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Final Steps

blog.ethereum.org

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Re: Final Steps

#51

Post by Hexayurt »

tombh wrote: post #4

Just to chime in with the obligatory: sounds-interesting-but-for-the-love-of-turing-it's-infuriatingly-hard-to-find-a-basic-description-of-what-it-actually-is.

Hi. I'm Vinay Gupta, the release coordinator for Ethereum.

I'll tell you exactly what Ethereum is: a blockchain for storing code. Bitcoin stores transactions, Ethereum stores programs. Those programs have persistent state on the blockchain and are capable of moving value around the system, hence you can build games, financial instruments and so on. These things are called "smart contracts" for historical reasons - nobody would call them that if they were invented now!

How's that? Clearer?

Re: Final Steps

#52

Post by dragonwriter »

chipsy wrote: post #18
codezero wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto, after reading several of the about pages, I'm still not sure what Ether is, or how it's used, or who the target audience is. Something in there about a decentralized platform for running apps, but I don't want to guess too deeply about what this means. Is it a cloud hosting platform that runs on Ether? Is the platform going to be used primarily for mining Ether? I'm not even sure, if anyone has a short descrip…

Ether is a "computational currency." You earn it by running computations on your computer. You spend it by purchasing processing power on other people's computers. The computation is software defined, so that customized "distributed apps" are possible. This is my outsiders understanding. I think there are potentially a lot of things that could be gotten wrong here - from the specific implementation and security measu…

> But it's one of several such experiments with using the blockchain

Well, using a blockchain. Its not using "the blockchain" in the usual sense; Ethereum is specifically using an alternative to the Bitcoin protocol and blockchain, not built on top of it.

Re: Final Steps

#53

Post by natrius »

skybrian wrote: post #49
natrius wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum is a global transaction computer that provides a platform for decentralized applications, like Augur ( http://augur.net ). Today's systems have a centralized source of truth: corporate databases. There was no other way to build applications that involve multiple users interacting with each other, so companies built those systems and profited from providing a solution. With Ethereum, we can write simple progr…

It sounds like it would require a lot of throughput to run so many transactions. How do they plan to scale that?

Excellent question. Here are some blog posts on the subject:

https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/09/17/scalability-part-1-buil...

https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/10/21/scalability-part-2-hype...

After skimming these, I'm comfortable assuming that someone will figure it out. Blockchain architecture doesn't excite me. Decentralized applications do.

Re: Final Steps

#54

Post by kordless »

verisimilidude wrote: post #20
itistoday2 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive the downvoters Father, they know not what they do. I'm right there with you on the edge of my seat. There might be no visible rocket explosion, but this will have a similar explosive impact on humanity. Major congrats to the Ethereum team!

It can't have an explosive impact, because it has none of the drama of three guys strapping their nuts to a massive rocket, hurtling themselves into space, and becoming the very first to walk on the big white ball in the sky—where said ball has captured the imagination of every human that has ever lived, ever. You're not going to have every TV set in the whole world tuned into the launch day for a blockchain. If this…

If it delivers on the technology, Ethereum will eventually enable the elimination of everything in the world governed by legal and monetary contracts. That's a big IF, but if that IF is real, you are going to be dead wrong in your assertion of 'perspective'.

Re: Final Steps

#55

Post by patrickaljord »

natrius wrote: post #48
tajen wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but there has to be a simpler way to explain this. It sounds like you are passionate, and after seeing the video it looks like a good idea, but it also sounds like a parody of startup culture. References to "humanity" and "mankind" don't help, even if you've used them appropriately. Your comment is useful and exact after understanding the topic, but the message isn't easy to explain. And the source of thi…

Some people will be turned off by claims that a technology can have a significant impact on humanity at large. Others will be curious to find out whether these claims can be substantiated. My audience is the latter. Learning how to build applications on top of Ethereum is one of the most important things an engineer can do if they want to maximize their impact on humanity. I am not ashamed of these claims, and encour…

Could you find me an inventor in history of a technology that actually changed humanity who made such a claim before it did so? Did Google claim or even knew their search engine would change the world? Did Apple? Did Facebook? Nope. You should focus your message on why your tech is useful, not that it might save humanity, most startups don't change humanity, heck, most startups fail. So it's a bit premature to claim yours will. Don't you think?

Re: Final Steps

#56

Post by natrius »

patrickaljord wrote: post #55
natrius wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people will be turned off by claims that a technology can have a significant impact on humanity at large. Others will be curious to find out whether these claims can be substantiated. My audience is the latter. Learning how to build applications on top of Ethereum is one of the most important things an engineer can do if they want to maximize their impact on humanity. I am not ashamed of these claims, and encour…

Could you find me an inventor in history of a technology that actually changed humanity who made such a claim before it did so? Did Google claim or even knew their search engine would change the world? Did Apple? Did Facebook? Nope. You should focus your message on why your tech is useful, not that it might save humanity, most startups don't change humanity, heck, most startups fail. So it's a bit premature to claim…

Ethereum isn't my project. I build apps on top of it, like Augur. I'm claiming that work other people did will be pretty huge for humanity, which I consider pretty acceptable.

What questions do you have about how Ethereum is useful? I attempted to answer that question, but appreciate pointers that would make it more effective.

Re: Final Steps

#58

Post by carterehsmith »

natrius wrote: post #45
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but no.

I think Ethereum (or something like it) will have a greater effect on many more lives than the Apollo missions did. If successful, it will reshape society by giving every individual reduced economic transaction costs that once required the economies of scale of a megacorporation to achieve. Take the humble grocery store. The grocery store is a byproduct of economies of scale. Producers sell to grocery stores because…

Anyone can order stuff from Amazon or Alibaba or wherever and have it delivered, and build reputation, and so on - how does Ethereum improve on that?

Re: Final Steps

#59

Post by natrius »

carterehsmith wrote: post #58
natrius wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Ethereum (or something like it) will have a greater effect on many more lives than the Apollo missions did. If successful, it will reshape society by giving every individual reduced economic transaction costs that once required the economies of scale of a megacorporation to achieve. Take the humble grocery store. The grocery store is a byproduct of economies of scale. Producers sell to grocery stores because…

Anyone can order stuff from Amazon or Alibaba or wherever and have it delivered, and build reputation, and so on - how does Ethereum improve on that?

To clarify, Ethereum isn't a marketplace or a reputation system. It's just a good platform for building those things.

Ordering from Amazon or Alibaba means paying them for the privilege. Systems that connect producers directly to consumers will have lower costs because there's no middleman that needs to skim profits. If such systems become popular, it will be a transfer of wealth from the Amazons of the world to everyone else. I find that desirable.

In general, Ethereum gives us powerful tools to coordinate human interactions. That means there will be more human interactions, and you'll be able to interact with people you don't have much personal history with. You will buy your USB drives directly from the factory in Shenzhen with a good reputation score and low prices. You'll get your loan directly from the person who wants to earn returns on their savings.

Re: Final Steps

#60

Post by carterehsmith »

Hexayurt wrote: post #51
tombh wrote: post #4

Just to chime in with the obligatory: sounds-interesting-but-for-the-love-of-turing-it's-infuriatingly-hard-to-find-a-basic-description-of-what-it-actually-is.

Hi. I'm Vinay Gupta, the release coordinator for Ethereum. I'll tell you exactly what Ethereum is: a blockchain for storing code. Bitcoin stores transactions, Ethereum stores programs. Those programs have persistent state on the blockchain and are capable of moving value around the system, hence you can build games, financial instruments and so on. These things are called "smart contracts" for historical reasons - no…

>> How's that? Clearer?

Not at all. We have been storing programs, building games etc for some 40 or 50 or 70 years now, without Ethereum. So, how does Ethereum does it better/cheaper than the existing solutions, is what people above are asking.

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