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Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

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Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#31
post #6

Cryptocurrencies, and especially Ethereum, are truly novel innovations in computer science that cross many academic disciplines. The linked example is a great write-up. It’s sad that there is a vocal group, especially on HN, that knee-jerk hates everything blockchain related and wishes with their entire being for it to fail. However, I think smart contracts are fascinating and wish more people would keep an open mind…

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

From another thread:

“Code bounties are a great use-case for cryptocurrency.”

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18226000

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

From another thread: “Code bounties are a great use-case for cryptocurrency.” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18226000

Why?

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term “Smart contracts” (Ethereum/EOS/hyperledger) is often used with wild claims for supply chains and cross border business deals, but why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? Smart contracts can’t even do anything interesting without a trusted source of data input. The threat model and legal questions of smart contracts are another huge deterrent for most businesses. Latency, throughput, sec…

> why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? I think it is only important for a business when public trust is important. For example, a news agency could publish its articles in a public blockchain so the original article and any updates to that article would forever be auditable from that blockchain.

Why? News sites don’t even care about maintaining an edit history. They just make minor fixes and leave editors notes when they fix things. News on the block chain is not something anyone wants.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why you would be anti- something so new at all. To me it’s preposterous that you would evaluate a new technology based on how many problems it and only it can solve. Don’t you get that new technology has an incubation period where its fundamental challenges must be overcome? What problem could early steam powered cars solve that horses couldn’t solve better? I doubt the earliest ones performed bett…

There are so many advantages to early cars, are you kidding me? They don’t eat hay and shit for one. Is there anything that your argument wouldn’t work for? Do you truly have to wait a decade before making any judgements about the hype around a technology? When will we be able to say if smart contracts have been overhyped?

They eat coal/gasoline which is probably more expensive. Also they worked on almost no terrain at all compared to horses and constantly broke down.

The only reason they would even make sense to pursue would be because of how successful the train was. Similar to how this bitcoin stuff makes more sense when you look at the success of the internet/paypal/amazon.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From another thread: “Code bounties are a great use-case for cryptocurrency.” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18226000

Why?

Without reading, a use case could be to sprinkle some private keys in your “secure” code and “secure” database.

If it gets leaked/hacked, there will be temptation to cash it out. Follow it and get quick notification that your security has been breached.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

I don’t understand why you would be anti- something so new at all. To me it’s preposterous that you would evaluate a new technology based on how many problems it and only it can solve. Don’t you get that new technology has an incubation period where its fundamental challenges must be overcome? What problem could early steam powered cars solve that horses couldn’t solve better? I doubt the earliest ones performed bett…

> Especially for something as truly bizarre as Ethereum, why write it off at this early stage?

If a new invention is truly transformative, it will thrive even after long doubt. At this stage the public, forced demonstration of cryptocurrencies deserve to be criticized no matter it will be successful or not. (I don't want to criticize general cryptocurrency researchers of course, because, well, they are just studying.)

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#37
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally thought I had an open mind about it but it keeps over promising and under delivering (the most extreme example is the rhetoric surrounding the DAO on the ethereum platform). It's undoubtedly a cool technology but at a certain point it's hard to muster any excitement anymore.

That's true of just about any technological innovation though. Even look at recent examples with space, self-driving cars, etc. I'd posture that we are currently somewhere in the Trough of Disillusionment [0] and that it'll another year or two before there's more mass use/adoption. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle

Hype cycle suffers from a survivor bias. You cannot use hype cycle to determine if the "innovation" will be eventually successful, as failed "innovations" may also follow the first half of the hype cycle and then fall off.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term “Smart contracts” (Ethereum/EOS/hyperledger) is often used with wild claims for supply chains and cross border business deals, but why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? Smart contracts can’t even do anything interesting without a trusted source of data input. The threat model and legal questions of smart contracts are another huge deterrent for most businesses. Latency, throughput, sec…

> why would any real business want to use a public blockchain? I think it is only important for a business when public trust is important. For example, a news agency could publish its articles in a public blockchain so the original article and any updates to that article would forever be auditable from that blockchain.

So what if a story or bit of information has to be retracted by law?

I second my sibling, newspapers have no interest in transparency.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Without reading, a use case could be to sprinkle some private keys in your “secure” code and “secure” database. If it gets leaked/hacked, there will be temptation to cash it out. Follow it and get quick notification that your security has been breached.

You could just use any free kind of canary instead, access to traps is easy to notice without any need for a complex external dependency or wasting big amounts of money.

Re: Priority Queue on Ethereum with a 15 ETH Bug Bounty

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be anti-blockchain, but I have yet to come across any problems that are solved better with a blockchain than with any other traditional technology - except for the original one, a distributed electronic currency.

I don’t understand why you would be anti- something so new at all. To me it’s preposterous that you would evaluate a new technology based on how many problems it and only it can solve. Don’t you get that new technology has an incubation period where its fundamental challenges must be overcome? What problem could early steam powered cars solve that horses couldn’t solve better? I doubt the earliest ones performed bett…

I am not anti-blockchain, there are applications where it makes sense. But 90% of the time when I hear about a blockchain related application its a regular application which just so happens to use the blockchain as storage because its a buzzword.

It feels like the world suddenly discovered the hammer, and now we think everything is a nail

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