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Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

nytimes.com

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Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#111

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

mhb wrote: post #97
tomaskafka wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This - all things that can by done by SomethingSpecificCoin can be equally well done on smart contract platform ala Ethereum. There is no reason (except for rewarding founders and early investors) someone who want to provide taxi rides own specialized mining equipment for maintaining blockchain of a proprietary coin. I rode a taxi few months ago, and I don't remember having to change my currency for a TaxiCoin which…

it is illegal for him not to accept the national currency According to the United States Department of the Treasury’s site[1], there is no federal law requiring that businesses accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. [1] https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages...

Yes but not accepting currency[0] or coins is different from not accepting USD. In the United States a creditor may choose to only accept certain forms of USD (ie. no $100 bills at some stores) but they still must accept USD in some form.

[0] It is obvious from your link that the Treasury intends "currency" to be interpreted as paper money, see this:

There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#114

Post by decentralised »

sho wrote: post #107
decentralised wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, for transparency... I'm the author of both articles. It's true that they could be done with a standard DB which would be managed like most of the other public / government IT throughout the developing world. The key to understanding the use cases is to look at the blockchain capabilities one by one and see where Ghana benefits from having a hard to modify public database. If there is any subject that you would li…

> Ghana benefits from having a hard to modify public database I am very much on board with that idea. I work in finance and write-only is practically a law. I just don't see why you need ethereum to implement it; in fact it seems a terrible, overly complicated way to do it. It is good though that the blockchain hysteria is inspiring governments to think about these concepts though. On your disclosure - despite my cri…

So, I've worked in finTech for 20 years before changing careers to focus on Blockchain in general and Ethereum in particular, so I'm biased when I see the possibilities of an internet-of-agreements as well as mechanism design and cryptoeconomics in general as complements for real-world policy making and governance.

This to say, we could debate the relative merits of any solution so I'll simply say that transparency is a powerful tool in most government use cases. Ethereum was just a tool.

Thank you for the compliment!

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#115

Post by bigdubs »

v64 wrote: post #108

It's strange to me how there are many among the Hacker News crowd who can read an article like this and have doubts about its thesis. You lived through the 80s and 90s right? I can't count how many times in my life I was told no one would ever need a computer in their house, we've gotten along for decades just fine without them. No one will ever buy books online, that's ridiculous, you can go to the store and have on…

Not sure the parallels are as strong as you're making them out to be; there are deep, deep flaws with proof of work as a concept because of the energy consumed.

There will probably be a better end state for distributed trust, but we're legitimately not there yet.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#116

Post by gist »

v64 wrote: post #108

It's strange to me how there are many among the Hacker News crowd who can read an article like this and have doubts about its thesis. You lived through the 80s and 90s right? I can't count how many times in my life I was told no one would ever need a computer in their house, we've gotten along for decades just fine without them. No one will ever buy books online, that's ridiculous, you can go to the store and have on…

So are you saying that it's more rational to simply think 'anything is possible' even though the available evidence and information seems to point to the fact that that isn't the case? After all you don't go around thinking that a country like (insert small insignificant country) is ever going to pass the United States in ability but sure 'anything is possible'. It could happen after all the US surpased Europe in many ways and at one time that was unthinkable.

Also with respect to things like 'nobody will ever need a computer in their house' or what Watson of IBM said (regarding the need for only a small amount of computers in total) you are also not looking at the times that that type of statement ('will never work and here is why' or 'not needed because xyz') was true. You are only looking at the survivor bias type of things where people were wrong. Because you don't know of or keep track of the times things didn't work out (like flying cars but there are most likely thousands of other examples out there I am sure).

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#117

Post by bildung »

decentralised wrote: post #68
aaron-lebo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the nature of your question, but I'd say: to make money. That is the primary overriding incentive in this discussion. People will lie, cheat, and steal for a dollar, they'll definitely do it for 1 million.

Ok, so people make money by running mining hardware that keeps a blockchain network decentralised and trustworthy. The value of the token increases with the number of people who participate in the network (Metcalfe's ...) and due to speculation on the underlying value of having trust and consensus without a centralised authority. The problem with centralised authority is that, despite the very best intentions of thos…

I think this is clear to pretty much anyone interested in this. The technicalities are not the point. Question is, what is the actual problem to solve? That doesn't get solved by postgres? Not a potential one, but a real, existing one.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#118

Post by aoro »

bigdubs wrote: post #115
v64 wrote: post #108

It's strange to me how there are many among the Hacker News crowd who can read an article like this and have doubts about its thesis. You lived through the 80s and 90s right? I can't count how many times in my life I was told no one would ever need a computer in their house, we've gotten along for decades just fine without them. No one will ever buy books online, that's ridiculous, you can go to the store and have on…

Not sure the parallels are as strong as you're making them out to be; there are deep, deep flaws with proof of work as a concept because of the energy consumed. There will probably be a better end state for distributed trust, but we're legitimately not there yet.

They already exist. Check out the stellar consensus mechanism.

https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pd...

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#119

Post by v64 »

bigdubs wrote: post #115
v64 wrote: post #108

It's strange to me how there are many among the Hacker News crowd who can read an article like this and have doubts about its thesis. You lived through the 80s and 90s right? I can't count how many times in my life I was told no one would ever need a computer in their house, we've gotten along for decades just fine without them. No one will ever buy books online, that's ridiculous, you can go to the store and have on…

Not sure the parallels are as strong as you're making them out to be; there are deep, deep flaws with proof of work as a concept because of the energy consumed. There will probably be a better end state for distributed trust, but we're legitimately not there yet.

> there are deep, deep flaws with proof of work as a concept because of the energy consumed

What is the energy consumption of all the bank offices and computer systems in the world? Even without this comparison, I think the amount of energy required is not a flaw in itself, but rather an aspect of the technology we should seek to improve upon (for instance, proof of stake is an attempt at this). I don't think it's sustainable long term (2400 baud internet wasn't sustainable long term either), but that doesn't mean we don't have the kernel of a great idea today. I agree with you 100% that we're not there yet, but I disagree with those who say this road leads to nowhere.

Re: Beyond the Bitcoin bubble

#120

Post by AareyBaba »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #51

I love Stephen Johnson, the author. His show on Prime/PBS "How we got to now" was an incredible series about how small innovations with glass, sound, and light made the modern world possible, and he does it with a lot of charm. Highly recommended for the HN audience!

If you have Amazon Prime - the show is available for free with your subscription.
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