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Introducing A16Z Crypto

a16zcrypto.com

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Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#91

Post by anyfoo »

chrisco255 wrote: post #34
vorpalhex wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a CRM-focused blockchain might place the business logic for managing customer relations and sales on-chain and enable competing clients to build on the protocol Why.. would you need to put those on a blockchain across a bunch of disparate consumers? In theory isn't my business logic fairly, you know, secret sauce? Blockchain is vaguely "A spreadsheet everyone gets a copy of." There are some cases where that can be…

Traditionally, yes. But in the same way that Windows OS logic is Microsoft's secret sauce and yet thriving companies build products and services around Linux...so too will business-logic be open sourced and compete directly with existing SaaS players. Just because you use blockchain to power the engine and business logic of your application, does not mean you also have to use it to store data. Data can be stored anyw…

What value does storing the data on such a private blockchain add?

Or since you actually said that using the blockchain "does not mean you also have to use it to store data", what are you using it for in that scenario?

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#92

Post by bsparker »

madeofpalk wrote: post #77
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, I pointed to the solution instead of the problem. I'm still an engineer at heart, it seems! What should I have said instead? Centralization of data? Unreliability of single-points-of-failure?

Solve an actual, real life problem. All I see are Long Island Ice Tea Blockchain Corp. and Walmat saying that they're using blockchain to help their supply chain (whatever that means). The reality is is that Blockchain is no longer new. Compare it to iPhone - they both roughly came out at the same time, yet we're still having the same conversations - "What problem does Blockchain solve" - while the iPhone found its p…

I believe the actual problem this solves, the "killer application," is already out there.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#93

Post by lawnchair_larry »

vthallam wrote: post #61

More and more traditional money will flow into Crypto, not because Crypto is the answer for everything, but people just want to bet on the something that might in some form change everything in the future. I really get surprised by the boolean arguments whether blockchain is of any use arguments on HN. I mean there's so much activity, money, talent in Crypto since last year. Goldman Sachs CEO said actually in the nic…

Crypto is a new proper noun?

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#94

Post by [deleted] »

fullshark wrote: post #31
legulere wrote: post #25

Or crypto is just another hype that will burst like the dot com bubble. However, I have to say, compared with the companies of the dot com bubble the blockchain space has very little to offer. The other day I saw an ad for an IoT ML ICO.

The dot com bubble was completely justified in retrospect imo. A lot of stupid money was lost but the opportunity was clearly and obviously there. If you think blockchain has as much potential as the dot com bubble you should put a lot of money into it.

[deleted]

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#95

Post by ajcodez »

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

Individuals invested in crypto currency are excited about hard currency outside of the control of government policy. See “End The Fed” by Ron Paul.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#96

Post by elyobo »

madeofpalk wrote: post #55
kirbypineapple wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue there's value beyond distributed trust: smart contracts (though you could argue that this is merely an application built upon the concept of distributed trust), the tokenization of physical assets (think real estate, oil and gas exploration/drilling/royalties, etc.), and more generally the ability for money to become a "product". These are all domains that blockchain is enabling, though it remains to be…

Again, what problems are being solved? Real estate, oil and gas exploration/drilling/royalties are all things that have existed without problem for many decades. Saying "real estate, but with blockchain" doesn't actually say what problem you're solving.

I think I'd have to argue that real estate has existed for much, much longer than a few decades :D

I'm a pretty big sceptic on all of this crypto BS, but the ownership of real estate assets seems like a pretty archaic system of not easily inspected pieces of paper. Having a public, provable system for recording this information (and possibly other related info, e.g. liens) seems like it would be of some use. The system we have works, but it could work better.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#97

Post by bitL »

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

Blockchain probabilistically solves Byzantine generals problem. That's pretty awesome result with significant business consequences once people start applying it everywhere where they need to trust somebody in trustless environment. If its devs manage to address scaling issues, it could be one of the backbones of Internet, e-commerce, sharing economy etc. It can be also misused to cement certain societal divisions.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#98

Post by raverbashing »

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

> It's distributed trust. That's the problem it solves.

As someone else has pointed out, trust is still not distributed. You still have to trust whoever created the rules and wrote the code (from maliciousness and errors).

Especially when that distributed trust is paid/earned with CPU cycles. The incentive is not clear besides periodic speculatory bursts.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#99

Post by HenryTheHorse »

Jonovono wrote: post #90
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

I don't think it's too hard to find potential problems it can solve, but it's not necessarily needed to solve it. 1. Imagine you use FB. Instead of FB having all of your data, it's stored on the blockchain (encrypted). The problem we have now is if a new social network comes along if you create an account you lose all of your previous data (which may or may not be what you want). This would let you easily bring in an…

> 2. Instead of going through a lawyer, paying money, I make this a smart contract.

What is a "smart contract" and how would this contract be aware of legal requirements?

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