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Final Steps

blog.ethereum.org

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Re: Final Steps

#61

Post by drcode »

carterehsmith wrote: post #60
Hexayurt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi. I'm Vinay Gupta, the release coordinator for Ethereum. I'll tell you exactly what Ethereum is: a blockchain for storing code. Bitcoin stores transactions, Ethereum stores programs. Those programs have persistent state on the blockchain and are capable of moving value around the system, hence you can build games, financial instruments and so on. These things are called "smart contracts" for historical reasons - no…

>> How's that? Clearer? Not at all. We have been storing programs, building games etc for some 40 or 50 or 70 years now, without Ethereum. So, how does Ethereum does it better/cheaper than the existing solutions, is what people above are asking.

Right, the problem with Vinay's explanation is that it requires people to have deep understanding of blockchains already. I'd recommend to anyone who wants to understand ethereum to first perform some Bitcoin transactions, to get an intuitive feel for the appeal of blockchains.

But the big difference is that programs in ethereum run on the "protocol level" not the hardware level. This means that correct execution of all programs is a necessary step before two ethereum nodes can talk to each other, this gives very high guarantees of correct and transparent execution beyond what other systems allow.

Re: Final Steps

#62

Post by groby_b »

So, it seems to be "computational currency". Is it too much to ask that something that'd like to be a currency manages to have proper SSL certs?

(Both Chrome and FF reject the issuer certificate)

Re: Final Steps

#63

Post by woah »

tombh wrote: post #4

Just to chime in with the obligatory: sounds-interesting-but-for-the-love-of-turing-it's-infuriatingly-hard-to-find-a-basic-description-of-what-it-actually-is.

This post was not written for you. It is for people who already know what ethereum is and possibly backed it or are running the testnet. You can't expect every article on any technical topic to contain a full explanation of the underlying tech. Your comment is like saying "this react.js tutorial sounds intriguing, but please for the love of god can they tell what this JavaScript thing is?".

Re: Final Steps

#64

Post by detaro »

woah wrote: post #63
tombh wrote: post #4

Just to chime in with the obligatory: sounds-interesting-but-for-the-love-of-turing-it's-infuriatingly-hard-to-find-a-basic-description-of-what-it-actually-is.

This post was not written for you. It is for people who already know what ethereum is and possibly backed it or are running the testnet. You can't expect every article on any technical topic to contain a full explanation of the underlying tech. Your comment is like saying "this react.js tutorial sounds intriguing, but please for the love of god can they tell what this JavaScript thing is?".

What makes you think that he didn't look further than this post?

Really pointless comment, especially after others a) have echoed the sentiment and b) have provided answers.

Re: Final Steps

#65

Post by saganus »

natrius wrote: post #56
patrickaljord wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you find me an inventor in history of a technology that actually changed humanity who made such a claim before it did so? Did Google claim or even knew their search engine would change the world? Did Apple? Did Facebook? Nope. You should focus your message on why your tech is useful, not that it might save humanity, most startups don't change humanity, heck, most startups fail. So it's a bit premature to claim…

Ethereum isn't my project. I build apps on top of it, like Augur. I'm claiming that work other people did will be pretty huge for humanity, which I consider pretty acceptable. What questions do you have about how Ethereum is useful? I attempted to answer that question, but appreciate pointers that would make it more effective.

I think that after explaining a somewhat complex subject like how Ethereum works, you perhaps could followup with a clear example on how Ethereum solves a problem that other technologies would have a hard time doing.

Maybe you can talk how Ethereum can be useful for, if I understood the platform correctly, buying/selling a car by means of a colored coin.

Or maybe you can explain how it competes for buying/Selling money Bitcoin-style, but with the specific advanteges pointed out (e.g. you don't have to download the blockchain as far as I know, etc).

Edit: After going through a few explanations, this one came up as the one I would think of using to someone that already knows Bitcoin:

Blockchain technology, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto with the proof-of-concept implementation of a simple value transfer system known as bitcoin, represents the best digital system we have (after the internet itself) for administering multi-user interactions without any need for centralized coordination or oversight. Effectively, a decentralized system is its own authority for enforcing the rules (e.g. 'you can only spend your money once' in bitcoin, or 'whatever rule you programmed in to your smart contract' in Ethereum)

So Bitcoin enforces a very specific rule, Ethereum generalizes by letting you specify complex rules and even composite rules on top of that.

Re: Final Steps

#66

Post by convulsive »

drcode wrote: post #28
chipsy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ether is a "computational currency." You earn it by running computations on your computer. You spend it by purchasing processing power on other people's computers. The computation is software defined, so that customized "distributed apps" are possible. This is my outsiders understanding. I think there are potentially a lot of things that could be gotten wrong here - from the specific implementation and security measu…

Some important properties of ethereum: 1. A program written in ethereum can execute code at a predetermined point in the future, and there is as close to 100% certainty as possible that the code will execute as written (i.e. as long as a single ethereum user remains in the world at that date everybody's code is guaranteed to run exactly as written, even if it involves moving money between accounts.) 2. All computer p…

>4. Program authors are forced to explicitly document ahead of time all situations in which their program code might be modified in the future

Can you point me to a resource that explains this in more detail? I think I've gotten the gist of how Ethereum works, and have gone through a tutorial of Solidity, but I'm unclear how versioning will work in Ethereum (even though I do have some guesses for how it could be implemented).

How would I deploy a new version of my contract? Would I have to implement a mechanism for basically hot loading new code?

Re: Final Steps

#67

Post by treelovinhippie »

The Genesis block could very well mark a turning point in human history. The beginning of the complete decentralization of the global human society.

The global insurance industry replaced with autonomous smart contracts able to provide 10x value, at 10x cheaper cost than any current provider. Escrow services instantly replaced in the same fashion. Global marketplaces more nimble, efficient and cheaper than Uber, Airbnb, eBay and KickStarter (to the point where they will be forced to decentralize themselves to remain competitive). Distributed, autonomous hosting, DNS and CDN services that vastly outperform giants like AWS, ICANN and Cloudflare.

And that's just the low hanging fruit.

It will be many years before it reaches critical mass and invisibly seeps into mainstream ubiquity. But just as Bitcoin and the Internet cannot be shutdown, the Ethereum Genesis block will be an irreversible Singularity.

Re: Final Steps

#68

Post by drcode »

convulsive wrote: post #66
drcode wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some important properties of ethereum: 1. A program written in ethereum can execute code at a predetermined point in the future, and there is as close to 100% certainty as possible that the code will execute as written (i.e. as long as a single ethereum user remains in the world at that date everybody's code is guaranteed to run exactly as written, even if it involves moving money between accounts.) 2. All computer p…

>4. Program authors are forced to explicitly document ahead of time all situations in which their program code might be modified in the future Can you point me to a resource that explains this in more detail? I think I've gotten the gist of how Ethereum works, and have gone through a tutorial of Solidity, but I'm unclear how versioning will work in Ethereum (even though I do have some guesses for how it could be impl…

Yeah, that's pretty much it: By default, contracts can't be updated, but you can create a network of multiple contracts to allow some of your code to update. Myself, I think this is "cheating" and destroys the value proposition of ethereum... a better approach (and what I hope to do) is to keep my main contract(s) alive for all eternity and just add new features with "accessory contracts" but it's easy to fail with this if the original contract has problems.

Re: Final Steps

#69

Post by drcode »

aakilfernandes wrote: post #3

Good luck guys! I'm incredibly excited. This feels like a modern day Apollo launch.

I agree, it feels like a really big deal... the fact that so few others are on board with this technology so far definitely means some exciting times are ahead, whether we're proven wrong or right.
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