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Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

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Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#41

Post by gjulianm »

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…

How much of that usage and market cap is actual usage and how much is financial speculation?

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#42

Post by Ekaros »

tromp wrote: post #27
lima wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone (except Bitcoin) agree that Proof of Stake is the way to move forward. Even Ethereum is migrating to pure PoS consensus. This solves the environmental aspect, thankfully.

Hundreds of PoW altcoins disagree. PoS is not a coin distribution method either.

How many of these hundreds of PoW altcoins are used for making payments for real products and services? Let's say single transaction a day over reasonable period?

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#43

Post by dschuler »

andreaorru wrote: post #18
aylmao wrote: post #5

To the scalability issues section I'd add the environmental aspect. It has already been reported that by some estimates Bitcoin today consumes more energy than Argentina, and that's with an estimated 1 million active wallets per day. Argentina is home to about 50 million people. This means that in order to have Bitcoin serve as the daily currency for all of Argentina's 50 million people would at least 50-tuple its en…

The energy argument has been debunked over and over again. I recommend you read this thread by Yassine Elmanjdra (analyst at ARK Invest): https://twitter.com/yassineARK/status/1360343382556483587?s=...

The tweets you linked to link to another source [0], and are mostly paraphrased from that source, which makes the following argument:

"Does Bitcoin justify its energy usage? Does it add enough value? So far, the market says it does."

That doesn't "debunk" any argument about energy use, it only tries to justify it.

[0] https://www.lynalden.com/misconceptions-about-bitcoin/

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#44

Post by andreaorru »

bondarchuk wrote: post #28

Is this what Gell-Mann amnesia feels like? I happen to be a bit into cryptocurrency, and day after day I see these super basic surface-level takes on blockchain get posted here and even upvoted to the top spot. Are the other popular submissions here, on programming languages, the internet, entrepeneurship and what have you of similar low quality, but I just don't have the experience in those fields to realize it? Thi…

I'm having your same exact doubts. The quality of the conversation about cryptocurrencies here on HN is abysmal. Misinformation, or outdated information, is rampant.

Maybe that's the case for everything else that is discussed here, but I just don't have enough domain knowledge to be able to tell...

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#45

Post by genericacct »

floo wrote: post #37
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…

Bitcoin has all of the problems listed in the article and is, arguably, not yet providing the social value that blockchain could. Not sure how a high market cap is a counter argument to that.

Especially considering market cap is a totally made up number and if everybody tried to get out at once they would get a fraction of a fraction of it. (1) But it's pointless to tell this to a cryptofreak because they're so heavily invested in it they make zealots look reasonable.

(1) not to mention the fact that as soon as there is volatility exchange sites go down, even the bigger ones.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#46

Post by gjulianm »

bondarchuk wrote: post #28

Is this what Gell-Mann amnesia feels like? I happen to be a bit into cryptocurrency, and day after day I see these super basic surface-level takes on blockchain get posted here and even upvoted to the top spot. Are the other popular submissions here, on programming languages, the internet, entrepeneurship and what have you of similar low quality, but I just don't have the experience in those fields to realize it? Thi…

This happens a lot in topics that the HN community is interested in but not very knowledgeable in general. You can usually trust the top voted articles in programming and entrepeneurship because a lot of people here know about that. But, for example, in maths and music (I happen to know something about those) I see a lot of really bad articles and takes being upvoted.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#47

Post by rini17 »

As the recent GameStop events have shown, it's uncertain who owns how many shares, settlement is slow and error/bezzle-prone, etc. etc. Plus I venture to guess that HFT algorithms do consume country-level amounts of energy as well. Unlike blockchain, it's not surplus electricity from renewables in faraway places. And all that energy does not even improve the whole ledger security.

But hey, unlike the filthy blockchain, it works!/s

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#48

Post by andreaorru »

dschuler wrote: post #43
andreaorru wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The energy argument has been debunked over and over again. I recommend you read this thread by Yassine Elmanjdra (analyst at ARK Invest): https://twitter.com/yassineARK/status/1360343382556483587?s=...

The tweets you linked to link to another source [0], and are mostly paraphrased from that source, which makes the following argument: "Does Bitcoin justify its energy usage? Does it add enough value? So far, the market says it does." That doesn't "debunk" any argument about energy use, it only tries to justify it. [0] https://www.lynalden.com/misconceptions-about-bitcoin/

Disingenuous. That's not the only argument that is being presented.

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#49

Post by lima »

bondarchuk wrote: post #28

Is this what Gell-Mann amnesia feels like? I happen to be a bit into cryptocurrency, and day after day I see these super basic surface-level takes on blockchain get posted here and even upvoted to the top spot. Are the other popular submissions here, on programming languages, the internet, entrepeneurship and what have you of similar low quality, but I just don't have the experience in those fields to realize it? Thi…

> Are the other popular submissions here, on programming languages, the internet, entrepeneurship and what have you of similar low quality, but I just don't have the experience in those fields to realize it?

Yes, absolutely. There's some niche topics that I happen to know a lot about, and the top stories and comments tend to be very superficial and/or plain wrong.

On the other hand, there's usually someone around to call out the inaccuracies :)

Re: Why blockchain is not yet working (2018)

#50

Post by RurouniK »

floo wrote: post #37
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…

Bitcoin has all of the problems listed in the article and is, arguably, not yet providing the social value that blockchain could. Not sure how a high market cap is a counter argument to that.

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.
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