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Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

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Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#261

Post by selestify »

jakupovic wrote: post #89
Melting_Harps wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that's their point. There's a lot of discussion that 'banks will become obsolete with crypto' that forgets that banks are not the currency, they just manage it. If crypto becomes widespread banks will keep on existing, they'll just move to manage cryptocurrencies. > You just recreated consumer banking. While I personally detest the notion of such a model, and things like GME show why that is: I realized tha…

Been around this forum probably since it's inception and have noticed the same in regards to bitcoin. I mean the parent poster is saying there is no use for a technology that's been around for 12 years and underpins ~$1T of value. Reminds me of this quote copied from internet: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, ... and then they buy bitcoin Also noticed the same in regards to kubernet…

Seriously, the skepticism here convinces me that there’s still time to buy before everyone realizes what a good idea it is after all

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#262

Post by selestify »

loceng wrote: post #126
ignoramous wrote: post #112

I genuinely think HN is subject to what Clay Christensen put as "disruptive innovation" when it comes to Blockchain and friends (strange to say that for a community as opposed to a company). I understand that many on HN think of the many ICOs as Ponzi schemes, and other tech (like identity, DBs, VPNs, apps, or even alternate WWW) built on top as smokes and mirrors; but the industry being built around it is very real…

That is speculation at the moment, a lovely fantasy to imagine to come to fruition for any technology; a market cap that has reached $1 trillion including price manipulation, I'm unsure it warrants that valuation - and arguably it's not simply that high due to price manipulation. I do believe blockchain could help us solve some fundamental problems - but only if it's tied to real trust and democratic processes. Bitco…

It’s not a Ponzi scheme any more than any other investment is a Ponzi scheme. Once 50% of society buys gold, who’s going to realize their gains? Except for gold speculators, the point isn’t necessarily to just realize gains, the point is to own an asset whose value is guaranteed not to disappear, even if it fluctuates.

Granted, gold has a stronger guarantee than Bitcoin as of now. But that doesn’t make Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#263

Post by selestify »

space_rock wrote: post #174
hanniabu wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By your logic the stock market a scam because of penny stocks.

Penny stock is a utility token redeemable for an unproduced good?

Penny stock is a utility token representing governance in a company as well as the privilege of taking its profits — much like crypto governance tokens are.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#264

Post by selestify »

smartties wrote: post #58
RurouniK wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market cap is a counter argument because it shows the trust people, and lately corporations put into Bitcoin as a store of wealth and a hedge against inflation. The market cap proves that bitcoin/blockchain/cryptocurrency enthusiasts put their money where their mouth is.

Market cap means nothing. I can create 10^32 coins out of thin air, sell one coin at 1$ to one customer. And the next thing I have is a coin with higher marketcap than bitcoin.

To get recognition as the coin with the highest market cap, you’d need to have it actually traded on an exchange. How many people on the open market are going to buy your coin for $1 on an exchange? There you go, your coin is worthless and has a market cap of roughly zero as determine by the open market exchange.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#265

Post by llaolleh »

It seems like most of these problems are technical in nature, which can be solved with better silicon and design schemes.

I was very anti-blockchain for a while, but if you zoom out it makes a whole lot of sense.

The revolution that happened in finance was double entry bookkeeping. To me, the logical next step is to have everyone keep a immutable tamper proof, copy of the ledger synced, in agreement, all the time.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#266

Post by UncleMeat »

hanniabu wrote: post #180
UncleMeat wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it already a thing my grandmother can use? She has a working bank account but doesn't understand that minimizing gmail doesn't delete here emails.

The UX is getting better every year. It's like saying the internet was doomed to fail because your grandma couldn't use it in 1990

I'm not saying that bitcoin is doomed to fail for this reason. I'm saying that "key escrow already exists" is a bad argument.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#267

Post by TomSwirly »

StavrosK wrote: post #242
zaphar wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Bitcoin keeps moving the goalposts. First it's a currency, next it's a trustless auditable log. All I need for trustless is auditability. All I need for auditability is a public Merkle Tree. I fail to see what actual real world value the PoW and associated approaches actually add.

> You keep moving the goalposts [...] What's a better alternative? > Actually Bitcoin keeps moving the goalposts. Okay.

If you have a rebuttal, let's see it. Mockery is childish.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#268

Post by StavrosK »

TomSwirly wrote: post #267
StavrosK wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You keep moving the goalposts [...] What's a better alternative? > Actually Bitcoin keeps moving the goalposts. Okay.

If you have a rebuttal, let's see it. Mockery is childish.

Still waiting for your rebuttal first.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#269

Post by selestify »

hahahahe wrote: post #105
RurouniK wrote: post #29

Bitcoin has been running non-stop for the past 12 years, used by tens of millions of people,has a market cap of 1 Trillion and all that while protecting the human rights around the world: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/ldyy7s/bitcoin_is_... But even if you are clueless enough to think that Bitcoin and blockchain isn't working at least you should appreciate all the breakthroughs in cryptography like Zero Kn…

Yeah they sure have. Running GPUs endlessly to execute thousands of transactions per day. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds? You can literally run a pub-sub equivalent of BTC for 1/1,000,000,000 of the cost involved in crypto and a million times more performant while preserving all the benefits touted in cryptos. The reason why we don’t have this isn’t because we can’t. It’s because the financial institutions…

> You can literally run a pub-sub equivalent of BTC for 1/1,000,000,000 of the cost involved in crypto and a million times more performant while preserving all the benefits touted in cryptos

Explain how pubsub is impervious to the operator of the pubsub shutting down, due to governmental pressure or otherwise.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#270

Post by selestify »

ezoe wrote: post #110

I think price volatility is the only reason it's not working as a normal currency. Right now, these blockchain currencies are traded just like expensive wine, art or gold bar. It's a speculative money game. We can't use wine or art to buy some food for today. Most people don't even run the full node themselves. They relies on somebody else's node. In good term, they are investing, in other words, they are gambling. I…

> The first P2P boom invented a lot of practical services. File sharing, web hosting, audio and video streaming, video chat and all.

Have you looked into all the new developments with Ethereum and defi?

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