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What Is Ethereum?

whatthefuckisethereum.com

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Re: What Is Ethereum?

#181

Post by BaronSamedi »

gfody wrote: post #53
revelation wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is Sokal level writing. If this was a random person trying his hand at a writing class, whatever, but this is the guy writing the code behind your crypto coin.

Literally everything I read about Ethereum that's written by Vitalik stinks of something I haven't been able to put my finger on. "Sokal-ish" nails it exactly. The writing is never straight-forward, and always appeals to mainstream idealogical preconceptions. It's liberally salted with economical-jibberish-nonsense that sounds good as well. I believe blockchain technology is important and I think Ethereum is a strong…

When reading anything about Ethereum, the problem I've encountered is that the authors describe the supposed potential of the technology but never practical use cases. They never talk about successful, working applications.

The question for Ethereum, like any technology, is what real-world problem is it uniquely suited to solve? Personally, I don't think Ethereum will ever live up to the hype surrounding it because its founders have promised more than it can deliver.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#182

Post by JasoonS »

joosters wrote: post #171
JasoonS wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 vot…

None of these tokens do anything useful today. And at least 99% will never do anything useful, since the market is full of scammers and over-promising start-ups who use the magic 'decentralize' word.

Exactly, that's why you probably shouldn't be throwing your money at any of them. That's not an indication of the future of the technology though. Only time will tell.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#183

Post by JasoonS »

herval wrote: post #97
nullc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Yep. Unfortunately the creators of Ethereum marketed it heavily as a "world computer" on promotional roadshows, claiming it would replace Facebook and whatnot. Perhaps more interesting is that, in my view, Ethereum has it wrong: re-executing computati…

How would Ethereum “replace Facebook”?

Here is one early stage project I've heard of using ethereum: https://akasha.world/

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#184

Post by spynxic »

K0SM0S wrote: post #172
uncle_d wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Count me in as well. For about a decade I've argued that 'we' need a decentralized, encrypted, peer-to-peer way of communication wherein each user physically and legally owns their data (only granting temporary/revocable read rights to other users) and controls said rights on an ad-hoc basis. Including making it public as long as you damn please. Basically a digital metaphor that you own your 'space' (eg home) and gr…

> ..I thought this would be long done by now. I evolved into thinking this is actually somewhat of a hard problem (per real-world constraints of all kinds, ie social, political, ethical, not strictly technically) that I want to actively try to tackle personally

A notable act would be to join the course of an ongoing project, if one which is flexible enough to build onto exists.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#185

Post by DennisP »

SilasX wrote: post #58
RexetBlell wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's simply not something that can be explained easily and clearly. Imagine trying to explain the Internet to someone who has never seen a computer. This is actually a sign that something innovative is happening, because it can't be explained in terms of something that already exists.

I hear that on every topic and have never found it justified. A high level explanation can illustrate the general structure of what you're explaining and then you can paint in details as necessary. It's always possible to find an "in between". When I wrote understandingbitcoin.us, I explained it as a global ledger with mutiple versions floating around where everyone agrees to trust the version (out of the valid ones)…

All of that is the same on Ethereum. But where Bitcoin has a table with "userid,balance" and a stored procedure that lets you move some of your balance to any other user, on Ethereum you have developer rights. Aside from the core ledger, you can make your own tables, and your own stored procedures that anyone else can use.

This isn't a precise analogy for various reasons. Bitcoin has the UTXO model (though Ethereum actually does have userid/balance), and Ethereum is more like an object database than SQL.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#186

Post by Ajiv20 »

Breefield wrote: post #34
SilasX wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as I understand ethereum, I will!

Shoot! Explainer site missed the target. I wrote the "average person" page to be quite high level. Unfortunately the "nerdy" page became a little too nerdy. I should work on an "I'm a software developer who wants an intermediate technical understanding" or something like this.

This is what i was trying to find! Would be very nice to have one :)

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#187

Post by nivertech »

baybal2 wrote: post #121
rdl wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The costs to subvert SGX are unfortunately far below millions. Probably hundreds or thousands after you have some one time research. It is a viable additional client protection, especially against remote malware, software-only tampering (unless there are implementation bugs or backdoors), but not a viable server trust substitute.

Probing a live chip for 30k - https://zeptobars.com/en/

how this will help if the encryption/decryption happens inside the chip?

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#188

Post by DennisP »

pimeys wrote: post #138

What is the best place to have discussions about Ethereum? I tried to follow the Reddit group, but I don't really need all the hype. I just need information and opinions on writing contracts and developing applications that use Ethereum network. I'm also very interested in the psychological side of trading and different trading strategies. No fuzz, just reasonable discussion.

For dev, there's /r/ethdev and various channels at https://gitter.im/ethereum, along with https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/.

There are some attempts at serious trading subreddits, but so far nothing that seems that informative to me.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#189

Post by DennisP »

moomin wrote: post #129

I'm being sniffy here, and the technical achievement of Ethereum is considerable, but were I talking about a general contract computing platform, I'd want one where I could demonstrate the assertions the code makes. And that basically means a dependently typed functional programming language. I'd start with Idris, but even that might need strengthening before DAO-style issues were hard to find.

Here's a masters thesis by someone who made Idris compile to the Ethereum virtual machine.

https://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/234939...

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#190

Post by wentoodeep »

ytNumbers wrote: post #158
rspeer wrote: 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...

Damn, I should've stick to actual goods barter trading instead of a piece of paper.
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