Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
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Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#2DLT strips away almost everything that makes blockchain compelling.
Why would a distributed systems engineer work on what amounts to a really shitty database?
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#3>The blockchain community is immature and historically unwelcoming.
>It feels like a get rich quick scheme - https://twitter.com/naval/status/878018839044161536
This is what it comes down to IMO. Anything cryptocurrency related is just surrounded by a cloud of shady characters and scammers, even though the tech is legit. You just can't trust anyone, nor their intentions. Living your life and working in a constant state of paranoia like that is awful.
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#4Proof-of-work blockchains were developed to solve a problem that only exists in a small percentage of distributed engineering use-cases. Unless you need to build a "censorship-free" peer-to-peer ledger distributed among untrusted, anonymous participants, the complexity costs and latency and computation costs simply aren't worth it.
It's the same reason that Ford doesn't build a tunnel under the US/Mexico border to ferry car parts to America.
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#5The choice of font and lack of contrast make this nearly unreadable for me...
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#6DLT strips away almost everything that makes blockchain compelling. Why would a distributed systems engineer work on what amounts to a really shitty database?
See also the crazy cash they can make building distributed machine learning/big data systems at next to zero risk...
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#7From OP: https://twitter.com/naval/status/878018839044161536
The cynic in me thinks "it's a scheme by oligarchs and tyrants to get rid of troublesome /fully anonymous/ cash sold as a utopian scheme to those who are motivated by the promise of a quick rich scheme."
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#8Proof-of-work blockchains were developed to solve a problem that only exists in a small percentage of distributed engineering use-cases. Unless you need to build a "censorship-free" peer-to-peer ledger distributed among untrusted, anonymous participants, the complexity costs and latency and computation costs simply aren't worth it. It's the same reason that Ford doesn't build a tunnel under the US/Mexico border to fe…
Very good points. In complex financial transactions (at least within regulatory domains), my understanding is that rollbacks can and do happen. I initially thought across borders/regulatory domains, blockchain will shine. I haven't seen a killer application just yet. It is a bit frustrating because the tech is indeed interesting .. we just don't have multi-billion dollar real (as opposed to imagined) use-cases beyond the distributed ledger.
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#9Proof-of-work blockchains were developed to solve a problem that only exists in a small percentage of distributed engineering use-cases. Unless you need to build a "censorship-free" peer-to-peer ledger distributed among untrusted, anonymous participants, the complexity costs and latency and computation costs simply aren't worth it. It's the same reason that Ford doesn't build a tunnel under the US/Mexico border to fe…
Proof-of-work is simply not sustainable (energy-wise), IMO, for the foundation of a global system. The stability of whole ecosystems is predicated upon those ecosystems being attractive to people who want to make money by competing to solve hard problems by brute force.
That's a lot of energy going into a system that can commit a new block of transactions once every 10 minutes on average. It solves a problem in an interesting way, but it's nowhere near quick enough or efficient enough to solve 99% of engineering problems. That's why only 1% of engineers are working on it.
Re: Why aren’t distributed systems engineers working on blockchain technology?
#10Why isn't X working on blockchain technology?
Maybe instead of asking this, we should ask the cryptocurrency enthusiasts what area of technology won't be dropped-and-replaced by blockchains, because so far it seems apparently applicable to every single use case in every single industry... By the way, did you guys hear this thing is an immutable ledger?