I don't disagree with the article per se, but I think many technologists are missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the motivations here. Or perhaps they're being charitable and are evaluating Libra on purely on its stated motivations rather than the ulterior motive that Libra can't name out loud. For example, take this quote: "The possibility that a Libra node run by Mastercard or Andressen Horrowitz woul…
Or, you know, legislators just ban it entirely until the changes are made. Edit: Its also pretty ironic that the crypto currency is banking on "too big to fail."
Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
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Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#142Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#143I don't disagree with the article per se, but I think many technologists are missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the motivations here. Or perhaps they're being charitable and are evaluating Libra on purely on its stated motivations rather than the ulterior motive that Libra can't name out loud. For example, take this quote: "The possibility that a Libra node run by Mastercard or Andressen Horrowitz woul…
In regards to that, I don't think it's any more bizarre than a SCADA system in an Iranian nuclear enrichment plant suddenly running malicious code. Cyberattacks against financial systems are a very real worry.
In the history of computing, there have been countless times when people casually dismissed a security concern only for it to bite them years later. And oftentimes, trying to add security after the fact is much less successful that designing it to be secure from the get-go. I'm not a fan of Facebook Libra, but I do think that it's misguided to criticize it for having a robust security model with properties that can be reasoned about mathematically.
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#144The answer to the question implied in the article -- why does Libra make such unjustified design decisions -- is simple. Some people have become enamored with blockchain despite it having almost no good use cases, and this certainly isn't one. It seems like a classic example of focusing on the technology rather than on the problem. -- Regardless of the other, far more important sections of this article, I find the se…
If you may spare a minute, I'd like to know your opinion on mission-critical software in dangerous-prone contexts (such as avionics, life support, even just economically for permanently-written "ROM" software, etc). Formal methods seem required in such projects, but your final paragraph seems to imply the formalism isn't key to end quality? (my agenda, for transparency: I want to send SOC's in space on tiny RISC-V sa…
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#145Not being able to reserve payments is a FEATURE and not a BUG. That inherintly breaks a currency that is fast and removed of human transaction approvals. My thesis is that refunds will need to operate at a business level at a higher level. Their KYC and AML can be effective at backing that up.
It is a mis-feature - it is done intentionally, but it is a bad idea. Having to go through the legal system to reverse a fraudulent transaction is a huge hurdle compared to the current state of affairs, and it will significantly impact the use of Libra for internet payments.
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#146The answer to the question implied in the article -- why does Libra make such unjustified design decisions -- is simple. Some people have become enamored with blockchain despite it having almost no good use cases, and this certainly isn't one. It seems like a classic example of focusing on the technology rather than on the problem. -- Regardless of the other, far more important sections of this article, I find the se…
I disagree. You're making two different arguments. The first is that PLT does not study suitability, but then you switch course and say that math analagously can define suitability for specific tasks but suitability is not (and this is my own words) a normed space. Programming language theory does not, in fact, make value judgments, but it does make statements upon which value judgments can be built given context , w…
Don't get me wrong -- I think that PLT is a valuable theory, but people are often confused about what it actually studies. PLT most certainly cannot tell us whether certain language designs are desirable or not as that is not what the theory studies. It can't even tell us if certain language designs lead to more correct programs or programs that are easier to read. It does tell us that if certain typing rules are used, then, say, all types in the language can be inferred, or that a system with certain typing rules is sound.
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, for now it's all we have, so I guess the juice is worth the squeeze. But in a world where our cryptocurrencies are a bit more mature I think we can stop being reactive by reversing transactions and start being preventative by using their structure to build chains and webs of trust that make fraud harder to commit up front, rather than just making it harder to get away with.
The amounts to giving the advantage to fraudsters until something that doesn't exist is invented. Blockchains are irrevocable and unalterable, which removes two useful tools (reversing and changing transactions), and replaces them with nothing workable.
Also, there are limits on how old a transaction can be when a bank goes and rewrites history. In my experience the limit is about six months. Transactions older than than are considered settled.
If this is a feature that people want in a cryptocurrency, it shouldn't be hard to achieve with smart contracts. The problem right now is just that you need a solid settlement layer before you work on features supporting the politics of rejiggering unsettled transactions.
Also, provided there is community consensus (this differs based on whether your currency is proof of work or proof is stake) blockchains can be altered after-the-fact to undo a threat. It happens: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/ethereu...
It's just that for most currencies, it's currently a political affair that occurs at a risk to the stability of the overall system. But there are (what appear to be) good technical solutions to that (decred, for example, has a neat approach to post-fork-attempt stability https://medium.com/decred/detailed-analysis-of-decred-fork-r...).
As far as deciding whether a transaction ought to be settled in the first place, people are experimenting with some really interesting approaches (https://particl.wiki/learn/market/mad-escrow for instance).
It's probably not time to forget your bank password and switch to crypto, but if we want to eventually have good solutions to our fraud problems then we should be working to shape crypto into the system we want, not dismissing it as inflexible.
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#148I don't disagree with the article per se, but I think many technologists are missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the motivations here. Or perhaps they're being charitable and are evaluating Libra on purely on its stated motivations rather than the ulterior motive that Libra can't name out loud. For example, take this quote: "The possibility that a Libra node run by Mastercard or Andressen Horrowitz woul…
>"The possibility that a Libra node run by Mastercard or Andressen Horrowitz would suddenly start running malicious code is such a bizarre scenario to plan for and is better solved by simply enforcing protocol integrity and through non-technical (i.e. legal) means." In regards to that, I don't think it's any more bizarre than a SCADA system in an Iranian nuclear enrichment plant suddenly running malicious code. Cyber…
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, for now it's all we have, so I guess the juice is worth the squeeze. But in a world where our cryptocurrencies are a bit more mature I think we can stop being reactive by reversing transactions and start being preventative by using their structure to build chains and webs of trust that make fraud harder to commit up front, rather than just making it harder to get away with.
There are generally 3 kinds of fraud 1. A scammer cheating someone out of their life savings through social engineering 2. A central bank "unjustly" inflating currency and giving the newly printed money to specific industry/people etc 3. A person paying for merchandise with a stolen credit card or refusing payment after services/good is delivered. Fiat solves 1 and 3 (recovery) does not think 2 is a problem. Crypto s…
Credit card fraud is regulated such that the consumer is protected after a manageable amount of theft, $50 in the US last I looked. If you use a bank you receive some protections but at that point the implantation is abstracted and not that relevant.
IMO Cryrto is significantly worse in case 3.
Re: Facebook Libra Is Architecturally Unsound
#150The answer to the question implied in the article -- why does Libra make such unjustified design decisions -- is simple. Some people have become enamored with blockchain despite it having almost no good use cases, and this certainly isn't one. It seems like a classic example of focusing on the technology rather than on the problem. -- Regardless of the other, far more important sections of this article, I find the se…
I disagree that blockchain has almost no good use cases. All a blockchain is, is a Merkle tree with a third party that ensures there is only one “main line”. That’s the use case. All the other stuff — such as having all computers in the network watch every transaction — that’s the wasteful part. There are other ways to have a set of third party validators, that is a subset of the network watching a given merkle tree,…
No. The "wasteful part" is also part of the definition of the blockchain.
Just because the word "blockchain" seems to describe only the data structure, doesn't mean that's the case.
The innovation was to couple a Merkle tree with a proof-of-work system. Both existed before in standalone forms. The Merkle tree in many, many applications, the proof-of-work for example in Hashcash to combat email spam.
Only the combination of both reached a level of novelty that deserved a new name.
(That we still haven't found a single compelling use case is another matter.)
What you mean is indeed succinctly and correctly named "Merkle tree" or "hash tree". It would have been wasteful to coin another word for it.