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Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#21

Post by amelius »

chrisco255 wrote: post #13

Yes. Decentralized finance is coming and it's maybe the most important technology of the 21st century. If you want anything resembling autonomy and liberty in the future, and if you want to avoid ending up in a world straight out of a Black Mirror episode, I recommend supporting open-source monetary blockchain systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum. There will be an attempt at some point by governments to centralize block…

> and if you want to avoid ending up in a world straight out of a Black Mirror episode, I recommend supporting open-source monetary blockchain systems

Could you provide a reason why, with some examples?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#22

Post by joosters »

Many people solved their lack of money problems through launching blockchain-related companies. The actual systems they launched can't be considered substantial, functional, or often even real, but the (actual) money that poured into their own bank accounts was substantial enough. Does that count?

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#23

Post by elsjaako »

anotheryou wrote: post #7

I still like it as "proof of existence", proofing that you where in possession of a certain information at some point in time. (by publishing the hash on the blockchain). I think this is already relevant for court cases.

But couldn't this also be done by publishing the hash in a few newspapers, for example?

I imagine for a court case this would be better. One less thing to explain.

I think for a court case you would have to prove that the block chain is a historical record, not just some data you and your friends made up.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#24

Post by xupybd »

I understand it can make for hard to tamper with historical data. For things such as temperature records of transported food and medical goods this can be very valuable. As you can have mobile record taking and storage. While having confidence that the data has not been altered.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#25

Post by tjchear »

barthvr wrote: post #4

Some stores use it to store the production chain metadata of their products : when it was produced, by whom, etc, and make this information public. As anything stored in the blockchain can't easily be faked, it allows customers to check the authenticity of what they are buying (ie where has this product been farmed, cooked, by whom, etc).

I attended SF's blockchain event last year and was fortunate enough to have a discussion with a guy whose startup was working on blockchain app for verifying cannabis from farm to store (and also for providing a marketplace, I think). They're apparently doing well, but I left wondering how crucial is blockchain to what they're doing, as far as customers are concerned. If I have to hazard a guess, I doubt many customers are savvy enough to know how to verify the blockchain of their goods. The app, I imagine, tries to make this easy by showing it in the form of UI, but how would I know if, underneath that sleek veneer, it's not just some good old crud database?

For as long as humans have engaged in trading, we have relied on trust that's built over time. There are bad actors from time to time, sure, but I'm not sure if that's enough of a problem (perhaps it is in cannabis circle) to justify making blockchain a centerpiece of one's endeavor to modernize the purchasing experience.

The same goes for other current applications of blockchain such as trading card games. I left the event feeling most of the presenters just forcefully shoehorned blockchain tech into their applications, with one exception: cryptocurrencies use in countries with oppressive regimes and poor banking system).

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#26

Post by [deleted] »

elsjaako wrote: post #23
anotheryou wrote: post #7

I still like it as "proof of existence", proofing that you where in possession of a certain information at some point in time. (by publishing the hash on the blockchain). I think this is already relevant for court cases.

But couldn't this also be done by publishing the hash in a few newspapers, for example? I imagine for a court case this would be better. One less thing to explain. I think for a court case you would have to prove that the block chain is a historical record, not just some data you and your friends made up.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#27

Post by jart »

yaantc wrote: post #20
kd5bjo wrote: post #9

In a sense, git is “blockchain technology” that predates the buzzword: every commit is cryptographically hashed, including the hash(es) of its parent(s). This lets anyone verify all the involved commits back to the beginning of the chain, and is what enables the 3-way merge algorithm without a centralized server. What it doesn’t include is any kind of proof-of-work or proof-of-identity, which some people might consid…

The distributed operation I consider necessary for something to be called blockchain technology. Git is an example of a Merkle tree [1], which definitely is a key component of a blockchain but not enough on its own. One also need a distributed consensus mechanism. The distributed operation is both necessary, and the key challenge for blockchains. There is a heavy cost to secure distributed operations. My personal opi…

Let's just call it merkle paxos but it's much more fun to read the original paper.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#29

Post by robcohen »

Blockchain usage right now is minimal, largely due to the fact that for most use cases it’s too expensive (the cost is high, confirmation time is long).

For most use cases, Ethereum is too expensive and the blocks are too full, the same is true for Bitcoin.

Once second layer solutions are more mature and layer 1 blockchains are substantially cheaper due to new consensus protocols, you will see more applications for blockchain.

Until then, blockchain is too expensive for the free world, and is largely only somewhat useful to those in failed states.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any substantial examples of blockchain solving a real problem?

#30

Post by kd5bjo »

yaantc wrote: post #20
kd5bjo wrote: post #9

In a sense, git is “blockchain technology” that predates the buzzword: every commit is cryptographically hashed, including the hash(es) of its parent(s). This lets anyone verify all the involved commits back to the beginning of the chain, and is what enables the 3-way merge algorithm without a centralized server. What it doesn’t include is any kind of proof-of-work or proof-of-identity, which some people might consid…

The distributed operation I consider necessary for something to be called blockchain technology. Git is an example of a Merkle tree [1], which definitely is a key component of a blockchain but not enough on its own. One also need a distributed consensus mechanism. The distributed operation is both necessary, and the key challenge for blockchains. There is a heavy cost to secure distributed operations. My personal opi…

That makes sense. So, continuing with the git/source control analogy, what’s missing is a distributed mechanism of both publishing new forks and then deciding which of those forks “wins”.

It sort of happens now in an ad-hoc way, if you include blogs and such with big fork announcements that sometimes result in an effective change of ownership, but that’s a slow, rare, unreliable process at the moment.

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