Very much a generic anti-cryptocurrency rant, and very little haskell-specific clarifications. I understand not wanting to name specific projects (Cardano comes to mind; "Cardano is a blockchain platform built on the groundbreaking Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus protocol, and developed using the Haskell programming language: a functional programming language that enables Cardano to pursue evidence-based development, for unparalleled security and stability."), however it would be interesting to have some examples of haskell developments that are fueled specifically by cryptocurrency applications. FTA: "the economic machinery that shapes everything we do and informs the problems we chose to spend our cycles on"; what are these specific problems?
The Haskell Elephant in the Room
11–20 of 341 posts
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#12What is it about Haskell that makes it a hot candidate for use in cryptocurrency applications? Can someone here shed some light? Read the article but it mostly seems to be a diatribe against crypto on philosophical grounds. I wish it were meatier on the technical reasons for this alleged relationship between Haskell and crypto industry.
This is touched upon in the text :
"the Haskell community itself has simply become a tool to buy legitimacy and pump token values."
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#13What is it about Haskell that makes it a hot candidate for use in cryptocurrency applications? Can someone here shed some light? Read the article but it mostly seems to be a diatribe against crypto on philosophical grounds. I wish it were meatier on the technical reasons for this alleged relationship between Haskell and crypto industry.
Haskell always struck me as a language you'd want to use to feel superior to the people who code in JS and python, and crypto always struck me as a field you'd want to work in to feel superior to the people who work in industries that actually generate profits. Also, another possible reason is that many crypto people tend to confuse complexity with ingenuity. While the bitcoin whitepaper tries to make a complex topic…
Do you even know what "verbose" means? Haskell is obviously the exact opposite of verbose. In fact some more verbosity often makes it easier to understand.
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#14”For a while it has been a public secret the Haskell ecosystem has become increasingly entangled with an unsavoury variety in the cryptocurrency sector as one of primary mechanisms for funding development.” And those would be? I code in Haskell every day and I have no idea what he’s talking about.
This is one of those articles that attempts to talk about some situation to make it more common knowledge, but is written in such an incredibly abstract way that all you can really take away from it is 'some unknown people are upset about some unknown issue'.
I feel like this 'elephant in the room' article doesn't tell me what the elephant is, why it's in the room, or why people don't want it to be in the room.
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haskell always struck me as a language you'd want to use to feel superior to the people who code in JS and python, and crypto always struck me as a field you'd want to work in to feel superior to the people who work in industries that actually generate profits. Also, another possible reason is that many crypto people tend to confuse complexity with ingenuity. While the bitcoin whitepaper tries to make a complex topic…
Do you even know what "verbose" means? Haskell is obviously the exact opposite of verbose. In fact some more verbosity often makes it easier to understand.
In context, the "language" GP was referring to was the (presumably English) language in crypto currency white papers which is "needlessly convoluted and verbose". This was being contrasted with the concise language of the original Bitcoin white paper. It's not about programming languages.
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#16What is it about Haskell that makes it a hot candidate for use in cryptocurrency applications? Can someone here shed some light? Read the article but it mostly seems to be a diatribe against crypto on philosophical grounds. I wish it were meatier on the technical reasons for this alleged relationship between Haskell and crypto industry.
This is touched upon in the text : "the Haskell community itself has simply become a tool to buy legitimacy and pump token values."
I was at a hackathon and this big shot legal person from NY was telling me about a hot crypto company and them using Haskell was like the first thing he told me. In fact, all he told me was they raised a bunch of money in an ICO and they use Haskell. And then he sat there waiting for me to be impressed
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#17To someone not familiar with Haskell funding, can anybody explain the quote below? "For a while it has been a public secret the Haskell ecosystem has become increasingly entangled with an unsavoury variety in the cryptocurrency sector as one of primary mechanisms for funding development." I mean, what exactly is this "unsavoury variety in the cryptocurrency sector" and how is Haskell tied to it?
Also, since it might be unfamiliar to many, here's another article that puts forward a criticism of Bitcoin, many of which are for ethical issues:
https://blog.habets.se/2017/11/Why-bitcoin-is-terrible.html
It's about bitcoin, and not everything applies to other cryptocurrencies, but most of these arguments do apply.
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you even know what "verbose" means? Haskell is obviously the exact opposite of verbose. In fact some more verbosity often makes it easier to understand.
In context, the "language" GP was referring to was the (presumably English) language in crypto currency white papers which is "needlessly convoluted and verbose". This was being contrasted with the concise language of the original Bitcoin white paper. It's not about programming languages.
Yea what this guy said ^
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#19Whoa, FP Complete is doing crypto? It never appeared to me like that. Is there a citation?
Re: The Haskell Elephant in the Room
#20Very much a generic anti-cryptocurrency rant, and very little haskell-specific clarifications. I understand not wanting to name specific projects (Cardano comes to mind; " Cardano is a blockchain platform built on the groundbreaking Ouroboros proof-of-stake consensus protocol, and developed using the Haskell programming language: a functional programming language that enables Cardano to pursue evidence-based developm…
There is also DAML: https://github.com/digital-asset/daml