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Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

aws.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#121

Post by sbuttgereit »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #110
sbuttgereit wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. When I see something like this: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/walmart-is-betting-on-the-... I just don't get it. I understand the motivation behind them wanting this sort of broad supply-chain tracking, but I don't see what "blockchain" actually solves for them that can't be more readily/efficiently solved in other ways. A trusted third party, with an immutable transaction ledger, and a simple to develop to…

The Walmart thing is just PR. I doubt it's anything beyond a pilot and it's probably just a permissioned ledger, much like QLDB.

I work with a couple of food industry businesses which are also in business with some of the other members of the Walmart initiative.

The specific technology the Walmart group is working with is IBM's implementation of: https://www.hyperledger.org/about

There is a concerted effort from what we can see, and are getting some subtle hints that we need to be going down this path from some shared government customers. That is far from saying that this will be successful or that it will get past early stages, but they're definitely trying.

Having said all that, my understanding is this is more in line with a true blockchain effort rather than something like QLDB (though I hope I've misread on that count in case I do get stuck on dealing with this).

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#122

Post by Kinnard »

qyv wrote: post #108
Alex3917 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A trusted third party What does an industry with thousands of different major players have to gain by coming together to give a single company a monopoly over their entire industry? And in fact, one of the biggest strengths of blockchain is that it provides a viable alternative to monopolies for various industries.

Using a private blockchain has the same issue of trusting a third party. As soon as someone has control of who can write to the ledger, you need to trust them, period.

A lot of people would assert that "private blockchain" is an oxymoron. The semantics have not resolved yet.

I expect that they will resolve to exclude such things.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#124

Post by adeptus »

ajkjk wrote: post #32

I'm pretty sure this is what most people actually want when they say they want a blockchain, they just don't know it yet. It's got all the useful database features with none of the "well uh let's distribute it over people's computers and let people mine coins to support it" complexity, which adds nothing to 99% of usecases besides silly ICO potential.

Actually, I'm pretty sure most people don't have a clue when it comes to blockchain. Amazon can't claim it is both centralized and immutable. That's complete nonsense. Also WTF is the point of a blockchain if you need to entrust your ledger data to a third party? Amazon puts out some spectacular products and innovation, but this one is laugh out loud material.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#125

Post by atrilumen »

somebodythere wrote: post #113
atrilumen wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you must also plan for what happens when that encryption is broken. So I think you also need to control and protect your storage in order to make that a safe strategy. The more I think about these things, the more I distrust cloud providers, and want my own hardware. Do you really trust these companies enough to hand them the keys to all your data? Is there really any way to provide secrets to your app witho…

If you only care about legal liability, cryptoshredding is generally recognized as an effective measure for secure deletion.

Fuck players who operate like that. Slater Systems will always protect its users at all cost.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#126

Post by EGreg »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #33
ajkjk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes? Name any domain and there's somebody who wants high-throughput auditable transactions in it.

From a centralized source? So sure. Voting. Wouldn't it be great to have an auditable trail? But why would you then go and put all of that in one spot? Wouldn't a better approach be reconfiguring the tech to work in a faster fashion?

I also don’t get it. Auditable trail? Use a Merkle DAG. Or something like this Permissionless Timestamping Network: https://intercoin.pdf/whitepaper.pdf

I mean how hard is it? What are the real challenges?

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#127

Post by yarrel »

mabbo wrote: post #78
iblaine wrote: post #77

QLDB = Quantum Ledger Database Seeing 'quantum' in that acronym is so cringeworthy. I'd prefer Immutable Ledger Database, or a word that shares more with the technology than media hyperbole.

> Adjective - quantum > Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages. - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quantum#Adjective It makes perfect sense if you know what the word means.

Given the existence of quantum computing it makes sense as false advertising.

I accept that it may just a terrible choice of name that is not deliberately intended to confuse though.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#128

Post by iblaine »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #83
ajkjk wrote: post #32

I'm pretty sure this is what most people actually want when they say they want a blockchain, they just don't know it yet. It's got all the useful database features with none of the "well uh let's distribute it over people's computers and let people mine coins to support it" complexity, which adds nothing to 99% of usecases besides silly ICO potential.

This. When I see something like this: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/24/walmart-is-betting-on-the-... I just don't get it. I understand the motivation behind them wanting this sort of broad supply-chain tracking, but I don't see what "blockchain" actually solves for them that can't be more readily/efficiently solved in other ways. A trusted third party, with an immutable transaction ledger, and a simple to develop to…

The idea is immutable micro-transactions to track operations in a complex inventory system. Consider a situation where a customer finds a nail in their banana. This 'blockchain' db could be used to recognize where the banana was sold, what truck delivered it, where that specific banana and was sourced.

It can be an interesting solution or vaporware depending on your level of interest. I personally think micro-transactions and blockchain do not go well together but reading debates about the tech is still interesting.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#129

Post by miguelmota »

Not sure why there's so much hate on here. The article explicitly mentions that the database is Owned by a central trusted authority. This is distributed ledger technology within the AWS ecosystem, not decentralized blockchain technology

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#130

Post by iblaine »

mabbo wrote: post #78
iblaine wrote: post #77

QLDB = Quantum Ledger Database Seeing 'quantum' in that acronym is so cringeworthy. I'd prefer Immutable Ledger Database, or a word that shares more with the technology than media hyperbole.

> Adjective - quantum > Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages. - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quantum#Adjective It makes perfect sense if you know what the word means.

https://cacm.acm.org/news/232751-quantum-clouds-leap-ahead/f...

If Quantum computers become a thing, then coining a new database 'QLDB', is a bad idea, despite what 'quantum' may mean in the dictionary.

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