Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

blog.lisk.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 110 posts

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#2

Post by keypusher »

> Even though JavaScript is a weakly typed language it doesn’t mean that it is inherently insecure. Yes, the programming language used plays an important role, but at the end of the day it is the developers obligation to write secure code in the first place.

Sorry, but I just don't agree. Javascript is a popular language, and has an important role to play in frontend development, but for financial transactions and critical contract code, the lack of safety almost guarantees catastrophic bugs and vulnerabilities will be made in production code. Maybe this is fine for hobby projects, but if you are talking about moving billions of dollars around in the real global economy, I don't see it being done safely in Javascript. I like that projects such as Tezos are integrating formal verification of smart contract code, that seems like the right way forward.

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#3

Post by Adamantcheese »

> You can now build a decentralized Internet of Things application which allows you to securely (with authorisation!) turn on gadgets with a simple transaction, which can be just a push on a button.

Why would it be necessary to use a transaction to turn something on/off securely?

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#6

Post by omarchowdhury »

659087 wrote: post #4

File under: terrible ideas made possible by buzzwords.

There was a time when common internet protocols we take for granted today were a buzzword, too.

Buzzwords are buzzwords until implementation is (or isn't) proven useful. Lisk is making an attempt. Let's judge the attempt and the fruits or lack thereof.

Disclaimer: I am not an investor, stakeholder, or employee in Lisk.

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#8

Post by ArchReaper »

Adamantcheese wrote: post #3

> You can now build a decentralized Internet of Things application which allows you to securely (with authorisation!) turn on gadgets with a simple transaction, which can be just a push on a button. Why would it be necessary to use a transaction to turn something on/off securely?

Ya, I fail to see the benefit of this (for IoT) over using any other widely-available technology for secure communication (SSH, etc)

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#9

Post by danmaz74 »

keypusher wrote: post #2

> Even though JavaScript is a weakly typed language it doesn’t mean that it is inherently insecure. Yes, the programming language used plays an important role, but at the end of the day it is the developers obligation to write secure code in the first place. Sorry, but I just don't agree. Javascript is a popular language, and has an important role to play in frontend development, but for financial transactions and cr…

Not just that. One thing that worries me a lot about JS in this context is numbers: JS was designed to make it easy to use numbers and convert to/from strings without caring about the precision and exact internal representation. Which is perfectly fine for UI code and the like, but a terrible idea when you're transacting money.

Re: Lisk: Blockchain development in JavaScript

#10

Post by 659087 »

omarchowdhury wrote: post #6
659087 wrote: post #4

File under: terrible ideas made possible by buzzwords.

There was a time when common internet protocols we take for granted today were a buzzword, too. Buzzwords are buzzwords until implementation is (or isn't) proven useful. Lisk is making an attempt. Let's judge the attempt and the fruits or lack thereof. Disclaimer: I am not an investor, stakeholder, or employee in Lisk.

I'm not calling blockchains a buzzword as a derogatory term towards blockchains. I'm more using the term to point out the way blockchains are being used right now (e.g. marketing bad ideas and non-ideas as groundbreaking tech).

That's not to say there aren't plenty of promising projects out there. There absolutely are.

Post reply on HN