Live data from Hacker News

AWS and Blockchain

tbray.org

521–530 of 724 posts

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#521
post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A specific application I'm working on right now involves using Crypto for direct payments between software Licensees (end users) and the App developer. Presently, there is a high risk of loss of income (see: every small individual Russian or Iranian software developer. Their families are now suffering because their income has been shut off, even though this is a textbook example of "Group Punishment" under the Geneva…

In my opinion, removing the last paragraph would improve your post immensely. It would be a shame if the post got downvoted to oblivion because of it.

I agree.

But, my last 30 years of laissez faire has resulted in forums like HN becoming toxic with smug "Crypto is a solution in search of a problem" and "told ya Crypto was all a scam, yer dumb" Bros, yelling low-research insults without anyone pushing back on them...

So, I'll leave it. If only the "Eternal September" crowd is allowed to be comfortable here (because we all just "let them have their opinion", as usual), we know what happens.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#522
post #167

Blockchain was invented to solve one particular problem: distributed consensus on a sequence of transactions, where the choice of which transaction to include from a set of conflicting transactions is irrelevant. The latter property here is key to understanding where blockchain is useful. It was created to solve the "double spend problem", ie. two transitions that spend the same coin but send it to different recipien…

I used to think this, but working with DeFi on Ethereum for a while I've realized the killer feature is actually permissionless composability. Which is why enterprise block chains make little sense. Having one neutral platform, controlled by no one, with standardized API's and immutable open programs that anyone can permissionlessly build on - is amazing. We've never had this before, and it's incredible how fast the…

The issue with this story is this:

Governments will not protect something they have no control over. When they regulate it, that control will come in. Some of the things you speak about will disappear.

Kinda like if you have a wife and you care about her if she is loyal. But once she cheats you don't care anymore. Similar situation between unregulated financial systems and the government.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this, but working with DeFi on Ethereum for a while I've realized the killer feature is actually permissionless composability. Which is why enterprise block chains make little sense. Having one neutral platform, controlled by no one, with standardized API's and immutable open programs that anyone can permissionlessly build on - is amazing. We've never had this before, and it's incredible how fast the…

It is a neat property but lines like this trip me up: "it's incredible how fast the DeFi space is moving because of it". The crypto/dapp/defi/etc spaces have supposedly been "moving incredibly fast" and "all the smartest people are working on it" for ~5 years now. That's a long time to be moving really fast without really getting anywhere. Where's the payoff? To me this space feels like a solution without a real prob…

I feel the "value" of DeFi only appears once all the scams have broken - and then only if there is actual value in trading crypto beyond just buying drugs or whatever people used to do with bitcoin before it was "popular".

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you see current regulations change to make this all fit, i.e., what's your roadmap there?

That's unclear. From a game theory perspective you don't want to be the government that stifles your country by restricting access to a financial system everyone else adopts, so I think many are waiting to see how that plays out.

[deleted]

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I feel like the tide is finally turning on this. The Ethereum VM (and its derivatives) is one of the biggest innovations in recent history. I've been yelling at the top of my lungs why NFTs have revolutionized digital art and happy to see the top comment nails it - a zero trust verification environment makes it possible to sell it on an open global market. This just wasn't there before. Blockchains are use…

Have nfts revolutionised digital art? I haven't seen it. Stable diffusion is potentially revolutionary, but nfts seem like last years fad.

You guys are never going to get it, its hilarious.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#526
The notion of smart contracts might have a perfect use-case when it comes to setting up and maintaining infrastructure on AWS. E.g. something like "I want an Amazon RDS PostgreSQL instance with such and such specs. full daily backups and 99.999% uptime and I'm will to pay $xxxx for it". From there solution providers "bid" on the contract and are paid automatically on the basis of meeting the requirements of the contract, the determination of whether requirements were met also being automated.

The idea is something that grew out of blockchain platforms - Decentralized autonomous organizations - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organ... - this doesn't actually require a crypto currency backing it but some kind of smart contract would be required.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#527
I used to follow the conventional wisdom (there won’t be wide base adoption of cryptocurrencies, but blockchain tech will be useful in a variety of other technologies). I never really looked to hard into blockchain or the work being done in the industry. But based on the various crypto firms collapsing and the fact that there is no place that is making any meaningful progress with blockchain at this point, I’m at the point where I’ll dismiss any crypto / blockchain project reflexively. Seems like it’s been a great way to get funding for those clued in and taking advantage of the hype.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#528
post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what "permissionless composability" means. "Permissionless" isn't even a word (without permission or permission-less to be pedantic), and I can think of several overlapping contexts that those words could be meaningful in finance and/or software. The problem is the language you're using sounds like bullshit.

Ah, sorry! Mea culpa. Permissioned vs. permissionless systems has been used for so long in my circles that I thought it was a thing... Even "DeFi" systems may not be permissionless, though. It's just that the permissions are visible constraints (ie. in the code) -- not just randos deciding to deplatform you because, you know, "reasons". This is an emerging risk to eg. Ethereum. Now, most "Staking" validators are "OFA…

Just a meta note, what I'm saying is that you need to work on your communication. This reply is logically disjoint and succumbs to the problem that I was mentioning - the use of imprecise and confusing language or jargon. If you combine that with jumps to conclusions and pretend certain things are self-evident, it sounds like bullshit. It's how hucksters talk.

I didn't say that what you were talking about was bullshit. I said the language you used made it sound like it.

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#529
post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The EVM specifically gives you a Turing complete financial system and, hence, probably a complete expression of operations on financial structures. Which is nice, but doesn't solve any problems that actually exist. That is the running theme with all of these crypto/blockchain/"defi" projects, because they are created by tech people who don't understand the domain. They just start building all of these things that s…

Can you clarify what is "solving a problem that actually exist" means? I just looked around and I'm not sure I have anything that solves an actual problem. Like the HN right now, it doesn't solve anything, right. In the morning I bought stuff on Amazon, but it also doesn't solve any real problem. Not sure AWS is solving anything since we can rent servers directly. I used Zoom for a call, but it solves nothing, I gues…

> Like the HN right now, it doesn't solve anything, right.

What do you mean? It definitely solves a problem of information sharing, spreading, foster discussion, and creates some networking which definitely do add value, it might not be instant but there are various stories on HN about how HN affected their lives. Be with founders meeting, people getting ideas for starting products and so on. That's tangible value, even if a little abstract.

> In the morning I bought stuff on Amazon, but it also doesn't solve any real problem.

Again, I don't understand, you bought something expecting it to do something for you, solving an actual problem. If not it's just pure consumerism in a way that might even be pathological, buying stuff for no reason at all is extremely bizarre.

Solving something means to actually provide an economical value, an outcome with tangible impact in the real world. People sharing knowledge and information provides tangible value in the real world. People buying stuff they want to use for a hobby, profession, entertainment, etc., have a tangible impact in the real world.

You are going full post-modernism on what "value" or "solving a problem" means without directing the conversation to your point, you are almost completely paraphrasing SBF's words from this interview [1]:

> Let me give you sort of like a really toy model of it, which I actually think has a surprising amount of legitimacy for what farming could mean. You know, where do you start? You start with a company that builds a box and in practice this box, they probably dress it up to look like a life-changing, you know, world-altering protocol that's gonna replace all the big banks in 38 days or whatever. Maybe for now actually ignore what it does or pretend it does literally nothing. It's just a box. So what this protocol is, it's called ‘Protocol X,’ it's a box, and you take a token. You can take ethereum, you can put it in the box and you take it out of the box. Alright so, you put it into the box and you get like, you know, an IOU for having put it in the box and then you can redeem that IOU back out for the token.

> So far what we've described is the world's dumbest ETF or ADR or something like that. It doesn't do anything but let you put things in it if you so choose. And then this protocol issues a token, we'll call it whatever, ‘X token.’ And X token promises that anything cool that happens because of this box is going to ultimately be usable by, you know, governance vote of holders of the X tokens. They can vote on what to do with any proceeds or other cool things that happen from this box. And of course, so far, we haven't exactly given a compelling reason for why there ever would be any proceeds from this box, but I don't know, you know, maybe there will be, so that's sort of where you start.

> And then you say, alright, well, you’ve got this box and you’ve got X token and the box protocol declares, or maybe votes by on-chain governance, or, you know, something like that, that what they're gonna do is they are going to take half of all the X tokens that were re-minted. Maybe two thirds will, two thirds will offer X tokens, and they're going to give them away for free to whoever uses the box. So anyone who goes, takes some money, puts in the box, each day they're gonna airdrop, you know, 1% of the X token pro rata amongst everyone who's put money in the box. That's for now, what X token does, it gets given away to the box people. And now what happens? Well, X token has some market cap, right? It's probably not zero. Let say it's, you know, a $20 million market …

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/sam-bankm...

Re: AWS and Blockchain

#530
post #366

Only thing annoying the the flood of negative articles only pop up after a crash. All that VC money made a lot of people afraid to look like fools by speaking up against the tech. Where was he (not personally, as a symbol of tech bloggers) at the height of the bubble?

Speaking up?

https://mobile.twitter.com/timbray/status/963115533825527808

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2021/06/26/Shorting-...

Post reply on HN