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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

#71

Post by simonsaidit »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #64
mynewtb wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can data be retracted from a blockchain? Both those sites are also subject to laws and can easily retract information if necessary.

> How can data be retracted from a blockchain? In much the same way data can be retracted from printed copies of newspapers that already have widely circulated copies in both personal and institutional/library hands: by publishing a subsequent retraction later in the chain, like any other change.

The change and what was previously there is left for anyone to see in the blockchain.

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

#72

Post by Slartie »

simias wrote: post #65
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.

It's exhausting arguing with the same bogus "use cases" every other week but here goes in short: - In your scenario you're not decentralized, you have a clear authority: the news agency - The news agency can broadcast a signed merkle tree of the articles it publishes alongside the normal newspaper/news program etc... For instance through their website. - Anybody who cares about it could maintain a copy of this signed…

But there's no token required in your suggestion! Don't you understand that you really need a token? How should random people not interested in news articles at all realize 10x capital profits from this if there is no token to buy in a pre-ICO and then pump-and-dump on exchanges?

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

#73

Post by liamzebedee »

chickenfries wrote: post #33
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.

Why? News sites don’t even care about maintaining an edit history. They just make minor fixes and leave editors notes when they fix things. News on the block chain is not something anyone wants.

Forbes just recently partnered with Civil, a blockchain journalism project from Consensys Studios, which is the commercial powerhouse of Ethereum’s cofounder.

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

#74

Post by drb91 »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #24
LeoPanthera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

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…

Well, you need a use case.

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

#75

Post by Fnoord »

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…

> However, I think smart contracts are fascinating and wish more people would keep an open mind.

Does it occur to you someone might've had an open mind, and made up their mind?

Your comment assumes such isn't possible, yet your comment polarises the discussion (aka "flamebait") which isn't about the linked article at all. The amount of comments which are on-topic in this thread is zero with a large amount spawning from your initial post. Yet, the linked article is fascinating? Well, I'd love to read the on-topic discussion on it to read about it further.

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

#76

Post by Fnoord »

chickenfries wrote: post #33
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.

Why? News sites don’t even care about maintaining an edit history. They just make minor fixes and leave editors notes when they fix things. News on the block chain is not something anyone wants.

Precisely, and we already have tools at our disposal for that which also work very well in the news agency example (albeit internally): Wiki and Git. Blockchain adds nothing, and has disadvantages of wasting resources.

The only thing the Blockchain has proven to be useful for is cons in the form of speculation, akin to Ponzi scheme. I've seen it argued that it allows people to move away cheaply from bad currencies. Companies like PayPal and Stripe allow for the same already, and they use real currencies.

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

#77

Post by diegocerdan »

tomc1985 wrote: post #69
merlincorey wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> What defines a blockchain for you? A (potentially distributed) datastructure of some kind, which resembles a linked-list, and ensures its integrity using some sort of cryptographic hash of the previous link such that changing any link but the most recent invalidates the whole chain. Literally -- a chain of (data) blocks. A non-engineering description of a "blockchain" should be considered to be misleading. edit - a…

Is utterly funny to read people's opinions bashing against blockchain technology and when asked about a simple definition they fail to mention the use of consensus protocols which was, already 10 years ago, the huge innovation that lead to this revolution.

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

#78

Post by Fnoord »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #31
LeoPanthera wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

From another thread: “Code bounties are a great use-case for cryptocurrency.” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18226000

How is it any better than conventional tools such as Patreon or Flattr?

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

#79

Post by FatalLogic »

simias wrote: post #65
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.

It's exhausting arguing with the same bogus "use cases" every other week but here goes in short: - In your scenario you're not decentralized, you have a clear authority: the news agency - The news agency can broadcast a signed merkle tree of the articles it publishes alongside the normal newspaper/news program etc... For instance through their website. - Anybody who cares about it could maintain a copy of this signed…

Or, instead of paying to implement, operate and maintain that system forever, and also hoping that someone independent will store copies forever (because without that independent third party, the news agency's whole system is irrelevant)... maybe they could permanently store a hash of published revisions on a public blockchain for $0.05 each.

It's just another option that might turn out to be useful for some.

Although, I feel like there are other complications in the news agency use case. For instance, many potential changes to an article are irrelevant to meaning, so they don't imply bad intentions, despite having a totally different hash. If the only copy of an article is on the newspaper's site, then a simple format update a year later could break all the hashes. [edit] I mean so it would become impossible to check whether the article had been changed. A typical hash function doesn't give any sense of edit distance.

GP post doesn't seem to consider the apparent need to also keep unchanged copies of the original articles. Those would be much too expensive to store on today's typical blockchains.

I'm sure those problems have been discussed before, maybe solved, but I wonder if these issues make this news agency case less suitable for a simple Blockchain implementation?

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

#80

Post by michaelt »

liorn wrote: post #46

If I were a malicious actor with a good way to attack this, I would wait until this was being used in real applications which deal with larger amounts of ETH, and then attack. Why should I reveal my cards for $3K?

Because you know if you can find a given flaw, someone else can; and whoever attacks second gets nothing.
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