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Introducing A16Z Crypto

a16zcrypto.com

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Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#251

Post by AndrewKemendo »

wolfgke wrote: post #203
madeofpalk wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solve an actual, real life problem. All I see are Long Island Ice Tea Blockchain Corp. and Walmat saying that they're using blockchain to help their supply chain (whatever that means). The reality is is that Blockchain is no longer new. Compare it to iPhone - they both roughly came out at the same time, yet we're still having the same conversations - "What problem does Blockchain solve" - while the iPhone found its p…

> The reality is is that Blockchain is no longer new. Compare it to iPhone - they both roughly came out at the same time, yet we're still having the same conversations - "What problem does Blockchain solve" - while the iPhone found its place in the market. I still do not understand what kind of problem the iPhone solves (seriously!), while I can imagine quite well what kind of problem Bitcoin attempted to solve when…

I still do not understand what kind of problem the iPhone solves (seriously!)

I went from carrying a phone, an MP3 player and having a GPS and maps in my car to having one device and never having to stop for directions. That's just the most obvious ones.

Solves a lot of problems.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#253

Post by hobofan »

alehul wrote: post #102
douglaswlance wrote: post #75

Would it be possible to build a consensus algorithm for factual information? Sort of a decentralized fact-checker system

That seems like it would be very trivial to game, and additionally while facts are hard to confirm, a consensus of users who are biased and relatively uneducated on the topic would do a particularly bad job anyway. The best similar use case I can imagine is building a system is to evaluate how much of the media is in agreement on a given topic, and use that to combat fake news. If a similar headline isn't found elsew…

> a consensus of users who are biased and relatively uneducated on the topic would do a particularly bad job anyway

That's why you build the system with an incentive scheme with the contributors having something at stake, that over time weeds out the incompetent contributors, similarly to a PoS scheme.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#254

Post by Findeton »

madeofpalk wrote: post #53
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

> It's distributed trust. That's the problem it solves. It's incredibly cool technology. That solves a specific problem. That's still not it. "Distributed Trust" isn't a problem, its a trait. What actual problem is solved by distributed trust?

I'll tell you the problem. The problem is the government. You can't and shouldn't trust the government, but nevertheless the government is forcing everyone to use their government-issued currency.

Yes, I know US Gov is not like Venezuela, they are not printing money like there's no tomorrow, but they still do stupid shit and try to control the economy. Crypto at least gives you money that is not issued by the government. Of course, governments can try to control it, like they do with everything else, at least through taxes etc.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#255

Post by bramjans »

madeofpalk wrote: post #208
spunker540 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about “I want to buy a house without needing a bank as the middle man” or “I want to transact online without needing a credit card company intermediary taking fees” or “I want to cheaply send money to my family across the globe” or “I want to diversify with an asset that is truly global and not easily printable by some central government” or “my country’s currency is inflating like crazy and there arent enough us…

You have the cash to buy a house without a bank? Go ahead. You don't need blockchain for that. Online transactions without fees? Bitcoin still has fees. I send money overseas cheaply, easily and instantly all the time. Without Blockchain.

What service do you use if I may ask?

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#256

Post by speedplane »

Findeton wrote: post #254
madeofpalk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's distributed trust. That's the problem it solves. It's incredibly cool technology. That solves a specific problem. That's still not it. "Distributed Trust" isn't a problem, its a trait. What actual problem is solved by distributed trust?

I'll tell you the problem. The problem is the government. You can't and shouldn't trust the government, but nevertheless the government is forcing everyone to use their government-issued currency. Yes, I know US Gov is not like Venezuela, they are not printing money like there's no tomorrow, but they still do stupid shit and try to control the economy. Crypto at least gives you money that is not issued by the governm…

You have to trust someone, at some point. HTTPS/SSL relies on a distributed trust system. Even with crypto, you have to trust the developers that created the protocol and the consortium of groups that operate it.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#257

Post by pdpi »

mgummelt wrote: post #196
pdpi wrote: post #15

If you’re an insider, there’s a somewhat big technical mistake in there that kind of undermines their credibility. > Blockchain computers are new types of computers where the unique capability is trust between users, developers, and the platform itself. Trusting somebody implies they’re in a position to hurt you, which makes it undesirable in a secure system. Unfortunately, trustless systems tend to be cumbersome and…

What are you saying the mistake is?

The “unique capability” of nakamoto consensus is the exact opposite of trust between parties — it’s that it operates without trust.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#258

Post by asdf_asdf_889 »

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

If blockchain (not Bitcoin necessarily) adds "cheaper" to any of its use cases then it's just as legitimate as most Silicon Valley startups.

Uber is cheaper taxis. AirBnB is cheaper hotel rooms. Are these ponzi schemes? Maybe, but they create jobs and benefit the consumer at the expense of entrenched institutional players, which I would say is a good thing.

Payments is a huge one. Bitcoin didn't solve it because it's slow. There's a new generation of chains (mostly PoS, not PoW) that may solve it. Maybe it's gen 4 or 5. Eventually the technology will catch up.

What about PayPal that's trustless? Millions (billions?) of people rely on PayPal to take payments and there are plenty of stories where those people have lost their money without recourse. An on-chain PayPal would be game changing and a lot more fair than the alternatives.

What about voting that can't be tampered with? Yeah, that's not game changing. /s

Blockchain is a promising but immature technology. Like all technologies when they start.

The tech world, despite all of its benefits, is doing a fantastic (in a bad way) job of consolidating power towards the top. Time and time again we see that there are really no benevolent dictators (remember when everyone trusted Google and Facebook?). Blockchain has the potential to balance that out.

What I really like about blockchain is it's going to progress regardless of what you think about. It simply does not care that you don't think it's a good idea. It doesn't care if it threatens banks or governments.

It progresses by everyone acting in their own self interest. But the end result has the potential to deconsolidate power. When has that ever been the case in human history?

Most of the people I encounter who don't like crypto are the ones who are angry that they didn't buy BTC back in the day. Well, guess what? You didn't miss anything. Things are just getting started. Do your research and find something you think may be promising (or enable promising tech) and invest in it.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#259

Post by xmly »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #157
endlessvoid94 wrote: post #29

The skepticism of blockchain technology is borne out of a lack of specific problems it solves. Which happens to also be the bedrock of the conventional startup wisdom -- value derived from solving a problem or exploiting an opportunity. So much of the blockchain hype is focused purely on the technology and the valuation of the tokens / coins. Not the problem it solves. It's distributed trust. That's the problem it so…

> I would love to know which societal problems can be reduced to a distributed trust problem. Election fraud.

How? Blockchain can not verify the truth of the input unless it generates the data by itself.

Re: Introducing A16Z Crypto

#260

Post by xmly »

Blockchain technology itself is not that novel. All the technologies it used have already been there for a while, even the PoW. But after reading all the arguments and discussions, my opinion is that blockchain simply reflects the human's desire for a more transparent, secure and fair IT systems.

Current IT systems work, just it is not transparent, so people do not know whether it is doing as it claims.

Since there are strong requirements, there will be one revolution. Imagine if the government adopts such transparent and fair system, who cares whether it is centralized or not?

So blockchain is simply a strong desire.

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