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I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

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Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#171

Post by atty »

plebianRube wrote: post #108
acdha wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

… and that means that if cryptocurrencies ever see notable adoption, those same currency controls will be expanded to cover it. There's this popular mythology that cryptocurrencies are immune to regulation but in reality it's just that most countries don't spend time regulating things which aren't widely used. If that changes, cryptocurrencies are perfect for those governments to enforce since the public ledgers prov…

That is the whole point of bitcoin. There is no entity that can prevent you from using it. Anyone can say you are not allowed, but enforcing it is impossible in practice.

What? If you think a government can’t enforce crypto bans, then you haven’t thought about it very much. MITM certs to snoop all internet traffic, tying all devices to real identities as a prerequisite for internet access, making it a crime for merchants to accept any payment but the national currency, etc, etc.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#172

Post by kelnos »

stevenjgarner wrote: post #146
Fezzik wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This woefully-lacking-of-legit-citations article says nothing like what you are asserting it says.

I would not call the "survey of 2,079 respondents" by Stellar Development Foundation [0] "woefully-lacking-of-legit-citations". [0] https://www.stellar.org/

Your provided link does not take me to any kind of survey results.

Regardless, I think it's safe to assume the Stellar Foundation polled their own users, and not a representative sample of the general population. "Cryptocurrency enthusiasts use cryptocurrency" is not exactly an interesting or surprising survey result.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#173

Post by acdha »

game-of-throws wrote: post #159
MBCook wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what happens when the government just blocks all Bitcoin nodes so there is no way to connect to the network and broadcast transactions? What if they just turn off the external internet? They can prevent it. It doesn’t matter if you can get around it. When no stores take it it’s worthless to you.

> What if they just turn off the external internet? No government is capable of this. Even North Korea has people smuggling phones over the border. A single cell or satellite connection that can sustain 2-3 KB/s is all you need to keep the rest of the country connected.

Okay, now think about this a bit further. Bitcoin is banned in your country and it's extremely risky to make a network connection to either the Bitcoin network, the client applications (better hope you disabled automatic updates and telemetry…), or industry sites.

How are you paying for that sat-phone? That's expensive, so you need real money and amounts of it which are beyond, say, the average North Korean. If you have a way to launder that money and conceal it, why do you need Bitcoin?

What are you doing to get Bitcoin? Again, you need hard currency which the average North Korean doesn't have access to.

Who are you using those Bitcoin to transact with? Nobody in country can use it legitimately so you're restricted to the black market and very riskily exposed since your full history is available to the government if they ever identify you or someone you're doing business with. It's much safer to use a suitcase of foreign currency since in that case you're at least only at risk for the amount of cash the police find on you at the time you're busted.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#174

Post by kelnos »

stevenjgarner wrote: post #143
Fezzik wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This woefully-lacking-of-legit-citations article says nothing like what you are asserting it says.

Umm ... that was an exact quote from the article.

I think most people are rightfully skeptical of survey results where survey methodology is not disclosed.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#175

Post by weej »

tremarley wrote: post #138
acdha wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those had immediate, obvious value which were held back by the technology: every military in the world wanted flight (remember those Civil War hot air balloons?), as well as things like postal services, etc. There was zero question that as soon as the technology was functionally available, people would buy it. Similarly, the earliest photographs had unquestionable demand but were held back by the technology — again,…

Bitcoin and crypto has an immediate, obvious value that was previously held back by technology. Similar to the rest of the examples you've listed. We live in an age where we are forced to own nothing and be happy. Bitcoin, Blockchain and crypto solves this.

>> "we are forced to own nothing and be happy. Bitcoin, Blockchain and crypto solves this."

Serious question, what/where does this apply to? I get NFTs for digital authenticity, but PKI solves this too. How does one "own nothing without blockchain" when we have property deeds, automobile titles, jewelry and fine art certificates of authenticity all without blockchain? Your comment comes off as a solution looking for a problem.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#176

Post by aordano »

pedalpete wrote: post #145
chrisabrams wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country do you live in? Because I know plenty of folks in certain countries with massive inflation and projects such as bitcoin are their refuge from 100-1000% inflation a year. When you say “in 10 years” when did that 10 year time frame start and end? Are talking about the 1960s or the 1990s? Because most people I knew didn’t start using the internet regularly until the mid to late 90s or about 30 or so years a…

My understanding, and I haven't been there in a while, but apparently Argentinians were using Bitcoin and other crypto's to store currency because the government had made it difficult to trade US dollars for Argentinian pesos. Even when I was there, a grey market existed for trading dollars. The gov't tried to keep very tight controls on exchange of currency. However, recently Argentina has banned banks from converti…

Very few people here in Argentina actually hedged against inflation with cryptocurrency, it's always USD, EUR, precious metals or high-ticket items (like guns). Regarding the subset of people that actually engages with cryptocurrency, most of them are in it to make a buck, not prevent their money from losing value. Similar story for some Venezuelan folks i know.

To be fair, cryptocurrency as a way for transferring money is excellent; people here move money with Bitcoin, which can be immediately converted into foreign fiat, avoiding the absurd exchange rates and taxes the government imposes. In my opinion that is something that could be done with any black/grey market tool for transferring value, and as I see it, currently cryptocurrency is filling that niche because of network effects, not because of its inherent properties.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#177

Post by jsemrau »

dfabulich wrote: post #67
Taek wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the Internet was 10 years old the year was 1987.

In 1987, Usenet and email were already pretty great. (And that was all before the web!)

In early 1987 the number of hosts passes 10,000 [1] Space Quest - The Sarien Encounter was released in October 1986 [2] Only in 1989 Australia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom join the Internet.

[1] https://www.computerhistory.org/internethistory/1980s/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Quest_I

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#178

Post by kanzure »

notRobot wrote: post #8

Extremely relevant simple chart: NIST's answer to "Do you need a blockchain?" : https://m.imgur.com/a/RlUj9Ed

Well, if you need more proof that you don't always need a blockchain, Webcash ( https://webcash.org ) might be it because Webcash just uses a central database for double spending detection. A few of the early users were commenting that the project has put lots of altcoins to shame from an architectural standpoint.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#179

Post by acdha »

tremarley wrote: post #138
acdha wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those had immediate, obvious value which were held back by the technology: every military in the world wanted flight (remember those Civil War hot air balloons?), as well as things like postal services, etc. There was zero question that as soon as the technology was functionally available, people would buy it. Similarly, the earliest photographs had unquestionable demand but were held back by the technology — again,…

Bitcoin and crypto has an immediate, obvious value that was previously held back by technology. Similar to the rest of the examples you've listed. We live in an age where we are forced to own nothing and be happy. Bitcoin, Blockchain and crypto solves this.

> We live in an age where we are forced to own nothing and be happy. Bitcoin, Blockchain and crypto solves this.

The first part is simply not true (ownership isn't exactly uncommon). Can you specify the problem more precisely and explain how blockchains solve this? I've been following the space since the day Satoshi's manifesto hit HN so please include as many details as possible.

Re: I Looked into 34 Top Real-World Blockchain Projects So You Don’t Have To

#180

Post by spicymaki »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #163
spicymaki wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is bitcoin an investment or a currency? I don't think it can be both. If the value of bitcoin as speculative asset is going to rise, then it is best to not spend it, but to hoard it. If everyone is hoarding bitcoin how can you use it to buy things? If it is a currency then it needs to have a stable value. If the value stabilizes, then no one will want to invest in it. Since it does not have any "real" commodity value…

Is there not an entire currency speculation market? [0] > When speculative investing involves the purchase of a foreign currency, it is known as currency speculation. In this scenario, an investor buys a currency in an effort to later sell that currency at an appreciated rate, as opposed to an investor who buys a currency in order to pay for an import or to finance a foreign investment. [0] https://www.investopedia.c…

Sure, I get the idea of currency speculation. You can speculate on anything including currency. The problem is when you try to make currency out of a speculative asset. In this case of bitcoin the value is highly volatile, so you would not want to use it as a national currency. I do know that bitcoin was originally envisioned as a currency, but most people are using it as an investment. You also have not addressed the issues I presented.
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