Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ethereum 2.0 launches

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 639 posts

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#111

Post by [deleted] »

louwrentius wrote: post #54
xiphias2 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ethereum is very different from Bitcoin, so this comment is offtopic, and it's tackling a different problem space, but if you are really interested, I'm reading the Bitcoin Standard book, and I can recommend it if you really want to understand what problem Bitcoin solves. There's no simple answer, only learning about the history of money and monetary theory from a non-Keynsian view. https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Sta…

I'm not looking for links to books. I'm looking for an explanation in plain English that shows why any of this matters.

[deleted]

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#112

Post by dirtnugget »

awelkie wrote: post #35

Can someone explain how block timing works in proof-of-stake systems? As I understand it, with proof-of-work the mining difficulty increases or decreases to maintain that each block is found in roughly the same amount of time. In proof-of-stake is there also a mechanism to regulate the time for each block to be added to the blockchain?

No, as far as I understood the time between blocks in a PoS chain is basically just a timer (e.g. 10 seconds). There is no need to adjust that dynamically because there is no "race" to solve a problem. I guess it is even more predictable if it is not dynamically adjusted.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#113

Post by giffarage »

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

It’s digital money. You buy things with it.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#114

Post by prussian »

hated wrote: post #79
louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

The problem is payment processors deciding who you can and cannot give money to. Crypto currencies solve this problem by not requiring traditional payment processors to make an exchange of value between parties.

Thus, a new problem is born. Governments regulate what securities people can buy or exchanges simply deny you services. then you're back to your former problem. Most people participating are doing so with fiat on-ramps.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#115

Post by dsg42 »

dbetteridge wrote: post #101
louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

On a personal level I to have no need or want of cryptocurrencies, but the stated benefits are not for first world, white, city dwellers with ready access to the existing monetary system. - Someone lives somewhere that the U.S refuses to bank with (Sanctions) - Someone who lives somewhere that simply has no financial infrastructure readily accessible and relies on prepaid cards for things like water and electricity (…

Just to be clear, these reasons are:

- To commit a crime

- Not a real use case (If someone has no access to normal financial infrastructure, including Venmo and similar, how would they ever use crypto)

- To avoid processing fees by paying higher fees?

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#116

Post by xur17 »

tsujp wrote: post #33
naringas wrote: post #17

One thing I haven't been able to figure out about proof of stake is this: if one entity somehow manages to control over half to the total ETH tokens, does this enable an attack analogous to bitcoin's 51% problem (which happens when one miner controls over half of the network's raw cpu power)?

No. The required amount is greater than 2/3 (67%) not greater than 1/2 (51%) on PoS for Ethereum. Also, see this tweet from Vitalik: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/130129808602782105... So even if there was a successful first attack from some organised body that's all the time they get.

Great explanation. One interesting aspect of PoS is that attackers really only have 1 shot, and will get slashed or lose their assets. In PoW, you in theory can keep attacking again and again.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#117

Post by voxl »

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

People have said a lot to you already, and your only response has been "big words, what about average citizen, don't understand."

I think it's time to just say it, Ethereum is not for you and is never going to be, you seem to have an agenda in thinking it's a useless waste of time.

Ethereum is a decentralized commerce and application network. And no, you simply cannot do that with anything else but cryptocurrency. It has hefty aspirations to remove currency control from government entities and banks, but its unlikely that will ever happen.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#118

Post by joeblau »

louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

  I can do all these things already.
You're absolutely right, but just like you can send a letter in the mail, email does the same thing but is digitally native to the internet.

Up until the invention of Bitcoin, there was ZERO scalable way for me @joeblau to send you @louwrentius money the way I send an email. By that, I mean the only thing I need to rely on is a protocol (like SMTP) and you'll receive it.

  What problem / which problems are being solved here?
The problem is that money (paper money/currency) is not the only thing that has value which human beings transfer among each other. We share music, art, poetry, equity in companies, ideas, code, etc. What Ethereum does is take the idea of "Digital trustless money transfer" and expands it to "Digital trustless value transfer"

  I don't understand what this means. What does this do for real-life applications?
Let's say I own TSLA stock and I want to sell it to you. I can't, without going through a middle-person. I need to send my shares to a brokerage (they take cuts and fees and do insider trading crap that they disguise as legal) then you buy the shares from then.

If it's mine, why can't I just transfer the shares straight to you for the listed price (Currently $567.60)? Because there is no platform digital trustless value transfer that will ensure that we both get what we want: Me getting the money, and you getting the shares.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#119

Post by RamshackleJ »

RikNieu wrote: post #49
louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

I feel that no one is using crypto currency for it's original intended purpose, and in the way it would benefit the citizens of the world the most - as liquid currency for regular & cross-border transactions. Everyone just seems to want to use it like gold, to store wealth or speculate with. This is stupid. But alas.

Iran is using btc to settle international trade transactions[1]. Using a gold backed coupon for settling trade has been talked about for a really long time by a bunch of people. If you're confused why people are speculating about crypto they might know something you don't. The rewiring of the global economy off of the USD _is_ coming, the USD introduces counter-party risk (albiet small for most people) and if btc can avoid that its an improvement.

1 https://news.bitcoin.com/iran-bitcoin-sanctions-inflation/#:....

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#120

Post by Uehreka »

bjarneh wrote: post #78
louwrentius wrote: post #46

I don't understand this. I don't understand any of it. I don't understand cryptocurrencies. I don't understand what problems they really solve. > "Ethereum is open access to digital money and data-friendly services for everyone – no matter your background or location. It's a community-built technology behind the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and thousands of applications you can use today." I can do all these things alr…

> What problem / which problems are being solved here? I guess all crypto-currency is an attempt at digital cash. I.e. the ability to send "money" between people who do not trust each other digitally; with secrecy/privacy in manner which cannot be taken away by states/governments/banks etc. Why people want to solve this problem through a scheme of chained hash-values and mining (which I guess is just padding the data…

Although I do harbor an iota of skepticism of states and banks, enough to entertain the idea that cryptocurrencies could possibly maybe a-little-bit a point, the general public does not at all. I feel like the biggest thing standing in the way of cryptocurrencies is that the general public (not just me) needs a reason to use them other than “You don’t really trust banks to store your money, do you?”
Post reply on HN