This reminds me of the reporter that asks Jeff Bezos in a sarcastic tone “So your telling me Amazon will be bigger than Sears??” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cTjhzSgdwE
Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
11–20 of 216 posts
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#12Hopefully this thread will be different than all the others. Someone is likely to appear here with a counterargument, which I'm looking forward to reading. However, in addition to any counterarguments, please describe why standard tech and/or a 3rd_party is insufficient for your proposed use-cases. This is HackerNews after all, and we desire the deeply technical discussion and context, not propaganda.
How would you expect someone in a third-world country to keep money away from a hyperinflating currency, without access to international banking? And no, we-will-suspend-your-account-if-you-look-at-us-funny PayPal is not an option. Cash in foreign currencies is extremely risky.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#13Hopefully this thread will be different than all the others. Someone is likely to appear here with a counterargument, which I'm looking forward to reading. However, in addition to any counterarguments, please describe why standard tech and/or a 3rd_party is insufficient for your proposed use-cases. This is HackerNews after all, and we desire the deeply technical discussion and context, not propaganda.
I know this isn't an answer that you will like....but blockchain allows me to invest in high risk investments that would typically only be allowed for accredited investors. Having the shares/coins in a blockchain provides for transparency and authenticity and makes legit companies act in a way that is generally favorable for the small time investor
Which investments?
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know this isn't an answer that you will like....but blockchain allows me to invest in high risk investments that would typically only be allowed for accredited investors. Having the shares/coins in a blockchain provides for transparency and authenticity and makes legit companies act in a way that is generally favorable for the small time investor
Which investments?
I'm into mainly into stuff that either pays or plans to pay dividends, NEO, WTC, ARK, ETH etc.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#15Payments? Hello.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#16Has anyone thought about this in terms of a hype cycle [1]? Basically, the theory says that any new technology will be hyped at first and then falls into a state of disillusionment, where all the hopes of the first phase are shattered. Finally, when integration barriers etc are resolved the technology picks up.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#17Recently I saw a question asking if there were any social impact projects going on that were using blockchain technologies.
I have no idea how blockchain technologies can apply to social impact projects; all I could come up with was verifying that my donated can of soup made it into the hands of Homeless Joe via a verifiable route, but I don't know how much I'd need that. I trust that the soup kitchen [or whatever] directly feeds people, and if I didn't I'd be volunteering up front as well or not even bother at all.
Perhaps again I just haven't applied my imagination to it.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#18A solidity developer I spoke to a couple of times told me much the same as this article. He believed in the blockchain as a concept; but its current overall benefit to human society is meagre (and some might argue destructive). This represents a first awkward phase for everyone.
We'll definitely see blockchain become dominant in a some or multiple fields of business. When? Perhaps not for 20 years. Internet as we know it took decades for it to fully develop and take off. We could get a crash before this succes happens, the word "blockchain" and "cryptocurrency" might become toxic for a while. Thinking of the 2000 IT bubble, so much money poured into any crazy business proposal with "web" in it; and suddenly the music stopped. Billions evaporated.
All the while I'll just be grabbing popcorn and hoping to sell my coins on time ;-)
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#19This reminds me of the naysayers from the early internet, and I think we can look at each stage of the internet's growth with these same glasses.
1) email: it will never replace the post-office. You can only send text. Oh, ok, they've added images now, well, its' too slow for most people to download them, and now I've got all this spam. We use it in our company, but it isn't really for consumers. Oh, then hotmail...
2) You're not going to buy things online. The shipping costs will be too high. The logistics are all wrong. Will you trust an online shop with your credit card?? No way! This e-commerce thing is dead in the water. Sure, you point to the 'growth', but it's equal to "the proportion of US GDP comprised by toothpick sales"
3) Blogs?? Seriously. We're a news agency. We pay professional journalists to research and write compelling stories. Can you trust some random person in their basement writing a blog? Sorry, no contest. Blogs can't compete with major media companies.
4) Music downloads? Why would you spend 20 minutes downloading a song ILLEGALLY?? Where are you going to get it from. We'll stop all of this. CDs are the way forward. Oh, this internet thing has just destroyed our business model, iTunes to the rescue. But now people want to stream music. No they don't internet speed isn't fast enough to stream, and people want to own music, this music streaming thing isn't going anywhere!
5) Video? You've got to be kidding. Oh, that youtube thing is fine for weirdo's who want to make video's for their friends, but people will keep going to movies and paying for cable. The quality isn't good enough, and they don't have the great content. This internet thing isn't going anyway.
6) Rent someone's apartment online? Are you nuts! I'm not going to let some crazy person stay in my place, and I'm not going to stay in somebody else's. These internet people are crazy. Our hotel business is just fine. In fact, I think we should increase prices and start charging people hidden fees like "resort charges"...
7) Get in a stranger's car? A stranger that I found online!!??? Look, when I was a kid, my parents had two rules. Don't talk to strangers, and never get in a strangers car. Now you're telling me to go online, find a stranger and get in their car! This is madness. Just get in a cab! They'll take you where you want to go and you can trust them!
Please add your own "this is going nowhere" stories, I'm keen to see what else is out there, there are TONS.
The blockchain may use the internet as an underlying protocol, but it is as disruptive to the finance industry as Napster was to music, AirBnB to hotels, Uber/Lyft (please come to Australia Lyft) was to cabs, Amazon to retail, etc. etc.
The difference being, that blockchain is an open technology that is enabling this disruption, rather than a single company.
Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain
#20As much as everyone hates ICO's. They make equity funding rediculously easy.