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Ask HN: Benefits of “the blockchain”?

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Ask HN: Benefits of “the blockchain”?

Post by danielblazevski » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 3:25 PM UTC

What are the benefits of blockchain technology that currently aren't solved by having some central trustworthy source maintain a database?

To me it seems that a "blockchain" claim to fame is being decentralized. But who maintains the tech to make the system reliable? Seems like a centralized organization would essentially be needed to maintain a database used by others.

Re: Ask HN: Benefits of “the blockchain”?

Post by ConcernedCoder » Fri, Mar 23, 2018, 4:12 PM UTC

It's about trust, you either trust some central solitary authority, i.e. government, bank, etc... or you trust the majority of users -- to do the right thing.

Think of it like a dictatorship vs a democracy. In the dictatorship one guy ( the central authority ) gets to make the rules... he has a bad day? he decides to take all your wealth for himself. In the democracy 51% of nodes have to decide to screw you, some people think that's a better bet in the long run.

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