Ethereum 2.0 launches • Hacker News Board

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#141

Post by odopodo » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

arcturus17 wrote: post #75

louwrentius wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not looking for links to books. I'm looking for an explanation in plain English that shows why any of this matters.

You will not get a satisfactory answer. Cryptocurrencies will only make sense in cataclysmic scenarios or for very niche use cases. Trust systems (of which money is one) work well (some times very well) 99.99% of the time. It’s certainly been useful to some people for gambling - but that use case could’ve been satisfied with a video game, or a physical casino.

Only in cataclysmic scenarios? I'm sorry to inform you, but in such scenarios most probably cryptos won't work either, as they all depend on proper working of the internet.

It doesn't even need to be a Madmax situation: just imagine a war between the US and China, with one of the involved causing an prolonged interruption in the communications between the two countries, as they have significant numbers of nodes/miners in most blockchains.

I'm afraid blockchains actually depend on the normal functioning of society with all its governmental structures in more ways than most crypto enthusiasts are ready to admit.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#142

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:26 PM UTC

arcturus17 wrote: post #92

mikro2nd wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world needs a form of money that is not under the control of any one sovereign power or group of sovereigns. Understanding this may necessitate reading some books, but in short, sovereigns have historically proven to be untrustworthy, so a trust-free form of money is a powerful notion.

Of all the world ills I can think of, none are caused by money as means of exchange or by trust systems more broadly. Crypto isn’t going to do anything for global warming or for rampant inequality caused by the unstoppable compounding growth of big capital (in fact it may do the opposite). The premise that trust systems have failed humanity is flawed. I am willing to be persuaded otherwise but I doubt this will come…

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Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#143

Post by ForHackernews » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

markkat wrote: post #125

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

It makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

Why does any of this require ethereum?

We have all kinds of markets already, ones that are much faster, more liquid and more efficient than any blockchain-backed exchanges.

There's nothing stopping a recording artist from incorporating and listing shares on any traditional exchanges, or you from making a new exchange.

Literally the only things Ethereum adds are decentralization and no way to dispute or reverse transactions, but for 99% of users those are ANTI-features.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#144

Post by deif » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #129

dbetteridge wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a personal level I to have no need or want of cryptocurrencies, but the stated benefits are not for first world, white, city dwellers with ready access to the existing monetary system. - Someone lives somewhere that the U.S refuses to bank with (Sanctions) - Someone who lives somewhere that simply has no financial infrastructure readily accessible and relies on prepaid cards for things like water and electricity (…

> - Someone lives somewhere that the U.S refuses to bank with Cryptocurrencies won't solve this problem. If that happens, there are much bigger issues. > - Someone who lives somewhere that simply has no financial infrastructure readily accessible and relies on prepaid cards for things like water and electricity (Rural Africa?) Let's be honest. The whole blockhain / cryptocurrency was never about that ever. > - Some i…

That's fine, you don't have to use it. A lot of people do prefer to use it for payments and receive payments in it though. They don't want a middle-man bank and would rather their transactions were trustlessly sent and received.

At it's core cryptocurrency is a way to bypass banks if one was so inclined. Specifically currencies like Monero allow a person to send and receive payments completely anonymously, hence its increased usage on darknet markets.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#145

Post by Triv888 » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

Have you ever tried to cash a foreign check? Not that easy... You have to go to the bank to do it unlike any regular check... Also it is easier to move large amount of crypto then cash (even when both are digital.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#146

Post by jules-jules » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

dragonelite wrote: post #136

flixic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

APR depends on total staked amount, and decreases as staked Eth increases. You can see the chart here: https://launchpad.ethereum.org Now that the launch has succeeded, I will stake some of my Eth. As more people do that, APR will fall.

So probably somewhere between 5~6%, maybe i should convert some of my Tezos to eth in the future.

In the longer term, yes. Plus you can use eth2 in defi (e.g., for lending) to generate additional yield.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#147

Post by an_opabinia » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:29 PM UTC

markkat wrote: post #125

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

It makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

If the affiliated get rich quick scheme didn’t pay out as well as it does, people would give as few fucks about ethereum as they do 100,000 other actively maintained but intellectually masturbatory projects on GitHub. The popular impression of the crypto bro is real - that is, the kind of idiot who is only engaged ritualistically with the technology but is actually interested in making a quick buck.

This coexists with interesting applications for block chains. The commenter is just making light of how deeply coopted programmers are by crypto bros.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#148

Post by bjarneh » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

louwrentius wrote: post #107

bjarneh wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What problem / which problems are being solved here? I guess all crypto-currency is an attempt at digital cash. I.e. the ability to send "money" between people who do not trust each other digitally; with secrecy/privacy in manner which cannot be taken away by states/governments/banks etc. Why people want to solve this problem through a scheme of chained hash-values and mining (which I guess is just padding the data…

> I.e. the ability to send "money" between people who do not trust each other digitally; How does a cryptocurrency actually solve the lack of trust? From the few things I do understand, I think it doesn't at all. I think this article by Bruce Schneier is interesting: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/02/theres_no_g... > with secrecy/privacy in manner which cannot be taken away by states/governments/banks…

> How does a cryptocurrency actually solve the lack of trust?

I said it was an attempt, I'm not sure it solves it..

> If you need to hide stuff from the government

All governments are not good. The US government for instance "froze" (basically took) all the money WikiLeaks had, and made it impossible to send them money through traditional banking systems. So crypto-currencies have already been important in funding an organization that uncovered war-crimes; which is a good thing.

Not all secrecy/privacy is criminal behavior, sometimes it is actual journalism. I guess we have seen so little journalism in the last few years we barely remember what it looks like.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#149

Post by louwrentius » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

joeblau wrote: post #118

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

I can do all these things already. You're absolutely right, but just like you can send a letter in the mail, email does the same thing but is digitally native to the internet. Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it. What proble…

> Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it.

Maybe because it's not a need most people have?

> The problem is that money (paper money/currency) is not the only thing that has value which human beings transfer among each other. We share music, art, poetry, equity in companies, ideas, code, etc. What Ethereum does is take the idea of "Digital trustless money transfer" and expands it to "Digital trustless value transfer"

This still means nothing to me. I can't relate to this.

> Let's say I own TSLA stock and I want to sell it to you. I can't, without going through a middle-person. (they take cuts and fees..)

So it's about not wanting to pay transaction fees for buying stock. Hmm, doesn't really sell it to me, quite frankly.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#150

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 01, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

antihero wrote: post #93

kolinko wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is powered by proof of stake, which means no asic miners, and possibly quicker blocks. A new virtual machine for smart contracts (EWASM instead of EVM) giving better contract analysis options, and possibly higher sync speeds due to optimisations. Also, sharding - so multiple jndependent blockchains, that should fix the scalability. If I’m not mistaken, this release is not yet a full blown new chain, but just a par…

Is EWASM basically just webassembly running on Ethereum?

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