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Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

timdaub.github.io

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Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#291

Post by crispyambulance »

probably_wrong wrote: post #176
dgellow wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a voting system? That's the only application of a public, decentralized ledger that can kind of makes sense to me. I'm from Switzerland, every few months we have a public voting for various changes to the federal or cantonal laws. I currently do not have a way to be certain that my vote is taken in account. With a public ledger I can check and be sure that my vote is correct. I'm generally opposed to softw…

The main problem as I see it is that such a system would be completely inaccessible to anyone who is not a software developer. With a paper-based system, all you need to understand is that your paper goes into a box and someone counts it later on. Everyone understands every step, including the steps required to secure that box. But once you require people to understand blockchain you are putting the intregrity of the…

> But once you require people to understand blockchain you are putting the integrity of the election in the hands of a privileged elite.

I would say, even worse, we would have to require people to TRUST a system that uses blockchain in addition to understanding it. The fact that in some thin layer of a gigantic inscrutable system there's a mathematically irrefutable "truth" does NOT make people feel better about it.

Trust is NOT a mathematical concept.

In any case for blockchain to ever take off in common usage, it's going to have to overcome its association with scammy cryptocurrency schemes. That's going to be a while!

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#292

Post by sigmaprimus »

mytherin wrote: post #217
dgellow wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that already a risk though? I vote remotely by mail, you could coerce me to vote for something specific and even send the mail yourself if you want to be sure.

There is a difference between active coercion (someone goes to your house and forces you with a gun to vote their way) and passive coercion (if you vote for X in 20 years time your vote might be considered inappropriate and you will be fired from your job).

What about if in 20 years your social media comment was considered inappropriate? For this example let's say it was in a "private" forum but political in nature, would that also be an act of passive coercion to silence a political viewpoint?

Eg: We need to make a list of all his enablers before they delete their posts...

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#293

Post by ike77 »

ethanbond wrote: post #274
rawtxapp wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know someone who got a 7 figure loan backed by cryptocurrency collateral in a matter of minutes using makerdao. The best part? They didn't even had to provide their name. This is the future folks, I highly recommend that you actually try some of these projects before writing them off.

You do realize it’s law and not technical incapability that prevents financial institutions from lending like this, right?

I don't think law would prevent a fully collateralized loan on the basis of borrower/lender risks.

AML seems a non issue too, as the loan only moves the question.

KYC remains one big problem but there are many startups providing those services and they are slowly gaining acceptance in courts.

Don't be impressed if a few years (and maybe even months) from now you start to see classical banks trading mortgages onchain.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#295

Post by whimsicalism »

rawtxapp wrote: post #268
martin_a wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all those years, there's still not a single useful blockchain application around. These days I see lots companies telling me, they put their "supply chain on blockchain" and while I understand what they probably want to tell me ("you can't tamper with where our stuff comes from") I don't see the point in that. If you've got trust issues with your subcontractors you should fix those and not "seal" the willingly…

I know someone who got a 7 figure loan backed by cryptocurrency collateral in a matter of minutes using makerdao. The best part? They didn't even had to provide their name. This is the future folks, I highly recommend that you actually try some of these projects before writing them off.

The value of that loan is less than the value of the collateral they put in though, that's how vaults work.

You're never going to get an amazing loan deal from a trustless system.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#296

Post by skywhopper »

baq wrote: post #123
martin_a wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all those years, there's still not a single useful blockchain application around. These days I see lots companies telling me, they put their "supply chain on blockchain" and while I understand what they probably want to tell me ("you can't tamper with where our stuff comes from") I don't see the point in that. If you've got trust issues with your subcontractors you should fix those and not "seal" the willingly…

i guess the whole point of tracking containers on blockchain was that you don't have to trust middlemen to do the right thing anymore.

Are the middlemen competing with each other to change the supply chain tracking information after it's been recorded in a system over which the purchaser has no control? If so, then maybe blockchain could help with that specific risk. But it can do nothing to prevent middlemen from putting fraudulent information into the record in the first place.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#297

Post by thebean11 »

nootropicat wrote: post #249

For some reason ethereum devs refuse to (recommend to) increase the gas limit, even though it's the only short-term way to decrease fees while increasing decentralization, in a mistaken idea that if a node doesn't run on a raspberry pi (it does) the network isn't decentralized. People run nodes when they need them. Decentralization is a function of fees and node costs, not just node costs. Right now deploying a large…

The hardware it takes to run a node now isn't the only consideration. Higher gas limit means the storage size of the history grows at a faster rate; every single full node needs to store that history forever.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#298

Post by sabas123 »

rawtxapp wrote: post #268
martin_a wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all those years, there's still not a single useful blockchain application around. These days I see lots companies telling me, they put their "supply chain on blockchain" and while I understand what they probably want to tell me ("you can't tamper with where our stuff comes from") I don't see the point in that. If you've got trust issues with your subcontractors you should fix those and not "seal" the willingly…

I know someone who got a 7 figure loan backed by cryptocurrency collateral in a matter of minutes using makerdao. The best part? They didn't even had to provide their name. This is the future folks, I highly recommend that you actually try some of these projects before writing them off.

How is being able to do this good? There are reasons why this shit has been regulated.

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#299

Post by rmah »

joshspankit wrote: post #216
dgellow wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a voting system? That's the only application of a public, decentralized ledger that can kind of makes sense to me. I'm from Switzerland, every few months we have a public voting for various changes to the federal or cantonal laws. I currently do not have a way to be certain that my vote is taken in account. With a public ledger I can check and be sure that my vote is correct. I'm generally opposed to softw…

What about government spending? All the way from taking taxes to paying vendors. Including the spending of all politicians. (Minus a reasonable “dark fund” for military and whatnot simply because it can be important to hide your cards from other countries) If citizens can see exactly where their dollars go it could make corruption very difficult and lead citizens to be far more engaged in their democracies.

You can see where your tax dollars go now (except for the classified items, but even there you can see the totals). You can get detailed breakdowns of nearly everything, including salaries. For example, you can see every NYC employee salary here https://www.seethroughny.net/payrolls. If you want, you can scroll through the massive list of federal, state, local gov contracts on a variety of websites today. For example, Florida state gov contracts https://www.dms.myflorida.com/contract_search

But the fact is, (almost) no one really cares. Many people want to believe they would care, but they don't really. Either way, knowing what's being spent where only makes corruption marginally more difficult. It certainly doesn't lead citizens to be any more engaged. We know this because what you want is already here and it has solved precisely nothing (IMO).

Re: Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

#300

Post by miedpo »

martin_a wrote: post #114
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #56

Building something useful on something that is primarily used as highly volatile financial speculation instrument always rubbed me the wrong way. The whole crypto scene is just about making quick dough with a technology, that for some reason remains hyped through and wrapped in mysticism. Face it, there is no sexy killer app for the masses. Wait. There is one: Crypto trading to... make quick dough. And the cryptonerd…

After all those years, there's still not a single useful blockchain application around. These days I see lots companies telling me, they put their "supply chain on blockchain" and while I understand what they probably want to tell me ("you can't tamper with where our stuff comes from") I don't see the point in that. If you've got trust issues with your subcontractors you should fix those and not "seal" the willingly…

I mean... there are a few.

Brave (the browser) uses blockchain in their privacy protecting ad technology.

Skynet uses a blockchain to allow users to share their extra computer storage space for a CDN.

And I'm sure there are a few others. It's just that the amount of use cases send legitimate applications using them are... limited. Most of the ones I'd consider valid uses have a substance-full technical goal, like the two I mentioned above.

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