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Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

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Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#201

Post by robjan »

seibelj wrote: post #100
bjo590 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to point you to this Vice article titled "One Bitcoin Transaction Consumes As Much Energy As Your House Uses in a Week". Meanwhile swiping a credit card uses slightly more electricity than a google query. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ywbbpm/bitcoin-mining-ele...

Does it not seem strange to you that if a BTC transaction costs $1 to $5 in fees, yet supposedly uses $50 or more in “actual” electricity costs, there must be a disconnect there? There is energy in certain places (underground, hydro) that cannot be transported to wherever journalists are writing their papers as they spitball electricity calculations.

Miners don't just receive the fees. They also receive the mined bitcoins.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#202

Post by davidgerard »

Lazare wrote: post #136
andreskytt wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Number mobility between Indian telecoms runs on private blockchain. AFAIK it is live and actively used. BC solves a problem there because operating a database for that scale would be very complicated. So every telco has their own copy that get synced via a consensus mechanism and signed transactions

> private blockchain So a database? > AFAIK it is live and actively used. Most things people seem to think are running on blockchain tech turn out not to be, so I'd be interested in any evidence here. Nonetheless. > operating a database for that scale would be very complicated They're already operating a database, so at most this is an argument that a traditional database tech wouldn't work, except... ...this is only…

> Most things people seem to think are running on blockchain tech turn out not to be, so I'd be interested in any evidence here. Nonetheless.

There's a few such systems in production - in practice, they tend to use a private Ethereum or Hyperledger as a back-end data store, and 100% of the use case for using a blockchain for your private back-end data store is being able to say "blockchain!" in the press release.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#203

Post by Beldin »

andreskytt wrote: post #112
godelski wrote: post #61

Looking at all the comments here I have a single response to most of them: I'll call it a solution when it is implemented. You can talk all you want about solutions to some of the (minor) problems addressed here (ignoring the rest of the problems) but unless it is in use then the article's commentary still stands. Unless it has a ton of users, the article's commentary still stands. If you really do believe in block c…

Number mobility between Indian telecoms runs on private blockchain. AFAIK it is live and actively used. BC solves a problem there because operating a database for that scale would be very complicated. So every telco has their own copy that get synced via a consensus mechanism and signed transactions

Number portability in my country is handled without blockchain. Granted, India's population is about 100 times larger. But I don't see a reason why a scale-up with a factor of roughly 100 would be prohibitively problematic.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#204

Post by aww_dang »

stagas wrote: post #165
Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #133

Here's a problem that blockchain solves - financial censorship. If you want to buy a 4chan pass, you'll find there is no option to pay in EUR or USD. Cryptocurrency only. Is this because 4chan is operating an illegal business? No. It's because they cannot process payments using the traditional means. Controversial websites get financially censored all the time. Here are a few that come to mind: Kiwi Farms, Wikileaks,…

I would say this its biggest advantage. It doesn't have to be a controversial or fraudulent transaction. Regular digital money ownership and exchange, especially across countries, is severely policed and most of the time impossible for a huge portion of the population, not because they're criminals, but because they happen to be living in or coming from a place where these freedoms are just not there. Cryptocurrencie…

Agreed. The tech is there, but gatekeepers have set up shop around the last mile. Onerous regulations like KYC surround exchanges in the first world. In regions with tight capital controls, it can be even more difficult. The people who stand to benefit the most have the biggest hurdles to adoption.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#205

Post by romanoderoma »

Acrobatic_Road wrote: post #133

Here's a problem that blockchain solves - financial censorship. If you want to buy a 4chan pass, you'll find there is no option to pay in EUR or USD. Cryptocurrency only. Is this because 4chan is operating an illegal business? No. It's because they cannot process payments using the traditional means. Controversial websites get financially censored all the time. Here are a few that come to mind: Kiwi Farms, Wikileaks,…

> Here's a problem that blockchain solves - financial censorship.

Cash is still better

This argument comes up everytime blockchain are discussed, but I don't believe it is true

I could theoretically pay 4chan using crypto money,but I argue this is not a solution

First of all, it's not the straightforward, very few people on average can do that on their own

It requires a computer with a connection, they are ubiquitous I understand it, but it's still a very hard requirement

But most of all, what do I do with the crypto if the baker doesn't accept them?

I have to change them into a fiat currency valid in my country and I have to do it in my name (or the company name) because it's illegal to do it in some other people name it's also illegal in many countries if you are a company use a third party to shelter the origin of the money (you pay X who then donates to WikiLeaks)

at that point we are back at square one

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#206

Post by redis_mlc »

stagas wrote: post #172

> I have never heard of a bank simply taking money from someone’s account. If a bank did something like that, they would be hauled into court in no time and lose their license. Technically it’s possible; legally, it’s a death sentence. cough Cyprus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%932013_Cypriot_fina...

Wells Fargo has been involved in a multi-year scandal over deducting millions of fake fees, to inflate their stock price. Fined $3 billion so far:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scan...

How it worked was the top executives set targets for tellers to meet, or the tellers were fired. To meet the targets, tellers had to upsell clients whether the clients wanted the service or not.

It's kind of like how cable companies, etc. pretend to not hear cancellation requests, but Wells Fargo was actively doing fake transactions.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#207

Post by romanoderoma »

dk8996 wrote: post #186
rainbow-road wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please just explicitly enumerate the benefits of blockchains in voting. That would make it much easier for both you and everyone reading.

-Decentralized Identity (see W3C DID) -Votes aren't verifiable by everyone. -Privacy Just to name a few.

I briefly studied voting systems at university and the studies behind them

The Duverger's law for example states that there is a strong psychological component, beside the mechanical one

If the vote process is effortless the elector is less involved and that's why going to the ballots is still the favourite way to engage voters

If a system promise to be unbreakable and solve every voting fraud problem, voters will be less careful when voting

Etc. Etc.

Elections are not primarily a technical problem, it's a social rite they are like the rites of passage in ancient tribes

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#209

Post by tim333 »

dehrmann wrote: post #98
godelski wrote: post #61

Looking at all the comments here I have a single response to most of them: I'll call it a solution when it is implemented. You can talk all you want about solutions to some of the (minor) problems addressed here (ignoring the rest of the problems) but unless it is in use then the article's commentary still stands. Unless it has a ton of users, the article's commentary still stands. If you really do believe in block c…

Blockchain is a solution in search of a problem.

It was invented as a solution to the problem of making bitcoin and was good for that.

Then people saw bitcoin made money so thought if you stick blockchain on something else maybe some of the money dust will rub off. Less good.

Re: Blockchain, the Solution for Almost Nothing

#210

Post by radegast »

siwatanejo wrote: post #48
Animats wrote: post #25

Bitcoin has lots of uses: - Getting money out of China. Buy into a mining consortium with yuan, get a fraction of the bitcoins, sell outside China for dollars or euros. You're manufacturing and exporting, which the government of China likes. - Extortion. The ransomware extortion business depends on Bitcoin. - Drugs. Delivered to your door in a plain wrapper.

> Getting money out of China Replace `out` with `{in|out}` and China with ` `, and now we're in agreement. > - Drugs. Delivered to your door in a plain wrapper. Sounds like a much better experience than getting shot when trying to get your dose (if you're an addict).

who careeees if we are in agreement
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