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AWS and Blockchain

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Re: AWS and Blockchain

#121

Post by namdnay »

smt88 wrote: post #24

I had a real experience that perfectly reflects the research presented here (safer ledgers useful, blockchains are not). I accidentally got wrapped up in a project to automate some HR functions, and the product manager demanded that it must be blockchain because blockchains are the future. It turns out that append-only databases are well-suited for HR records, and (especially when dealing with things like background…

Kind of off-topic: in what kind of weird organisation is a product manager dictating engineering decisions?!

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#122

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

yokem55 wrote: post #71
andreareina wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the full story, certificate transparency logs (and many other applications) achieve that without using a blockchain.

This is true as long as you trust the issuer of the transparency log to not go back and re-write the history of the log. That's a trust assumption that most folks are fine with, but it should be explicitly be understood to be there. A blockchain takes that trust assumption and spreads it out amongst the social consensus of the chain, so re-witing of history could only occur if there is a consensus to do so.

Isn't the whole idea of certificate transparency to detect that situation? That's why the system also has auditors which would detect such tampering.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#123

Post by subradios »

Blockchains are an incredible technology. It is obvious that their first attempted uses are contractual and monetary, because blockchain guarantees can make things better fastest in those arenas. The unfortunate part is it doesn't seem like anyone has really figured out the how yet.

I am reminded of the Web, Amazon was the first company to really "get" e-commerce and made all the money - there will likely be a similar story with blockchains 10 years from now.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#124

Post by vl »

Everyone uses Git by day and then moans how blockchain in not useful by night.

Specific technologies have specific applications. Blockchains in general - immutable history. Crypto blockchains - consensus in untrusted environment. Just use given technology for what it’s designed for, and stop being full of yourself.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#125

Post by simonw »

vl wrote: post #124

Everyone uses Git by day and then moans how blockchain in not useful by night. Specific technologies have specific applications. Blockchains in general - immutable history. Crypto blockchains - consensus in untrusted environment. Just use given technology for what it’s designed for, and stop being full of yourself.

We understand the difference between a proof-of-work/stake/waste blockchain and a merkel tree.

Do you?

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#126

Post by Nursie »

vl wrote: post #124

Everyone uses Git by day and then moans how blockchain in not useful by night. Specific technologies have specific applications. Blockchains in general - immutable history. Crypto blockchains - consensus in untrusted environment. Just use given technology for what it’s designed for, and stop being full of yourself.

If we're including git in 'blockchain' now then that changes the nature of the discussion. But we both know that systems like git are not what's being talked about here.

> Just use given technology for what it’s designed for, and stop being full of yourself.

The point is that there has been hype after hype after hype about "blockchain" revolutionising damn near everything for years and so far it has failed to deliver on this. It's not wrong to call the phenomenon out for what it is.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#127

Post by fareesh »

From an Indian pov my take is the boundary markers use-case sounds pretty good. I don't expect an American flying around from EWR to Seattle to ever understand this intuitively without being exposed to the realities in this part of the world, but having thought about it for all of 20 seconds it sounds like a very good idea.

Yes - it is a solution to the problem of power and corruption. In India there is corruption at all levels of government. The wealthy and powerful could absolutely influence some levels and steal land. Even petty regional criminals are able to do it. It has happened to my own family - imagine the odds. 1 billion people here, and I read this article and even I can personally relate to the issue of stolen land.

A blockchain that stored GPS coordinates and could realistically withstand a 51% attack, would solve the problem in my view. Are there other architectures that can also solve this problem? No doubt. Is the blockchain solution perfect? No it isn't.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#128

Post by Nursie »

subradios wrote: post #123

Blockchains are an incredible technology. It is obvious that their first attempted uses are contractual and monetary, because blockchain guarantees can make things better fastest in those arenas. The unfortunate part is it doesn't seem like anyone has really figured out the how yet. I am reminded of the Web, Amazon was the first company to really "get" e-commerce and made all the money - there will likely be a simila…

We're already 14 years in. Where is the evidence it can make anything better? Why hasn't the amazon thing happened in the last ten years of blockchain?

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#129

Post by trifurcate »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #74
siftrics wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole proof-of-work, decentralization, ledger, ... are in no way necessary steps in this. If you know of a ledger that's (1) permissionless and (2) avoids the double-spending problem and (3) _does not_ involve those things you mentioned ...then please, do tell me about it. I'd love to know your breakthrough solution.

Ethereum's Proof of Stake?

Which involves decentralization and a ledger.
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