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Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

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Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#391
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post #388

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Identity is a huge topic itself with lots of projects doing fundamental research and experiments but essentially if it's a traditional physical government then it would work like it does today where you would use your government secured ID to vote. Not much would change. If it's a digital government then it would probably be using an identity based on built up history of actions and financial settlements and connecti…

> If it's a digital government then it would probably be using an identity based on built up history of actions and financial settlements and connections to other highly verified accounts. Not sure if I understand this correctly. You mean, an account will be considered "genuine", if it had a long enough history of activity?

Sort of like a credit score matched with landlords who vouch that you rented from them before. The longer that history the harder it is to fake and also the harder it is to just be the same person with multiple accounts. These systems usually have some component of a social graph where people will interact with and vouch for other people and having more and higher quality connections (more verified, connected to someone you know personally is real) gives you a higher legitimacy rating. It's usually up to the organization to set the minimum bar of how verified someone is to be considered unique.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#392
post #302

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This is an artifact of insecure communications systems and poor operational security. Making people shuffle physical paper around, especially considering things like pandemics and climate change, is a temporary workaround, not a long-term solution.

Given that it had been working this way for hundreds of years, how is it temporary?

I imagine, barring an extinction event, that humans will be using digital communications systems and cryptography for many tens of thousands of years.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#393

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Fidelity Investments brokerage and cash management accounts have a limit of $1000 a day, and I have four of them, so I can get $4000. I recently learned that some Chase Bank ATMs inside branches used with Chase ATM cards can get $3000 in one transaction. I did it the first time a few days ago.

Any particular reason you need so much cash on hand?

What comes to my mind, is when you buy a boat or a motor second hand.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's so inconvinent about that? I assume you have to go into the lawyer's office anyways. A cheque is just a signed document telling your bank to transfer the money-if you're buying a house then a cheque is the least of the things you're going to have to sign. Was it just a normal cheque? (Not a certified cheque or money order, or anything special) if so many people will already have them on hand.

For $100k it had to be certified. And was a bunch of hoops to jump through to get them. Took like a week. Mind you this is Canada so things are likely different.

Fellow Canadian here, I did not have this experience.

The certified cheque was done in 20 minutes. All that was required was two pieces of photo id, producing the debit card and entering my pin to access the account.

This wasn't even my "home" branch, zero prior relationship with this branch and I walked into a random one on my way to work.

I'm guessing there are hoops to jump through if you're clearing out your entire bank account because it could be grounds of suspicious activity by the branch manager.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#395

> Because I’m a professional DeFi thought leader, I had never actually deployed a contract to Ethereum before. As a developer that uses the EVM quite often, this had me laughing out loud! That matches my experience with pretty much everyone! And yet there are still the people doing things I could never think of doing and doing it very quickly. I want to get to that place.

Curious what do you use the EVM for?

Sell shovels during a gold rush, just like I did for mobile apps a decade ago.

That turns into open source contributions in packages that affect far more than EVM.

And some truly lucrative knowledge and utility. Except people want to debate utility whereas nobody batted an eye at mobile even though people only use like 5 of the hundreds of apps they have. (People made fun of apps getting big checks but it was all in fun, or congratulated individuals developers making 5-6 figures from app stores, but mention a dapp on a blockchain and everyone looses their minds)

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#396
post #204
post #88

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> basically unusable for everyday transactions Why is this the acid test? Buying a coffee is a solved problem so why is blockchain tech expected to address this use case? > the endless stream of wallet provider hacks is not convincing anyone that it's secure Does the endless stream of point-of-sale and credit card hacks make you question the security of dollars, euros and yen?

> Why is this the acid test? Buying a coffee is a solved problem so why is blockchain tech expected to address this use case? Wait. If everyday transactions are not the use-case, then (excluding speculation and money laundering), what exactly is it?

Blockchain addresses the fundamental societal concern of trust. It addresses accountability and transparency, removes middlemen, and maybe down the road will provide a currency use case. Yes, it can act as currency but that is the use case with the worst odds.

When it comes to currency, your coffee is not the target right now. Getting rid of entrenched monopolistic behavior is the best first step: wire transfer fees, Western Union, transfers that take days to process, objectionable government-defined illegality, banks freezing your funds, etc.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#397
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You aren't (usually) wiring the money to the property owner. It goes to the title or escrow company processing the transaction. They get the money, execute the paperwork, and then transfer the money to the owner after everything is squared away.

What is the incentive to use an escrow instead of dealing with the owner directly? How do I know the escrow won't run away like a crow with my money and the house?

Not all the money goes to the home owner. Typically some goes to the bank for the mortgage, some to the buyers agent, some to the seller's agent, some to taxes/fees, and so on. The escrow/title company calculates all of this and ensures everyone gets their money.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll never happen on the supply chain because of all of the entities in the middle with zero desire to participate.

If they don't, they will be put out of business. Do you think if Walmart says "I will only buy from you if I am able to audit you and prove that your shrinkage is less than X%" they are just going to say "Opposite, sorry we can't do that."? Or if Amazon ever starts a blockchain-based certification system to crack down on counterfeit products, the legit distributors are not going to push down on all their suppliers? O…

This thinking belies a very simplistic view of a very complex supply chain.

Brands like Nike often don't touch their products after they produce the design.

Manufacturing, distribution, shipping, warehousing, sales are all handled by a massive web of smaller entities with long term contracts. Most of these businesses use very very old tech, and will actively resist change.

Its a chicken or egg problem too, since having half of your products on a blockchain is pretty much worthless, it's an all-or-nothing problem which makes it that much more of a massive undertaking.

I've studied this pretty extensively and honestly don't think it'll ever happen. At least unless the current paradigm of supply changes massively.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#399
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/05/homebuyers-are-falling-for-t... > Here’s how these scams usually go down: A thief hacks into a real estate or title company’s computer system and then studies the transactions, from the language used to the format of the wiring instructions. When the scammer strikes, he or she will often pose as someone from the real estate or titling company to instruct the buyer to wire funds to them…

Can't this be avoided simply by making sure the property owner gives you wiring instructions in person?

It's avoided by the companies involved taking 5 minutes to talk to each other when comuniticating instructions, and then holding the funds in escrow for a day before disbursing them.

But they don't care and they are not computer literate.

Re: Ethereum Is a Dark Forest

#400
post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or use public key cryptography, and have a verification signature that can only be signed by knowing a secret.

The scam here relies on someone having compromised the network of the company sending the instructions. In that situation, wouldn't you have to assume the intruder found the secret key?

The scam relies on absolutely insane system of financial institutions sending critical key information over email, instead of any controlled channel.
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