such innovate (C)
Turning complete you say? Hark the birth of currency viruses.
Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#32Honestly, I have yet to see a "meta-coin" that seemed viable. While ideas like creating virtual stocks and property ownership in a block chain are cool they all hinge on actually trusting the person backing those currencies/coins. The meta-programming layer here is nice it gives better transaction control, it does not let us do anything new.
Well a cryptocurrency which actually allowed you to pay for distributed computing, that did useful computations - would be a very interesting thing.
"Miners" would have to buy generic hardware that did generic calculations, which actually would have "intrinsic" value since they wouldn't be busy-work to keep things secure, they'd be executing useful computation for a client.
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#33GitHub organization has codes: https://github.com/ethereum
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#34>No, Ethereum is not an altcoin. Ethereum is going to be 10,000 altcoins.
Oh boy! Exciting!
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am less worried about while(1){} and more about viruses (either in-system or breaking out of it via exploits) roaming the blockchain semi-autonomously stealing or spying.
Ether scripts are not operating in unrestricted environment. They are turing-complete, but their environment and available memory are very restricted. A bug in the implementation may lead to denial-of-service attacks (just like similar bugs in Bitcoin), but it does not mean there will be ether viruses spreading through the network. At worst, it could be a global DoS issue that can be quickly fixed and the entire hist…
I do not share your optimism. The worst case is autonomous viruses that steal to sustain their transaction fees and escape their jails to wreak havoc via buffer overruns or other similar exploits.
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#36Is this a thing that can be mined today? Or is it still paper/brainstorming phase?
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#37Honestly, I have yet to see a "meta-coin" that seemed viable. While ideas like creating virtual stocks and property ownership in a block chain are cool they all hinge on actually trusting the person backing those currencies/coins. The meta-programming layer here is nice it gives better transaction control, it does not let us do anything new.
Well a cryptocurrency which actually allowed you to pay for distributed computing, that did useful computations - would be a very interesting thing. "Miners" would have to buy generic hardware that did generic calculations, which actually would have "intrinsic" value since they wouldn't be busy-work to keep things secure, they'd be executing useful computation for a client.
This is difficult, because you need to check the computation. (The whole point of distributed cryptocurrency is that you do not trust your peers.) Only those computations that are hard to compute but easy to check can be used by cryptocurrencies, not any general useful computations.
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#38Am I the only one that finds the resemblance with SteamOS page disturbing? I thought halfway that there will be controller shown. My opinion is that we need some better generation currencies that are extremely hard to scale for mining before doing advanced stuff with them.
Ethereum is designed to be extremely hard to scale for mining. It does not use Bitcoin mining. Go read about it.
Reading the whitepaper. Sadly the hardness is not part of the pitch.
Few things got my attention - the data structure
>the general idea is to encode the data type and length in a single byte followed by the actual data
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#39An implementation flaw was discovered a few days ago:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7115725
Re: Ethereum is a next-generation cryptocurrency platform
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ether scripts are not operating in unrestricted environment. They are turing-complete, but their environment and available memory are very restricted. A bug in the implementation may lead to denial-of-service attacks (just like similar bugs in Bitcoin), but it does not mean there will be ether viruses spreading through the network. At worst, it could be a global DoS issue that can be quickly fixed and the entire hist…
I do not share your optimism. The worst case is autonomous viruses that steal to sustain their transaction fees and escape their jails to wreak havoc via buffer overruns or other similar exploits.
Those viruses would have to exploit some bug in implementation, right? Once the bug is found, all bad blocks will be thrown away. All valid transactions will be included in new blocks.
I don't think script complexity would be the biggest obstacle to adoption, but other factors. For one, advanced script upgrades to Bitcoin that preserve existing BTC distribution of wealth would be more welcome than something from scratch. It'd be safer alternative in the eyes of the bitcoin holders, who would not need to diversify into altcoin.