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It’s not still the early days of blockchain

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Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#141

Post by Dwolb »

magicjosh wrote: post #114
Dwolb wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah narrow or just on a different layer/level of abstraction. Yup my mental model is we’re either in Arpanet days or multiple-competing-DOS days.

Are there any other examples of recent + long cycle developments? Solar? Electric vehicles? Part of me has come to expect such fast development (Facebook, Uber, Yelp!), but other modern industries must have longer cycles I just am not paying attention.

1G was delivered late 1970s, 5G… 2018ish? https://www.techadvisor.com/feature/small-business/timeline-...

JWST was conceived in 1996: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_James_Webb_S...

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#142

Post by friedman23 »

Not related to blockchain but just an interesting difference in perspective. Using 2010 to refer to "ages ago" is almost comical. The internet was created in the 60s and I'd say 2000-2010 was still early days for the internet. So saying something is old because it was created 10 years ago is just ridiculous.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#143

Post by wodenokoto »

hubraumhugo wrote: post #33

I'm still very opposed to the idea of taking a technology and then searching a problem for it. Why? Back in 2017 during the first hype cycle, blockchain companies raised hundreds of millions with ICOs. I became very interested in the technology too, and some friends still work in this space. 4 years later in the web3 era, there is not a single product aside from trading/finance that got traction. Use cases like stori…

In Dubai, buying real estate with bitcoin is a real thing, and by the looks of it also a big thing.

If nothing else, it shows that crypto has succeed in one of its goals: moving money between countries, without being detected/hindered by governments.

I mean, I don't know who buys real estate with crypto, but I am assuming that people who live in dubai and have large crypto values are bullish on crypto, and won't waste it for a low roi investment like realestate. So that leaves rich foreigners who wants realestate away from their own government and I can see them purchasing bitcoins as a way to siphon money out of their country.

Other than that, I am also out of ideas for useful uses of crypto currencies

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#144

Post by tomputer »

Comparing Bitcoin with companies and software products is not a good comparison.

Replacing software or products is not the same as exchanging government-issued fiat money to a new decentralized non-governmental form of money. The transition between different forms of money depends on trust which takes time[1]. E-mail and internet (web) took of faster but these inventions did not require people to exchange their money into an alternative system.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_money

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#145

Post by bobsomers »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #22
bobsomers wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for saying this, this point seems to be completely glossed over frequently, but it’s literally the point of blockchains. To be explicit, the reason blockchains exist is to have a globally consistent database that doesn’t require trusting the operator.

>To be explicit, the reason blockchains exist is to have a globally consistent database that doesn’t require trusting the operator. which I mean when I think of that I think - that would be really useful for crime because you don't want to trust the operator because either 1. they're a narc 2. they're a criminal. it's also useful for currency because not trusting the operator allows you to keep them from turning into…

I'll be honest, I find the "blockchain is for crime" argument to be worn out in 2022. It feels a lot like "think of the children".

Of course blockchains can be used for crime, almost anything can. In fact, if you want the preferred currency of criminals the world over, look no further than the US Dollar.

Most organizations, governments, businesses, etc. start with plenty of trust to go around. There's no reason to inherently distrust them, so their governance, currencies, securities, etc. work just fine. Distrust breeds over time, which is why establishing governance, currencies, securities, etc. in a way that can be cryptographically verified by anyone is a useful property to have to ensure the system remains generally trustworthy long into the future.

For example, there are many reasons to distrust stock brokers, the Depository Trust Company, the spineless SEC, and other entities who run our securities exchange. If securities were traded on a blockchain instead of an opaque database that can't be audited except by a corrupt few, everyone could strongly trust in the freedom and fairness of the securities exchange markets.

If I could own all my stocks on the blockchain, I would do it in heartbeat.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#146

Post by ryandamm »

okwubodu wrote: post #135
ryandamm wrote: post #119

The central problem in this entire debate is two groups talking past each other. The skeptics say "what is it for?" expecting a detailed answer, and the response from crypto enthusiasts is vague and high level; most of what I hear is heavy on words like "revolutionize" and "decentralize" but very, very short on specifics. Or I get argument by analogy to other technologies. If I heard a single use case where blockchai…

Blockchain Climate Risk Crop Insurance: https://www.climatefinancelab.org/project/climate-risk-crop-...

Centralize it and implement something like M-Pesa, or build it on top of the existing mobile networks. The solution is selling standardized contracts to small hold farmers that pay out automatically; the problem has nothing to do with decentralization or trustless transactions.

The blockchain adds nothing here, and creates a layer of complexity that makes it more brittle.

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#147

Post by galaxyLogic »

hubraumhugo wrote: post #33

I'm still very opposed to the idea of taking a technology and then searching a problem for it. Why? Back in 2017 during the first hype cycle, blockchain companies raised hundreds of millions with ICOs. I became very interested in the technology too, and some friends still work in this space. 4 years later in the web3 era, there is not a single product aside from trading/finance that got traction. Use cases like stori…

'Public voting' is not a technological problem but political one. There's a lot of opposition to making voting more accessible to everyone. Voting should be easy, and you don't need blockchain for that but maybe it could help. The question is who wants "voting rights".

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#148

Post by ryandamm »

rednerrus wrote: post #132
ryandamm wrote: post #119

The central problem in this entire debate is two groups talking past each other. The skeptics say "what is it for?" expecting a detailed answer, and the response from crypto enthusiasts is vague and high level; most of what I hear is heavy on words like "revolutionize" and "decentralize" but very, very short on specifics. Or I get argument by analogy to other technologies. If I heard a single use case where blockchai…

Crypto was good for blackmarket transactions.

Still probably is!

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#149

Post by galaxyLogic »

wodenokoto wrote: post #143
hubraumhugo wrote: post #33

I'm still very opposed to the idea of taking a technology and then searching a problem for it. Why? Back in 2017 during the first hype cycle, blockchain companies raised hundreds of millions with ICOs. I became very interested in the technology too, and some friends still work in this space. 4 years later in the web3 era, there is not a single product aside from trading/finance that got traction. Use cases like stori…

In Dubai, buying real estate with bitcoin is a real thing, and by the looks of it also a big thing. If nothing else, it shows that crypto has succeed in one of its goals: moving money between countries, without being detected/hindered by governments. I mean, I don't know who buys real estate with crypto, but I am assuming that people who live in dubai and have large crypto values are bullish on crypto, and won't wast…

Buying real estate with bit-coin, isn't that close to money laundering?

Re: It’s not still the early days of blockchain

#150

Post by bb88 »

yunruse wrote: post #85
systemvoltage wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally how research in the Universities makes it to the world. Spin-offs like Boston Dynamics are essential to building things that may not have immediate use but payoff can potentially be huge. We need to do more of this. Don’t throw the baby with the bathwater. I really don’t think generalizations of certain jaded experience and then seeing the entire world with the same broken lens does any good. Probab…

From my very (admittedly very inexperienced) perspective, both views here are valid: it's foolish to scour the world for nails, but it doesn't hurt to make a hammer. Build the technology, think of how it could help, and if you can't find a niche in the world that it fits, don't force the issue. Move onto new things: perhaps re-use some old ideas, of course, but actively get a wider experience, so that you increase yo…

Now that we have the hammer, the biggest advance is.... wait for it.... NFT's.

On the other hand, if you're a criminal looking to launder money, crypto is the biggest advance in years.

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