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Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

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Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#41

Post by etr-strike »

adamnemecek wrote: post #7
superbrama wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet connected the world, and changed how we interact fundamentally. Blockchain uses the internet to create politically resistant money as a primary use case. Just not seeing how blockchain fits into any ongoing revolution, in part because it only can exist because of government/corporate controlled pipes on which it relies.

Right, block chain will do the same. The ongoing revolution is the fight against ruling classes, same as over the last 5000 years. Not really true that it depends on the government. And even if it is, you only need like one government supporting it for it to be valuable. Why couldn’t your argument be used to say the internet won’t work?

You can’t have a blockchain without a Bitcoin. The two are inseparable. Every blockchain needs a token reward which has monetary value to secure it.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#42

Post by mutteraloo »

ThomPete wrote: post #29

People always overestimate the short term and underestimate the long term. Go to any country perhaps with the exception of Estonia and you will see that digitalization was supposed to change governments for the better. Instead they mostly have created very sporadic successes but a lot of failed implementation sometimes even making it worse. Yet there is no doubt that in the long run things are changing for the better…

So 10-15 more years? In the meantime we can use blockchain/bitcoin to scam money from grandmas, retired folks, and millenials. So they can hate us technologists even more.

Oh, and cause global warming and destroy the planet. That way humans will have to come up with a non-government backed currency.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#44

Post by anigbrowl »

Don't forget that lasers were a solution in search of a problem for ages. Blockchain's potential uses are great, but they have to overcome the deficit of (maybe) lack of privacy and (usually) big and busy ledgers - traffic you'd probably rather not have going constantly, but if you outsource it to a local specialist you're defeating the purpose.What blockchain needs is an application where privacy doesn't matter but depth and resolution do. I wonder if it secretly longs to be united with mapping applications.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#45

Post by masterjack »

KirinDave wrote: post #38

Github and the linux git repo are merkle trees with a variety of governance controls. I will die on this hill if I have to.

That is actually fascinating. You could build a ledger on top of github, transactions are push requests,there’d be a centralized party approving valid push requests and merging forks, but following a standardized formula that anyone can check and audit. Token ingress and egress are potentially hard to do, but it would be a fun idea to develop.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#46

Post by scythe »

root_axis wrote: post #34
kemonocode wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The people who are so poor that they don't have reliable access to banking services very often are lacking reliable access to internet connected computing devices and sometimes even electricity. Additionally, trading cryptocurrency for spendable money is time consuming and expensive. The idea that cryptocurrency is a viable option for the participants of third-world economies is absurd. I'm not saying that nobody in…

As society advances, the lowest rung is brought up even though corruption persists. Many years ago, it wasn't likely for people in third world countries to have access to vaccination or clothing, but today we've eliminated smallpox and nobody wears animal skins except uncontacted tribes and people who choose to. Internet connectivity is very cheap in per capita terms and cell phone towers have gone up in places like Afghanistan and Somalia.

Furthermore, the poorest people generally aren't the ones looking to evade hyperinflation, because they lack savings in the first place. Venezuela had a middle class once upon a time, though.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#47

Post by acdha »

adamnemecek wrote: post #10
ttul wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, during the late 1990s, people tried to make an internet version of EVERYTHING, even when it made zero sense. That’s where we are with blockchain today.

Right. That’s how technology works. But internet right now is undeniable. Block chain will be the same.

The internet was undeniable back then, too, which is a huge difference. Millions of people used it for a ton of different purposes, so even though a bunch of businesses were pricing below cost the customer demand was clear. In contrast, nobody has come up for a legal use for bitcoin which many people need and is better than the alternatives. Some of the other blockchain ideas are more useful but again struggle to beat traditional PKI.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#48

Post by wslh »

jnsaff2 wrote: post #35

I used to work for these guys https://guardtime.com . They do keyless digital signatures/timestamps based on block chain way before bitcoin and are quite useful.

I think you are in a position to add something to this discussion: have they found added value in the distributed ledger ecosystem?

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#49

Post by bob2001 »

dreit1 wrote: post #8
provost wrote: post #2

Hopefully 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

Can you explain how having shares/coins in the blockchain increases transparency/authenticity? Easily audit-able records would exist just the same if you bought your shares via wire transfer.

Re: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

#50

Post by Cyberdog »

jackfoxy wrote: post #31

The folks at https://sweetbridge.com/ make a case for supply chain being a natural fit. Some of the low hanging fruit here is international trade between less developed countries, where settlement has to be done in dollars, and independent truckers. The thesis is that huge amounts of capital is tied up in invoice settlement all along the supply chain. (And supply chain refers to every thing from the dirt -- grown or…

What about a blockchain/distributed ledger improves supply chains in ways that a standard centralized database could not? Explain like I'm five.
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