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Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

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141–150 of 170 posts

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as "excess electricity". If that power wasn't being wasted on useless cryptocurrencies, then we could have used it for useful purposes, such as processing aluminum.

That's simply not true. When supply outstrips demand it's generally going to waste anyway. Doesn't California actually pay Arizona to offload their surplus energy?

When supply outstrips demand in the power grid, the power is either sold elsewhere or you start shutting down plants.

Otherwise you'd ruin a lot of machines depending on either 220V/110V or 50Hz being on the grid.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#143
post #130

Blog author from Keybase here. Always game for a Hacker News discussion! There's a subtle point I cut from my post for simplicity reasons, but which feels perfect for HN. I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team that the classic "blockchain" works great for native tokens but is extremely dangerous for anything with counterparty redemption. For example, imagine the shitshow after a truly contentious fork,…

Didn't the "tokens backed by something off-chain, and then a fork happens" already happen with Digix? I believe they just basically said "we are treating the tokens on Ethereum, not on Ethereum Classic, as being the ones which are redeemable". I don't see what the problem with this is. It is inconvenient for the people who prefer to use Ethereum Classic, yes, but they didn't lose their tokens. They still have control…

Indeed, I don't think it's a deal breaker as well. There is a huge potential for scams, here, though (people buying invalid tokens for near than nothing on ethereum classic, then luring unawared people to buy them at full price misrepresenting them as the real thing). In this case, forks basically create counterfeits.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#144
>>We think Stellar can fulfill Bitcoin's original goal of fast, cheap, worldwide payments.

Stellar will not remain fast, cheap and global. It has counterparty risk in the form of the trusted third parties that form its consensus nodes. These TTPs will censor transactions and introduce costly registration requirements for the same reason traditional fintech companies do: to comply with the demands of regulatory agencies.

The only networks capable of providing fast, cheap, worldwide payments are decentralized protocols without trusted third party intermediaries, like Bitcoin (Bitcoin Cash) and Ethereum.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#145

You get a sense of positivity by just going through the stellar website and documentation (eerily similar to Stripe). It is beautifully designed and easy to understand. Kind of gives the feeling that they are in it for the long run unlike many other get rich quick Ponzi cryptocurrencies out there.

Stripe invested in Stellar, and might have helped out with design.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#146

>>We think Stellar can fulfill Bitcoin's original goal of fast, cheap, worldwide payments. Stellar will not remain fast, cheap and global. It has counterparty risk in the form of the trusted third parties that form its consensus nodes. These TTPs will censor transactions and introduce costly registration requirements for the same reason traditional fintech companies do: to comply with the demands of regulatory agenci…

Only the third party issued tokens have counterparty risk i.e you trust the issuer to redeem them somehow. Is that different than an ethereum ERC20 token? The native asset itself (XLM) has no counterparty risk.

> The only networks capable of providing fast, cheap, worldwide payments are decentralized protocols without trusted third party intermediaries, like Bitcoin (Bitcoin Cash) and Ethereum.

IMO it is a trade off between degree of trust and scalability. Bitcoin requires no trust but has a costly PoW consensus algorithm which does not allow instant transactions and has a very low tps limit. You can't have both (unless someone comes up with a better consensus mechanism)

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#147
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great--but I don't care about what value you see when making cryptocurrency transactions. I care about the security and uptime of my services, which is why we started using Keybase in the first place. If they wanted to build some whateverthing that leverages Keybase for identity? Sure, go nuts, I think it's silly but it's not my time. But injecting it "into their apps"? No. These are tools for production, for…

I don't understand why you're upset (genuinely, I don't understand) about them adding new features. Are existing features reduced or worsened in some way I don't understand?

Let's say you recommended Slack and your company started using it. Then Slack adds PornHub integration. Wouldn't you be upset? Would you say: "just don't use it"?

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#148
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding electricity consumption, what do you think of the argument that mining is so competitive that it can only be profitable by subsidized electricity, and that electricity is only subsidized when the local jurisdiction is creating more of it than it needs anyway? In other words, mining doesn't actually create new demand for electricity, it just soaks up the remainder already available.

There is no such thing as "excess electricity". If that power wasn't being wasted on useless cryptocurrencies, then we could have used it for useful purposes, such as processing aluminum.

> no such thing as "excess electricity"

there absolutely is a disbalance between energy produced and energy consumed. if we're lucky, there will be storage capacity nearby. we're mostly not lucky. ever heard of australia? or tesla? google some.

> wasted on useless cryptocurrencies

yeah, transferring value securely without trusting third parties is not useful at all. gotta run all those banks and employ all those bankers, because that costs no energy nor other resources.

are you a banker by any chance?

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as "excess electricity". If that power wasn't being wasted on useless cryptocurrencies, then we could have used it for useful purposes, such as processing aluminum.

> no such thing as "excess electricity" there absolutely is a disbalance between energy produced and energy consumed. if we're lucky, there will be storage capacity nearby. we're mostly not lucky. ever heard of australia? or tesla? google some. > wasted on useless cryptocurrencies yeah, transferring value securely without trusting third parties is not useful at all. gotta run all those banks and employ all those bank…

If anything, crypto currencies will create more work for bankers.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#150
post #91
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a hydroelectric power station produces 30 TWh per year, but demand including aluminum smelters is only 20 TWh, then there's 10 TWh excess. This is use-it-or-lose-it. Should they just allow the river to flow and bypass the turbines?

Hydroelectric is one of the oldest electrical storage systems there is -- you can store more electricity as gravitational energy by pumping the water back uphill, and then letting it flow back down during peak times. There's a reason why hydroelectric plants and dams go together.

... that reason being that dams are used to collect the water from rainfall.
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