, you would not just send that code off to the network to be processed. You would have to pay to have every single person on the network process that job for you, an…

Your right, but Golem will be. And golem is built on ETH.
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