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Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

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Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#221

Post by andreskytt »

sebmellen wrote: post #7

The biggest use case I have found of blockchain tech is timestamping, especially in a case where the timestamping party cannot be trusted to act honestly because of conflicting interests. I'll give you an example, from one of my startup's enterprise customers. This company needs to ensure that their high-end auto inventory remains in the same state through transport — the mileage, the car body, etc. They've had issue…

A company called GuardTime has implemented this in production way before the BC craze hit.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#222

Post by jkepler »

lucb1e wrote: post #57
zubairq wrote: post #3

Timestamping documents via their hash

I know there exist uses for timestamping, but I don't know how often this actually comes up in practice. Have you ever gone to a notary to timestamp something before Bitcoin came along? The options are posting it to something like Twitter, including a newspaper headline in your cryptographic signature if you want to prove an after date rather than a before date, or indeed a notary. While I agree blockchain is a more…

I used opentimestamps.org to timestamp my last apartment lease after signing and before emailing it to an out-of-country landlord who I'd never met; he then signed it and time-stamped his copy before sending me a copy. That way, in case if a dispute, we both had time-stamped proof neither party had changed any lease terms before signing--- as anyone (he, I, or a court) could compare the wording and verify he didn't change what I signed before he signed. His local agent in my city didn't have signing authority for him.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#224

Post by jkepler »

cynusx wrote: post #23

I have only heard of one good use-case and I have been in fintech for the past 6 years. Swift GPI allows banks to credit the receiving parties' account in 10 minutes rather than overnight. It's an example where the existing party (swift) already had accumulated all the trust necessary and the consolidated ledgers were updated overnight. Swift GPI allows a bank to track any inbound payments and recognize it to clients…

If one already trusts a centralized party, why bother with a blockchain? A regular database would be cheaper & simpler.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#225

Post by sebbyBinx »

Jewelry.

Digital assets will have their place alongside gold and diamonds in jewelry, and perhaps even entirely replace them.

A significant issue with gold and diamonds in jewelry is that the value is destroyed if the jewelry is lost or stolen. However, Bitcoin and other digital assets do not have this issue since a pointer to the value can be worn, not the value itself.

I made a site which promotes this idea in an open way: thebtcring.com

https://www.engadget.com/2015-05-21-a-bitcoin-engagement-rin...

https://m.imgur.com/kX9i80Q

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#226

Post by monsieurbanana »

chaps wrote: post #208
sebmellen wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See my response to the grandparent comment for more details. > When was it taken? We currently verify this by including the last Bitcoin block hash in the photo, giving us a ~10 minute time window in which the photo was taken. Also, the whole handoff period is under 20 minutes, so the transporter only has access to the cars for 20 minutes (with many others around), before a timestamp is required. > Who was taking the…

Your company sounds pretty awful to work for, where suggestions like, "Watch the employees at all times" are apparently taken seriously. Had an interview for a company like that once, where they required that no work-related communication happen outside of their chat client. And they had cameras to check for that. The turnaround rate was through the roof. I genuinely hope that you'll try and solve these problems usin…

The only possible explanation to your comment is that you replied to the wrong thread.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#227

Post by jkepler »

Censorship resistant chat based on the lightning network. See https://www.getjuggernaut.com/, https://sphinx.chat/, or chat function integrated in OpenBazaar's Haven app (https://gethaven.app/faq/). This tech can run on bitcoin or lightcoin's networks, if I understand correctly.

Another example would be decentralized governance. The bisq.io project has built a system on top of bitcoin to incentivize and pay for their project's future development. They chose their model for censorship resistance (as they have concern that nation-states might not take kindly to a peer-to-peer permission-less bitcoin to fiat exchange) and its been functioning since April 2019. In historical perspective, the bisq network has innovated a new way for humans to work together that rivals the invention of the joint stock corporations by the English and Dutch at the start of the 17th century. There's lots of talk of decentralized governance on top of Ethereum, but so far the only really resilient and decentralized project I've seen in the space is the bisq network. Bisq is the sort of new thing that can be built on top of bitcoin's trust-decentralizing monetary technology.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#229

Post by Niksko »

sebmellen wrote: post #212
Spivak wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the thing that you have to answer is why you need distributed consensus. You're a startup with a business relationship with your customers -- you're the common trusted party. Your customers are using your software so if they were worried about you cheating the system they (and you) have bigger problems since your business is reputation. Also what is the point of mining or and proof of $whatever system? The th…

You're right about everything but that we're the common trusted party. We have a relationship with the receiver. They want to be sure nothing happens in transit from origin. We do not have a business relationship with the transporters (many of whom are independent). The way the transporters know they're getting a fair deal is precisely because we are not the source of truth — a database outside of our control is (a b…

I don't want to malign the transporters in your business, but the chance that they actually meaningfully understand the nuance of this is slim to none.

This is a trust problem. Either people trust you, or they don't. You've attempted to increase their trust in you by creating a system that would increase somebody's trust if they had your understanding of the underlying technology. Very few people have this, and the overlap between the people with that understanding and your customers and clients is vanishingly small.

Re: Ask HN: What are real-life useful use-cases for blockchain (not currencies)?

#230

Post by BMSmnqXAE4yfe1 »

Blockchain is just a database that is 1) public 2) append only If you don't have mining, anyone can append to such blockchain at no cost, so it's defenseless against bad actors, so it must have a set of trusted appenders. If you want trustless public database, you must have mining. Mining is costly, so you must have a currency.
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