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

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

#41

Post by chrisco255 »

amelius wrote: post #21
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?

Because if Government-run blockchains become the norm, they'll be able to dictate whatever you spend your money on and you'll have no recourse. There will be no cash alternative. China's social credit system is a perfect example, also shown in Black Mirror. If governments can have control over both behavior and spending in such a way, they own you. You're in 1984.

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

#42

Post by biddlesby »

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.

Has a blockchain hash ever been successfully used as a piece of evidence in a real court case?

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

#43

Post by [deleted] »

jpalomaki wrote: post #14
heisenzombie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think I get this. How does the blockchain part help this problem, over just publishing the data?

Using a (widely trusted) blockchain you could provide a mechanism for people to make sure you have not tampered with the historical records.

[deleted]

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

#44

Post by kd5bjo »

cachestash wrote: post #34
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…

Is your ssh key not a proof of identity?

It can be, but git neither validates nor stores it. All of that is done by optional access control layers on the computer where the git repository resides.

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

#45

Post by xupybd »

paulgb wrote: post #31
xupybd wrote: post #24

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.

To OP's question though, are there real-world cases of blockchain tech being used for this, or is it more of a hypothetical? The reason I ask is that the security of Blockchain comes at a cost (both in additional complexity and, for PoW at least, energy use). Have people who need those records in the real world found the additional tamper-proofness worth the cost?

https://www.ledgerinsights.com/blockchain-pharma-supply-chai...

It's been done. But has it really solved a problem? I'm not sure. Perhaps it's just better to use a simpler solution. A key on an iot device could sign every entry.

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

#46

Post by The_rationalist »

jpalomaki wrote: post #14
heisenzombie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think I get this. How does the blockchain part help this problem, over just publishing the data?

Using a (widely trusted) blockchain you could provide a mechanism for people to make sure you have not tampered with the historical records.

Immutable databases already exists for this use case, Amazon has created one in response to Blockchain

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

#47

Post by The_rationalist »

sparkie wrote: post #17

Bitcoin solves a real problem: It creates a permanent fix for monetary inflation, which allows people to save money without being taxed on their savings. The rest of "cryptocurrency" is snake oil. Most of it attempts to reintroduce inflation and undermine the fix which Bitcoin introduced. While they may come up with a bunch of reasons for their decision to mint new tokens - the sole purpose of the new inflation is to…

Bitcoin solves a real problem: It creates a permanent fix for monetary inflation But crypto coins are too unstable, I would only invest my money in an inflation less system if stablecoins existed

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

#48

Post by anotheryou »

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.

Why not both :) ?

I think the free service of https://originstamp.com/ publish a daily bulk-hash in a german newspaper. (they call it "root-hash")

I couldn't find the info on their website anymore, but on the branded portal of the newspaper itself: https://blockchain.suedkurier.de/ (german)

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

#49

Post by Avalaxy »

keiferski wrote: post #35

Blockchain has existed as a widespread technology for what, a little over a decade now? And people are already proclaiming its fundamental uselessness? Seems like a massive lack of patience and long term thinking. It took nearly a century for the first airplane to go anywhere and another half-century for it to be widespread and practical.

For information technology that's really long. It didn't take us 10+ years to find a useful purpose for smartphones or the internet. If for many years so much money is thrown at it and so many intelligent people are working at it and nothing fundamental comes it, I think it's safe to conclude that it's nearly useless.

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

#50

Post by crispyporkbites »

Here’s some examples of things that blockchains can/do help with:

- Currencies that cannot be manipulated/controlled by a government / external forces (plenty of examples why that’s a real problem in history, including runaway inflationary policies, payments restricted from certain individuals eg sex workers)

- Cheap accounting (see digital autonomous companies), you can run a company with lower costs by programmatically handling all transactions. eg running a justgiving type site should be cheaper on a blockchain, in theory

- Fully traceable payments (i.e. knowing who paid who how much throughout history, makes paying taxes, illegal transactions easier)

- A single place where a piece of data can be guaranteed to be accurate (eg you can publish data on a blockchain and prove it was published then at a later date, and there’s no way to manipulate this)

There’s more, I’m sure... Whether these justify the hype or are big enough problems are different questions

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