It’s not still the early days of blockchain • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by okwubodu » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:24 AM UTC

ryandamm wrote: post #146

okwubodu wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The solution is selling standardized contracts to small hold farmers that pay out automatically

And how easy do you think that is in Kenya?

You and I being able to take stable banking and government for granted says more about our own position in the world than it does about the efficacy of the technology itself.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:25 AM UTC

ryandamm wrote: post #140

somebodythere wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Guess we gotta keep brainstorming for use cases -- that's how technology development works, right? Unironically, yes.

I'll grant you that sometimes there's just such a cool tech that you gotta hammer your head against the wall until you find something worth using it for. And sometimes maybe that creates something awesome (though I can't conjure anything at the moment.) I think that's usually a money-loser, and someone else building something like 140 character messaging ends up making the money. In general though, I believe solving…

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by TekMol » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:25 AM UTC

inter_netuser wrote: post #158

TekMol wrote: post #45

Depends on how you define early. When comparing the situation of crypto to the internet, I would say we are at around 1997 now. 1996 was the year when Yahoo went public and 2021 was the year when Coinbase went public. The usability of crypto solutions also reminds me of 1997. It is still so bad that it makes them almost unusable. Reminds me of acoustic couplers where you had to manually plug your cable bound phone in…

>1996 was the year when Yahoo went public and 2021 was the year when Coinbase went public. >TCP/IP and DNS were both developed in the early 70s (1972 I think). That is more than 40 years before the first internet company went public. 1996 - 1972 = 24.

Yay, fixing that!

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

#174

Post by anonporridge » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:25 AM UTC

ryandamm wrote: post #155

anonporridge wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally prefer a money that isn't explicitly designed to encourage hyper consumption and short term thinking. Better for the planet. But what do I know? I'm just a dumb ape.

I'm genuinely not sure whether this statement is pro-crypto or anti-crypto... I assume it's anti- based on the reference to it being better for the planet? Or is the "designed for hyper consumption" a reference to inflation in fiat currencies? Sorry, perhaps I've confused myself.

Pro bitcoin. Don't confuse crypto with bitcoin.

Our inflationary currencies that are in vogue in the modern era are explicitly designed to psychologically encourage people to go out and consume more than they actually need to, because their money is terrible at preserving it's value long term.

Inflationary currencies might be great at keeping the economy red hot, but I'm of the opinion that they're terrible for the long term sustainability of our planet.

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

#175

Post by foepys » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:26 AM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #157

foepys wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you show some examples?

Tipping site owners, BAT token. Incentivizing IPFS content pinning, Filecoin. Allowing censorship-resistant / chargeback free donations, most coins. Enabling private transactions, Monero. Most "dapps" empower decentralization, distributed exchanges, trading, DNS, ownership contracts (DOAs), etc. NFT's for art as silly as it is, more importantly for Handshake domain names and other cases where ownership proof comes in…

> Please feel free to go and attack all of those ideas and projects, but don't think for a second you can really gaslight people into believing they aren't worth of pursuit.

This hostility is completely unnecessary.

But if you want I can add one more to the list: funding the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/north-korean-hackers-stole-a-r...

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

#176

Post by Kinrany » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:26 AM UTC

ryandamm wrote: post #63

mizzao wrote: post #54

How's this any different than the typical technology hype and adoption cycle? Perhaps we are just at the "peak of inflated expectations" right now, and are about to dive into the "trough of disillusionment". https://setandbma.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/technology-ado... This certainly happened with AI at least twice... remember the AI summers of 1970 and 2010 and the AI winters in between...before certain applicatio…

> My wife recently suggested one: NFTs minted by your university as proof of your diploma. Or perhaps your academic transcript. No way to forge a fake diploma again. This is once again better served by a database. Diplomas are inherently centralized and issued by a trusted authority. Guess we gotta keep brainstorming for use cases -- that's how technology development works, right?

The university can shut down, suffer data loss or get hacked. Decentralized storage is an improvement.

No sense in diplomas being transferable though.

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

#177

Post by travbrack » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:26 AM UTC

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…

Online shopping hadn't hit product market fit in the late 80s even though the Internet had already been around for a few years.

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

#178

Post by cinntaile » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:27 AM UTC

galaxyLogic wrote: post #149

wodenokoto wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why would that be the case?

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

#179

Post by Dwolb » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:27 AM UTC

hunterb123 wrote: post #157

foepys wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you show some examples?

Tipping site owners, BAT token. Incentivizing IPFS content pinning, Filecoin. Allowing censorship-resistant / chargeback free donations, most coins. Enabling private transactions, Monero. Most "dapps" empower decentralization, distributed exchanges, trading, DNS, ownership contracts (DOAs), etc. NFT's for art as silly as it is, more importantly for Handshake domain names and other cases where ownership proof comes in…

A cool example of NFT innovation is programmable royalty fees. Those fees can be directed back to the creator, the community, a DAO treasury.

Configurations are infinite.

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

#180

Post by magicjosh » Sat, Jan 15, 2022, 7:27 AM UTC

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…

Here's a recent article from the NYTimes on buying things with Bitcoin. None of the examples seem impressive, a doctor accepting payments for covid tests, sex worker getting paid: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/style/what-can-you-actual...