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You have no idea how hard this would be to do with a normal blockchain OP. In fact, I have spent literal months just thinking of ways to hack Bitcoin to do more

You have no idea how hard this would be to do with a normal blockchain OP. In fact, I have spent literal months just thinking of ways to hack Bitcoin to do more complex smart contracts when its already possible with a few patches and extra OP codes. I must check out Ethereum when I get chance.

natrius 11y ago
It helps to stop thinking about blockchains and smart contracts. Ethereum is a global public computer where programs have their own storage space that can't be modified by anything other than the program itself. You can remove the trusted middleman from pretty much any system that used to require one. That is a significant fraction of the economy. It's a significant fraction of our society.
- Nadya 11y ago
  In one paragraph you've given me a better understanding of Ethereum than several blog posts and even the Ethereum website itself. Good job and thank you.
  - natrius 11y ago
    Thanks! Spread the word! There are lots of decentralized applications that need to be built.
- tinybike 11y ago
  Wow, that's a really good, easy-to-understand description of Ethereum.
aakilfernandes 11y ago
Ha, you're a brave soul. I spent a month on an ultimately doomed attempt to build a decentralized marketplace on Bitcoin. Very excited about Ethereum.
FatalLogic 11y ago
As I'm sure you know, Bitcoin's scripting language, as originally designed, is deliberately not Turing complete[1]. That's one of Ethereum's key points of difference with Bitcoin. It's a very difficult challenge to keep control of resource use in any such decentralized system, and even more of a challenge when scripts can loop. It's going to be interesting to see if Ethereum can eventually work without frequent human intervention to modify the code. Even Bitcoin didn't quite get to that state yet. [1]https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script

natrius 11y ago

It helps to stop thinking about blockchains and smart contracts. Ethereum is a global public computer where programs have their own storage space that can't be modified by anything other than the program itself. You can remove the trusted middleman from pretty much any system that used to require one. That is a significant fraction of the economy. It's a significant fraction of our society.

Nadya 11y ago
In one paragraph you've given me a better understanding of Ethereum than several blog posts and even the Ethereum website itself. Good job and thank you.
- natrius 11y ago
  Thanks! Spread the word! There are lots of decentralized applications that need to be built.
tinybike 11y ago
Wow, that's a really good, easy-to-understand description of Ethereum.

aakilfernandes 11y ago

Ha, you're a brave soul. I spent a month on an ultimately doomed attempt to build a decentralized marketplace on Bitcoin. Very excited about Ethereum.

FatalLogic 11y ago

As I'm sure you know, Bitcoin's scripting language, as originally designed, is deliberately not Turing complete[1]. That's one of Ethereum's key points of difference with Bitcoin. It's a very difficult challenge to keep control of resource use in any such decentralized system, and even more of a challenge when scripts can loop. It's going to be interesting to see if Ethereum can eventually work without frequent human intervention to modify the code. Even Bitcoin didn't quite get to that state yet. [1]https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script