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Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

vitalik.ca

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Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#141

Post by arcticbull »

None of these are the actual hard problems in cryptocurrency and the fact this is the focus speaks volumes. The real hard problems are:

1. How do we stop using more power than Switzerland to process 4 transactions per second (lol)

2. How do we stop payments to international terrorists and rogue states.

3. How do we stop money laundering.

4. How do we stop price manipulation by fraudulent actors.

5. How do we allow people who lost access to their money by negligence, fraud, theft, act of god or otherwise, access to their money again.

[bonus] how do we generate the right quantity of new cryptocurrency so that the pace of money growth matches that of economic and population growth so as not to disproportionately reward early comers just for “being early”?

You know, the “currency” problems and not the “crypto” problems. These are the actual hard problems of cryptocurrency and until solved it will never, and I mean never, reach mass adoption, making the questions from the article totally irrelevant.

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#142

Post by monospaceisgood »

nootropicat wrote: post #130
joosters wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to trust an oracle, you have essentially thrown away all of the plusses of decentralisation/trustlessness. At that point, the blockchain becomes pointless busywork, useful only for duping mug investors.

The impossibility of a full elimination of trust, for any particular problem, doesn't mean a partial reduction isn't valuable. If you disagree, would you be fine with changing the political and justice system of your country into a fully opaque black box? As in, you still can vote for the policies you want, but it's impossible to know how the government functions, what are the reasons for its decisions, or even who p…

Infiltrate a government or a justice system require a lot of time and resources.

A blockchain? not so much

You basically replace trust (with doubts) with faith.

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#143

Post by capableweb »

regisg wrote: post #99

It's funny to write such a blog post without even mentioning Cardano...

It's even more funny to leave a comment like this without even elaborating on the argument and not contributing to the overall discussion. Why would this blog post mention Cardano?

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#144

Post by notahacker »

ses1984 wrote: post #126
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I really dislike about owning crypto long term as a store of value. It's a cat-and-mouse game with hardware and software development, and there's a lot of faith in maintainers to stay ahead of the threats.

>there's a lot of faith in maintainers to stay ahead of the threats. Isn't that true of basically all software?

Not all software purports to be a store of value

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#145

Post by ralfd »

arcticbull wrote: post #141

None of these are the actual hard problems in cryptocurrency and the fact this is the focus speaks volumes. The real hard problems are: 1. How do we stop using more power than Switzerland to process 4 transactions per second (lol) 2. How do we stop payments to international terrorists and rogue states. 3. How do we stop money laundering. 4. How do we stop price manipulation by fraudulent actors. 5. How do we allow pe…

> How do we stop money laundering

If that would be stopped, crypto would be pointless. We already have real (regulated) money. But with crypto you can online pay your drug dealer.

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#146

Post by _Kristijan_ »

wyldfire wrote: post #20
rsynnott wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like that’s been coming any day now since about 2014. And seems like a TERRIBLE idea, anyway. The rich get richer, built right into the system!

Proof-of-stake has been in use in other non-Ethereum cryptocoins for a very long time [1] [2]. In Nano's case, there's no transaction fees paid to stakeholders (nor their delegated representatives). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peercoin [2] https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Nano

Nano consensus mechanism is called Open Representative Voting (ORV). It has similar sides to proof-of-stake, but differs in important places. e.g. it is less a "stake" than a voting weight that the users themselves distribute to nodes of their choice (or their own). ORV's self-description at:

https://docs.nano.org/glossary/#open-representative-voting-o...

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#147

Post by arcticbull »

ralfd wrote: post #145
arcticbull wrote: post #141

None of these are the actual hard problems in cryptocurrency and the fact this is the focus speaks volumes. The real hard problems are: 1. How do we stop using more power than Switzerland to process 4 transactions per second (lol) 2. How do we stop payments to international terrorists and rogue states. 3. How do we stop money laundering. 4. How do we stop price manipulation by fraudulent actors. 5. How do we allow pe…

> How do we stop money laundering If that would be stopped, crypto would be pointless. We already have real (regulated) money. But with crypto you can online pay your drug dealer.

Funny you can online pay your drug dealer in countries where drugs are legal, like pot in Canada. It’s almost like social solutions are the right way to solve social problems.

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#148

Post by emsimot »

arcticbull wrote: post #141

None of these are the actual hard problems in cryptocurrency and the fact this is the focus speaks volumes. The real hard problems are: 1. How do we stop using more power than Switzerland to process 4 transactions per second (lol) 2. How do we stop payments to international terrorists and rogue states. 3. How do we stop money laundering. 4. How do we stop price manipulation by fraudulent actors. 5. How do we allow pe…

1. I don't know if it will work, but the idea is Proof of Stake (ETH2 in Ethereum-land)

2. You can't -- this is a cultural problem, not a technological one

3. There's no such thing as money laundering

4. Peer-to-peer, transparent finance infrastructure

5. User-money as a layer on top of cryptocurrency

Re: Hard Problems in Cryptocurrency: Five Years Later

#150

Post by mhluongo »

arcticbull wrote: post #147
ralfd wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do we stop money laundering If that would be stopped, crypto would be pointless. We already have real (regulated) money. But with crypto you can online pay your drug dealer.

Funny you can online pay your drug dealer in countries where drugs are legal, like pot in Canada. It’s almost like social solutions are the right way to solve social problems.

You don't think cryptocurrency is a social solution?

To your implication- what's legal and what's right are orthogonal concerns. Individuals decide which to follow based on their own principles.

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