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Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

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Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#51

Post by arcticbull »

nosuchthing wrote: post #28
topmonk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the core team wants to create more bitcoin they can. If you believe this, you lack a fundamental understanding of btc.

Actually it’s possible for any hacker to generate more Bitcoins if another bug like CVE-2018-17144 is discovered. What Exactly Did the Bug Do? The obvious worst part of this bug was the inflation exploit. An attack could create new bitcoins at will, exceeding the 21 million hard cap limit that is currently in place. This would absolutely destroy confidence in not only Bitcoin, but every cryptocurrency. https://www.li…

Further we've no idea if other such bugs have been discovered and exploited already without responsible disclosure.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#53

Post by JoshTriplett »

mynewtb wrote: post #38
bonestamp2 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? I think it is only important for a business when public trust is important. For example, a news agency could publish its articles in a public blockchain so the original article and any updates to that article would forever be auditable from that blockchain.

So what if a story or bit of information has to be retracted by law? I second my sibling, newspapers have no interest in transparency.

> So what if a story or bit of information has to be retracted by law?

Then the news agency issues a retraction. It's already the case that the Internet will not forget, whether via the Internet Archive or http://www.newsdiffs.org/ .

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#54

Post by Nursie »

seibelj wrote: post #6

Cryptocurrencies, and especially Ethereum, are truly novel innovations in computer science that cross many academic disciplines. The linked example is a great write-up. It’s sad that there is a vocal group, especially on HN, that knee-jerk hates everything blockchain related and wishes with their entire being for it to fail. However, I think smart contracts are fascinating and wish more people would keep an open mind…

What's sad is the spectacle that has arisen around this novel area over the last several years, the breathless enthusiasm, the handwaving away of concerns, the absolute mindless utopianism that has surrounded this stuff.

Are Smart Contracts interesting? Sure. But they don't address all areas of contract law very well, and they certainly seem like they could well be misused as a way to circumvent a lot of the protections we currently have in place.

Are cryptocurrencies interesting? Again yes, but they don't actually appear to be a very good fit for anything in particular, and they do seem to have a lot of poor economic ideas baked in.

So while blockchains are an interesting set of data structures, a lot of the hate and disparagement comes from the (almost 10) years of relentless hype coupled with the complete failure for any of the great promises to appear. Instead we see exactly what was predictable - hoarding and speculation, scams and fraud.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#55

Post by Marazan »

empath75 wrote: post #18
seibelj wrote: post #6

Cryptocurrencies, and especially Ethereum, are truly novel innovations in computer science that cross many academic disciplines. The linked example is a great write-up. It’s sad that there is a vocal group, especially on HN, that knee-jerk hates everything blockchain related and wishes with their entire being for it to fail. However, I think smart contracts are fascinating and wish more people would keep an open mind…

I think it’s more a reaction to the con artists that infested the whole industry than the technology itself.

No, it is a reaction against the terrible technology.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#56

Post by topmonk »

nosuchthing wrote: post #28
topmonk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the core team wants to create more bitcoin they can. If you believe this, you lack a fundamental understanding of btc.

Actually it’s possible for any hacker to generate more Bitcoins if another bug like CVE-2018-17144 is discovered. What Exactly Did the Bug Do? The obvious worst part of this bug was the inflation exploit. An attack could create new bitcoins at will, exceeding the 21 million hard cap limit that is currently in place. This would absolutely destroy confidence in not only Bitcoin, but every cryptocurrency. https://www.li…

Yes, I know about that. But that is quite a straw man.

You could say the same thing about the implementation of the protocols that the banks use, who also store your money as an imaginary balance in their computer systems.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#57

Post by topmonk »

arcticbull wrote: post #51
nosuchthing wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it’s possible for any hacker to generate more Bitcoins if another bug like CVE-2018-17144 is discovered. What Exactly Did the Bug Do? The obvious worst part of this bug was the inflation exploit. An attack could create new bitcoins at will, exceeding the 21 million hard cap limit that is currently in place. This would absolutely destroy confidence in not only Bitcoin, but every cryptocurrency. https://www.li…

Further we've no idea if other such bugs have been discovered and exploited already without responsible disclosure.

You also don't know if your brick and mortar bank has been hacked. It's a silly argument.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#58

Post by xorcist »

nosuchthing wrote: post #23
seibelj wrote: post #6

Cryptocurrencies, and especially Ethereum, are truly novel innovations in computer science that cross many academic disciplines. The linked example is a great write-up. It’s sad that there is a vocal group, especially on HN, that knee-jerk hates everything blockchain related and wishes with their entire being for it to fail. However, I think smart contracts are fascinating and wish more people would keep an open mind…

The term “Smart contracts” (Ethereum/EOS/hyperledger) is often used with wild claims for supply chains and cross border business deals, but why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? Smart contracts can’t even do anything interesting without a trusted source of data input. The threat model and legal questions of smart contracts are another huge deterrent for most businesses. Latency, throughput, sec…

> Smart contracts can’t even do anything interesting without a trusted source of data input

At least read the writings of Szabo before you decide what smart contracts are and aren't good for.

There are many several interesting applications here and now around trustless atomic swaps. Not necessarily between assets but cryptographic keys in general (for example DRM systems).

> It all seems like a marketing scheme to sell cyber beanie babies

Well, if it has a marketing budget then it isn't really trustless as there is some central authority to market it. Be careful out there. Rapidly increasing valuations attract scammers like sugar to flies.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#59

Post by merlincorey »

tomc1985 wrote: post #42
erikpukinskis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why you would be anti- something so new at all. To me it’s preposterous that you would evaluate a new technology based on how many problems it and only it can solve. Don’t you get that new technology has an incubation period where its fundamental challenges must be overcome? What problem could early steam powered cars solve that horses couldn’t solve better? I doubt the earliest ones performed bett…

You're praising innovation blindly. Not all innovation is good, and many supposed innovators are crocks. I understand blockchains enough to where I could build one of my own (note that I say blockchain, and not cryptocurrency) and I really don't see much use for this particular datastructure outside certain niche applications. What are these truly innovative uses for a nested chain of data blobs whose contents includ…

What defines a blockchain for you?

I agree that a token based currency is not required, I'm just interested in what people define a blockchain as for intellectual curiosity.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#60

Post by xorcist »

arcticbull wrote: post #44
erikpukinskis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why you would be anti- something so new at all. To me it’s preposterous that you would evaluate a new technology based on how many problems it and only it can solve. Don’t you get that new technology has an incubation period where its fundamental challenges must be overcome? What problem could early steam powered cars solve that horses couldn’t solve better? I doubt the earliest ones performed bett…

It's not new, BTC is a full decade old. At this point the internet had a billion users.

The web wasn't invented until the internet was more than a decade old.

This narrative that "Internet time" transforms the world every other year should have died in the 90s. Real work takes time.

Building the infrastructure for the Internet took decades. Even after it won, most people used modems over badly insulated copper wire for the better part of ten years.

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