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Ethereum 2.0 launches

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Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#151

Post by m0llusk »

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 programmable part is most interesting and unknown. Payments can be made to go to one party or have built in alternatives if they die prior to transfer. Payments can also require specific documentation or have a time limit for transfer. How exactly this might most commonly be used is all conjecture, but there are many possibilities and few built in limits.

Oddly enough making payments programmable also introduced some of the first bugs in payment programming which raises many issues with the whole concept. In any case, it is all moving forward very fast.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#152

Post by ppf »

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 (…

Tell me how someone living in Rural Africa can get any useful access to the Ethereum blockchain, without accepting a significant loss of expected benefits.

Frankly, if we're going to be broadly racist and otherwise discriminatory about this, I would say that Ethereum and other blockchain systems are vanity projects for first world, white, city dwellers, with very little relevance for the rest of the world.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#153

Post by seibelj »

louwrentius wrote: post #138
markkat wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

> In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. Does this sentence actually mean anything? > In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. What does this mean in concrete terms? > Imagine using your ph…

You just keep acting like the “caveman lawyer” from Saturday Night Live and refusing to learn or acknowledge anything. You are being obnoxious and just continuing the HN trope of “blockchain is totally worthless despite it being worth hundreds of billions - the whole world is wrong not me!”

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#154

Post by pavlov »

louwrentius wrote: post #138
markkat wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

> In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. Does this sentence actually mean anything? > In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. What does this mean in concrete terms? > Imagine using your ph…

> ”Does this sentence actually mean anything?”

In more traditional software engineering language, it means “you can run stored procedures on an incredibly slow and limited distributed database.”

Also those stored procedures are immutable, written in a language with more holes than Swiss cheese, and you have to use a scammy cryptocurrency to pay for the privilege of running these unsafe programs. The adherents call this “web 3.0” in some kind of ironic joke because it’s nothing like the web.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#155

Post by 51stpage »

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 too don't need any of the features that cryptocurrency brings. However, cryptocurrencies are making substantial headway on solving the hardest class of problems that humans face: coordination problems. Common examples include the Tragedy of the Commons and collusion [1].

Vitalik has written some surprisingly approachable pieces on the various problems that cryptocurrencies face. It's not too much of a leap to see how these problems appear in non-cryptocurrency contexts. The value I see in cryptocurrencies is that they must develop robust/antifragile solutions to the coordination problems that have plagued society forever. Even if some problems can't be solved, then there are mental tools for making sense of what's going on.

[1]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2019/04/03/collusion.html [2]: https://vitalik.ca/general/2020/08/20/trust.html

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#156

Post by louwrentius »

deif wrote: post #144
louwrentius wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Someone lives somewhere that the U.S refuses to bank with Cryptocurrencies won't solve this problem. If that happens, there are much bigger issues. > - Someone who lives somewhere that simply has no financial infrastructure readily accessible and relies on prepaid cards for things like water and electricity (Rural Africa?) Let's be honest. The whole blockhain / cryptocurrency was never about that ever. > - Some i…

That's fine, you don't have to use it. A lot of people do prefer to use it for payments and receive payments in it though. They don't want a middle-man bank and would rather their transactions were trustlessly sent and received. At it's core cryptocurrency is a way to bypass banks if one was so inclined. Specifically currencies like Monero allow a person to send and receive payments completely anonymously, hence its…

That's a nice argument against cryptocurrencies.

They enable darkweb sites like Silk Road and it's successors.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#157

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

ForHackernews wrote: post #143
markkat wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

Why does any of this require ethereum? We have all kinds of markets already, ones that are much faster, more liquid and more efficient than any blockchain-backed exchanges. There's nothing stopping a recording artist from incorporating and listing shares on any traditional exchanges, or you from making a new exchange. Literally the only things Ethereum adds are decentralization and no way to dispute or reverse transa…

To trust a currency, you must trust the institutions that manage that currency. You have no control over it.

To trust a cryptocurrency, you must trust the algorithm that runs it. It's fully auditable and predictable.

It still takes me several business days to complete an ACH transaction in the US, and requires I trust the banking system. Transferring cryptocurrencies happen much faster and don't require the same kind of trust or centralized management.

What you see as anti-features are good reasons why they won't replace the dollar yet, but they still have a place in the market.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#158

Post by speedgoose »

Triv888 wrote: post #145
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…

Have you ever tried to cash a foreign check? Not that easy... You have to go to the bank to do it unlike any regular check... Also it is easier to move large amount of crypto then cash (even when both are digital.

In my opinion, moving a large amount of money using crypto currencies, legally and without risks, it not easy for most people. I would say it's a lot harder than going to the bank and letting them manage the transactions database.

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#159

Post by jpxw »

markkat wrote: post #125
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 makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

What’s the difference between realt.co and REITs?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate_investment_trust

Re: Ethereum 2.0 launches

#160

Post by UShouldBWorking »

markkat wrote: post #125
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 makes me sad, because I expected a comment like this to be the highest on HN. In the case of Ethereum, digital scarcity secured by a blockchain enables a turing complete state machine that the world can use. In the most basic terms, this will remove clearing houses for transactions of assets. In the long term this will lead to novel types of assets, and make ownership extremely liquid. Imagine using your phone to…

For a bunch of educated people HNers can be some of the dumbest people in the world sometimes.
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