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

What Is Ethereum?

whatthefuckisethereum.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 272 posts

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#251

Post by jakecopp »

K0SM0S wrote: post #172
uncle_d wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it can't in its present form, but there is a market (me, at least) for a distributed app framework that would be the basis for uncensored (and uncensorable) serverless p2p versions of all your favorite social media.

Count me in as well. For about a decade I've argued that 'we' need a decentralized, encrypted, peer-to-peer way of communication wherein each user physically and legally owns their data (only granting temporary/revocable read rights to other users) and controls said rights on an ad-hoc basis. Including making it public as long as you damn please. Basically a digital metaphor that you own your 'space' (eg home) and gr…

This is an incredible fleshing out of similar thoughts I've had for a while, thanks!

Even just simple 'sharing' things get to me: I want to get a huge bunch of files from my computer to a friend. For semi frequent transfers I just give my friend credentials to a guest account on a VPS so he can rsync them down.

I wonder if we'll ever get a fundamental method of moving files peer to peer that is as easy as email (and similarly open). Something like Resilio (Bittorrent) Sync or Syncthing but more ad hoc?

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#252

Post by puranjay »

ojr wrote: post #212
puranjay wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very wary of buying ETH because I've seen it shilled VERY HARD on 4chan. I don't trust anything that 4chan is telling me to buy.

the average 4chan user probably doesn't own a finney so I wouldn't worry about it, the development team for Ethereum is pretty solid I think that should be taken more into consideration before contributing money to a software project

That's what I would buy it for really: as an investment into a software project, not because it can make me money.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#253

Post by mbrock »

rspeer wrote: post #211
mbrock wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ideology that everything has to be completely cryptoeconomic and trustless is hugely overblown. It's good that Ethereum eliminates the central trusted third party for the base layer, but then you are free to be flexible with how you define trust in your applications. Obviously you can't "cryptographically verify" a complex topic like health; you need to delegate decisions to intelligent actors.

If you're delegating decisions to intelligent actors, why not delegate to intelligent actors who make a payment app that's denominated in dollars and includes none of the complexity of Ethereum?

Because for some reason I enjoy using a smart contract blockchain as the platform for my interactions. That might be for example because I also want the ability to use the service with a multi-signature wallet... or because I have been locked out of PayPal for political reasons or because I am a vendor of erotic literature (https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/02/paypal-square-and-big-ba...)... or because I want the ability to pay in a number of cryptographic tokens... and so on.

Ethereum has value even if it doesn't involve somehow replacing all real world services with cryptographically proven algorithms. Interfacing smart contracts with external actors is a really interesting frontier; see for example Vinay Gupta's latest venture, Mattereum. http://internetofagreements.com

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#254

Post by candiodari »

RexetBlell wrote: post #223
rspeer wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How do insurance companies deal with this problem today? The legal system. It can put people in jail for fraud if necessary. Do you really want "smart" "contracts" to have the power to put people in jail? Really?

Not quite. You could make it a legally punishable offense to provide incorrect information to a weather oracle. The provider would be sent to jail for defrauding the oracle. I'm just saying that it's possible to solve the problem the same way that it is solved today.

Not really. The basic problem is "fractional reserve". Essentially an insurance company will only have about 5% of the money needed to pay out their policies (less in Europe, around 2.5%, and there's other variations across the world). (Even then significant amounts of that 5% would be either loans or shares, which are technically also loans. Most large insurers would go bankrupt if their risk assessments were off by 1%).

Since this is the exact thing that the double spending algorithm would check against this wouldn't be allowed, and therefore you can't have normal insurance in a blockchain world.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#255

Post by Jabanga »

joeyspn wrote: post #246
Jabanga wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying a vaporware blockchain with unproven claims has a more solid value proposition than Ethereum because its founder created two cryptocurrencies that combined have a market capitalization that equals 4% of Ethereum's. >Ethereum had one: "a cryptocurrency with a programming language beyond opcodes" It didn't have one until it had working code.

No, I'm saying that I trusted Ethereum would be built when it was a project idea although Vitalik was only a blogger, and that I'm trusting Daniel because hi has even better chances of delivering. And that is the reason why I bought in both crowsdsales. Your call...

You can trust EOS all you want, but that doesn't give it a "solid value proposition" that can be demonstrated. I'm simply disputing your choice of words, as it gives a misleading impression in my opinion.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#256

Post by Tomis02 »

Tomis02 wrote: post #162
chx wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could use Ethereum to create all kinds of interesting contracts for financial purposes, voting systems, insurance, or whatever else Perhaps you could but currently no one does. There's still not a single real world legal application that needs cryptocurrency. Much as with the pro-life debate (to name a bad phrase) or with global warming now renamed climate change (to name a good phrase) the name of the thing fr…

> global warming now renamed climate change Actually not true, the phrase 'climate change' has been coined more than half a century ago. The idea that there was a rebranding of the phenomenon is false beyond doubt, and actually hurtful to the process of acknowledging we have a big problem.

Here's some random link to support my claim, since some people in the HN crowd prefer to downvote instead of discussing what makes them uncomfortable.

https://thinkprogress.org/debunking-the-dumbest-denier-myth-...

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#257

Post by dahoramanodoceu »

flaviuspopan wrote: post #227

Yo songzme, I have to thank you for throwing this up because as a result, I've since stumbled on 3Blue1Brown and his awesome video on crypto and math in general. You linked his video the same day he posted it, and I couldn't have been happier to find something that explained it in laymen terms so well. I've been meaning to solidify my understanding for friends and family, so thanks for sharing! Cheers mate.

Link?

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#258

Post by dahoramanodoceu »

MichaelGG wrote: post #47
joeyspn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not until Nicki Minaj or Drake appear in a music video with a bitcoin necklace...

Certainly makes it easy to have a high-density, high-value object - much more dense than casino chips. Put the only copy of a wallet with tons of BTC on a microSD. Fun marketing gimmick, too. Put $100 worth on a bunch of micro SDs, spray 'em gold, toss em out at concerts or stuff. Would totally get headlines if someone put $1M worth on an SD, then laughed and ate it live on TV and said good luck finding it. Or tossed…

I'm super interested in making cryptocurrency printable and exchangable.

It would be cool to make coins out of bits of recycled computer chips and resin, and only allow the e-waste recyclers to mint them. The global poor become our new bankers. ='D

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#259

Post by chx »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #209
joosters wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name some. And then explain why a private blockchain, controlled by a single entity, or a group of companies that trust each other, is better than a database.

Blockchain has a lot of distinct advantages when things need a very clear audit trail. Auditors love the fact that a block can't be modified without recalculating all subsequent blocks. Of course, in a blockchain controlled by a single private entity, the entity could redo all the blocks, but that's not really the main concern. The concern is to try to prevent rogue individuals from modifying the ledger without detec…

Blimey! Here I thought any database server worth a rusty copper can do a detailed, queryable audit log / trail if that's what you need.

At least MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, DB2, Oracle surely can.

Re: What Is Ethereum?

#260

Post by 52-6F-62 »

DennisP wrote: post #59
52-6F-62 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been reading a lot about Ethereum, and I am really interested in blockchain tech -- but I also wonder about this. I am really curious as to whether it would be possible to develop new languages for the handling of smart contracts, or if it is possible to develop smart contracts (using a library or other resource) with existing, popular languages like c++, python, or javascript. I know web3 is already quite acces…

There are several languages that compile to the EVM. Also there's a somewhat speculative project to transition to a restricted version of WASM, which would let languages like C and Rust be compiled into smart contracts on Ethereum.

Interesting. All I knew of previously was Solidity, and it seemed... practical but limited. That said, I haven't done a deep dive yet.

Thanks

Post reply on HN