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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?

#131

Post by noxer »

There is something like a blockchain called XRPL. It is currently used to make cross border payments cheaper and faster for corridors where the traditional way (nostro/vostro accounts) is rather expensive mostly due to low liquidity between the 2 assets and high counter party risk or the foreign currency. For example USD to MXN. Lots or people send money to this way. AFAIK only a few millions a week are transferred this way by now but doubling every few month. Probably still in the single digit percentage of all the money send to Mexico but due to covid19 we all know that doubling is a freaking fast growth rate so this could soon make up a significant portion for that corridor and obviously there are other popular but not efficient corridors. Apparently it's up to 40% cheaper and if it's used more the liquidity will grow which may make it even cheaper.

I would like to point out that any blockchain like thing with some kind of coin/token with value could be used for this. Like in theory this could be done with Bitcoin it's just very very slow and due to the rather high transaction fees its probably not really interesting.

After years of being interested in blockchain tech and hundred of hours research this is the only real world use case that is deployed, used and most importantly generally makes sense, that I know of. There are a bunch of other projects like Brave that are technically deployed and working but IMO do not solve a problem just recreate the existing problem with a fancy token.

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

#132

Post by alanfalcon »

louwrentius wrote: post #102
alanfalcon wrote: post #100

In this whole thread, there's not one mention of the word "scarcity". Blockchain allows for digital scarcity. For me, the problems that blockchain solves, it solves through the creation and enforcement of real digital scarcity. I find that it's not hard to imagine some problems that exist due to the lack of digital scarcity (pre-blockchain). I invite you to open your mind and imagine some for yourself.

I don’t understand what this ‘scarcity’ would mean. And you give no relevant examples.

Scarcity meaning that if person A owns it, person B/C/D etc. cannot, because (in this example) there is only one. Most digital files are infinitely copyable, and there aren't good DRM solutions for managing this conundrum that actually give real ownership rights to the owner... until blockchain.

Why is this a problem? Ask a creative content creator.

How is blockchain solving this in practice? One example: https://www.niftygateway.com/

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

#133

Post by rohamg »

acdha wrote: post #126
rohamg wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i would argue what blockchain has given us today with permissionless open finance, decentralized organizations / voting, NFTs / digital art, etc. is plenty of early indications of value. also the fact that the token business model exists is precisely the reason there's less of a traditional "ARR" mindset in the tools and apps. the criticism isn't entirely invalid: the blockchain space has a lot of proving to do – the…

Okay, so where’s an example of that providing value for anyone outside of the blockchain field? None of those are new activities so it should be easy to find areas where a blockchain reduces cost or adds value in comparison.

i posted below about big pharma using blockchain to share private data as an example, as another: most of the gamers / digital art enthusiasts are newcomers to the "blockchain field" and only in it bc of the value they derive from the scarcity / durability and therefore tradability of these items

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

#134

Post by Taek »

louwrentius wrote: post #110
Taek wrote: post #36

The strongest use case right now in the blockchain space is Bitcoin as a sovereign money. It's an asset with substantial liquidity that has incredible protections against asset seizure and strong independence against capital controls. It's the type of thing that you go 30 years without needing it, but then when you do need it you really badly need it. Bitcoin does this well today and there are plenty of people who pr…

The coins went down hard in march along with the financial markets...

Doesn't matter. If capital controls get put in place and bitcoin also loses 80% of its value, you still have 100x the liquidity that you would have without it.

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

#135

Post by SpelingBeeChamp »

noxer wrote: post #131

There is something like a blockchain called XRPL. It is currently used to make cross border payments cheaper and faster for corridors where the traditional way (nostro/vostro accounts) is rather expensive mostly due to low liquidity between the 2 assets and high counter party risk or the foreign currency. For example USD to MXN. Lots or people send money to this way. AFAIK only a few millions a week are transferred t…

I wonder if a significant amount of that is drug money. I have long wondered whether the core 'value' of cryptocurrency is that it facilitates illegal commerce.

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

#136

Post by SpelingBeeChamp »

momokoko wrote: post #130

Paying bribes to government officials. Large transactions for illegal goods such as drugs. Transferring money out of controlled currencies. This isn’t meant to be a joke. I’m illustrating that the price of cryptocurrency is indeed backed by some of its utility and not 100% a money making scheme.

Bingo.

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

#137

Post by jasonv »

I check out the websites of companies mentioned in blockchain press pretty regularly. I haven’t figured out what a lot of them do.

The few times I’ve dig into a blockchain company that had a $100MM theft, it’s hard to understand where those “assets” came from, and who the customers/users were that deposited those assets, how the businesses were built, etc.

I’m guessing some are smoke and mirrors, and others are stealthy and/or opportunistic.

If there’s a list of viable blockchain companies doing business that is documented and can be understood, would love to get a pointer to it.

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

#138

Post by quixoticaxolotl »

WnZ39p0Dgydaz1 wrote: post #67
Taek wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A well-run, transparent, centralized entity can easily become an opaque and corrupted entity over time. A well designed decentralized system will maintain its integrity indefinitely. In practice we've only really seen this play out with Bitcoin so far, but that's because the space is young and people still haven't really gotten their heads around the exact strengths and weaknesses of a blockchain.

> A well-run, transparent, centralized entity can easily become an opaque and corrupted entity over time. And the opposite can also happen. Humans are good at quickly adapting to circumstances and fixing "bugs" in organizations through firing/hiring, new organizational structures, or other means. That's what markets do. A "perfectly designed" decentralized system may be superior, but I don't believe it's possible to…

> This is similar to the AI question. Are you willing to put your full trust into a system with dynamics not fully understood, or do you put your trust into humans running centralized systems?

Tangent, but this is poor phrasing. If posed this way, an astute response would be that we don't fully know how human brains or emergent group behaviour in humans works either (which is why the social sciences are so hard!), so how is the second option meaningfully different from the first beyond tradition?

The key thing that separates AI systems and human systems is lack of intuition for AI behaviour. So the question should really be phrased: is it safe to trust a system you don't have an intuitive model for?

There are some cases where the answer is yes e.g. we trust airplanes built and ratified by experts even if we don't know how airplanes work on the presumption that, at least in the conditions we care about, airplanes have been tested and behave correctly.

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

#139

Post by louwrentius »

pleasereadthis wrote: post #129

government land ownership records this is being tried already in parts of the world here: the ledger is public, the government is a body made of many independent small entities with not necessarily aligned incentives would help to avoid corruption and maintain a legitimate source of truth

We could do that with git.

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

#140

Post by louwrentius »

cryptica wrote: post #75

The main use case for blockchain is as a financial instrument to represent shares in a community's economy. A community economy is like a national economy except that the value of its currency does not rely on the coercive legal powers of a government. Aside from that, it functions exactly like any normal economy; if participants in this economy (token holders) export more services than they import, then their crypto…

Thanks for your effort to reply. But I'm sorry: I'm not really convinced.

> does not rely on the coercive legal powers of a government

It's always this extremely paranoid negative view on governments that seem to fuel support for blockchain.

Obviously, there are some 'bad' environment, but if your mistrust of government is that bad, no blockchain is going to fix your problems.

I could be mistaken myself but I think a lot of people may on a fundamental level misunderstand how trust plays a role in our societies.

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