The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010) • Hacker News Board

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#201

Post by fwip » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

noxer wrote: post #175

fwip wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do I care whether it's a "debt transaction" or a "value transaction?"

If you get that transaction you probably prefer the value rather than the debt. Value is free to move, debt is an agreement between 2 parties. If you get paid with debt it means you get nothing but someone owes you something now. This someone is usually your bank. You can cash out that debt at any time and that gives the feeling that there is value stored at the bank. But that's not really the case everyone knows tha…

It goes into my bank account either way. I trust the bank to accurately count my dollars and to give them to me whenever I ask, because they have a very long history of doing just that.

You're proposing a scenario in which all banks collapse and FDIC insurance fails, but also one in which my computer continues to be a productive member of the bitcoin network and my neighbor will sell me access to his bunker for 3 bitcoins. And my ISP won't be upset that I can't pay them in USD.

If I was worried about the collapse, I think I'd want to store my money in something with real value, not imaginary internet coins that none of my neighbors have ever heard of. Maybe gold, to be cliche. Canned food?

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#202

Post by 18pfsmt » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 9:37 PM UTC

pcnix wrote: post #153

DannyB2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real test, I think, is something that has genuinely useful applications to anyone with a little bit of vision. Big entrenched players are unable to see the next big thing, because they see the world through the glasses of their successful business. Microsoft for example almost missed the internet, and suddenly realized it in 1995. I believe Bill Gates was quoted as saying it was just a fad. The funny thing is tha…

The idea that you speak of, about bug entrenched companies not being able to see new things coming - it's the central theme of The Innovator's Dilemma. I highly recommend that book if you wish to read about this further.

I think you are replying to someone that has worked for G for a long time, and is using their knowm alt-account (i.e. not hiding anything). He probably read that book when he was ~25 yrs. old.

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#203

Post by kyle-rb » Tue, Oct 22, 2019, 11:29 PM UTC

vermilingua wrote: post #166

QuinnWilton wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could use glasses, but not everyone wants to wear them. What about contact lenses?

Yes because contacts are an absolute pleasure in comparison to glasses.

Yes, this is correct.

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#204

Post by drran » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 8:51 AM UTC

iamwil wrote: post #117

guptaneil wrote: post #67

If you're hung up on the word "toy," another way of phrasing this is the next big thing will look like just a hobby to most people. Looking forward, smart homes and 3D printing are 2 industries that fall in this bucket. Both feel like toys to the majority of the market right now, but have the potential to completely change how we live. 3D printing - low-cost manufacturing has completely revolutionized what's possible…

I was working on software in the 3D printing space back in 2012, and I too thought it was going to be something big that looked like a toy. However, I got out once I realized that speed of prints mattered a lot of consumers. And the current methods of consumer 3D printers were FDM (fused deposition modeling) and Stereolithography, which both had asymptotic limitation on how fast you can get a print to go. For FDM, th…

See https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2019/10/biggest-fastes...

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#205

Post by kgwxd » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

kevinventullo wrote: post #55

kgwxd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not have school-aged kids, Fortnite is already dead.

You sure about that? It currently has the second-highest viewership on Twitch, topped only by League of Legends (which is surprisingly almost a decade old).

It was mostly a joke for people with school-aged kids. At least in my kids school, and what r/memes seems to reflect around the world, is they all say it's "trash" and Minecraft is the thing again. I think they all still play it, it's just cool to say it's not cool. However, a lot of them seem to have stopped buying V-bucks, at least to get skins.

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#206

Post by perl4ever » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 11:47 PM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #157

perl4ever wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A vacuum is really easy to use; what's a real pain is cleaning the vacuum cleaner . When are they going to automate that ?

It might not sound like a lot, but it saves us 15-20 minutes of cleaning per day. We have 3 kids and get about 1-2 hours of free time per night. So its 12-33% more time to spend doing whatever we want rather than cleaning the house.

Vacuuming every day strikes me as misguided, even if (especially if) you have allergies, because the residual dust never has a chance to settle. I'm speaking as someone who has issues with household dust much beyond most people, and who has found even a good air purifier to be counterproductive if used 100% of the time.

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#207

Post by perl4ever » Wed, Oct 23, 2019, 11:51 PM UTC

noxer wrote: post #180

perl4ever wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrency seems like the inverse of the internet revolution to me. Internetworking realized the vast potential of all the computers in the world. They could do so much more if talking to each other. Crypto via "proof of work" takes all the unused computing capacity everywhere and creates an incentive to waste it. What it seems like to me is a hybrid virus that uses both human minds and machines to spread and suc…

BTC is 10 years old. Tech has come along way since then. Proof of work clearly isn't the revolution. There is no need to waist energy to make blockchains/DLT work. Just like light doesn't have to be produced by turning 95% of the energy into heat. Inventions never start with the final product. But there will always be people who prefer the first product.

I mean, if someone says that (a) proof of work is the only viable solution and all others have flaws you can't get around, (which I have noticed people claiming) and (b) BTC is still the most successful cryptocurrency, which people are not abandoning, what's your response?

You just made a string of assertions without explanation, so why do you think these things?

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#208

Post by noxer » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 8:07 AM UTC

fwip wrote: post #201

noxer wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get that transaction you probably prefer the value rather than the debt. Value is free to move, debt is an agreement between 2 parties. If you get paid with debt it means you get nothing but someone owes you something now. This someone is usually your bank. You can cash out that debt at any time and that gives the feeling that there is value stored at the bank. But that's not really the case everyone knows tha…

It goes into my bank account either way. I trust the bank to accurately count my dollars and to give them to me whenever I ask, because they have a very long history of doing just that. You're proposing a scenario in which all banks collapse and FDIC insurance fails, but also one in which my computer continues to be a productive member of the bitcoin network and my neighbor will sell me access to his bunker for 3 bit…

You wanted to know what the benefits are and I told you. I never said that it should/could replace all debt Tx or the debt system in general. I never said anything about banks collapsing. I never said anything about Bitcoin.

You can trust your bank you choose the one you want to trust. But what about a companies who hav to deal with foreign banks or what about banks who have to deal with other banks. what if the best choice is still bad and should not be trusted. Value Tx can solve this because they are trust less.

Re: The next big thing will start out looking like a toy (2010)

#209

Post by noxer » Fri, Oct 25, 2019, 9:51 AM UTC

perl4ever wrote: post #207

noxer wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTC is 10 years old. Tech has come along way since then. Proof of work clearly isn't the revolution. There is no need to waist energy to make blockchains/DLT work. Just like light doesn't have to be produced by turning 95% of the energy into heat. Inventions never start with the final product. But there will always be people who prefer the first product.

I mean, if someone says that (a) proof of work is the only viable solution and all others have flaws you can't get around, (which I have noticed people claiming) and (b) BTC is still the most successful cryptocurrency, which people are not abandoning, what's your response? You just made a string of assertions without explanation, so why do you think these things?

Well (a) is simply wrong. Proof of works has flaws (energy wasting/tends to centralize) which can not be fixed. But others have fixed these flaws by not using PoW.

Yes there are people telling that PoW and Bitcoin is the best and all other systems are flawed. They are called Bitcoin Maxis, their arguments usefully fall flat when you apply logic. They don't even agree with each other about which Bitcoin is the real Bitcoin.

>BTC is still the most successful cryptocurrency

How do you measure success of a cryptocurrency? Also being the first gives huge advantage for "success". Like Whatsapp which is probably the most successful instant messenger but does that mean it's the best? It takes time to dethrone something like Whatsapp or Bitcoin just having the better tech isn't enough to instantly make everyone switch.

>You just made a string of assertions without explanation, so why do you think these things?

You have any specific question? I don't really know what I should explain. If you are interested in alternatives to PoW you should lookup XRPL Consensus (Federated Byzantine agreement) a variant of this is also uses by the Stellar Consensus Protocol. Then there is PoS which is the most known alternative. DPoS is building on top of that idea. Then there is PoWeight, Tangle, Hashgraph and some other less popular and/or not (yet) working ideas/theories.