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†Note to “that guy” on Hacker News: yes, there were cryptocurrencies before Bitcoin. I’m aware. You don’t need to educate me on them. But they don’t count,

†Note to “that guy” on Hacker News: yes, there were cryptocurrencies before Bitcoin. I’m aware. You don’t need to educate me on them. But they don’t count, sorry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMOzvxQHywM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMOzvxQHywM

nickpsecurity 11y ago
Btw, did you know that... in addition to cryptocurrencies... there were distributed, resilient database and transaction processing designs without Bitcoin's biggest problems (esp scalability & commit time)? And that people ignored them until a large gold rush appeared in 2008 using a clever, but inefficient, version of the ideas? And it took many years for people to rediscover some of the old work and start making wiser investments of developer time? I know, it all blew my mind too.
- brighton36 11y ago
  Most of these companies never cared about sharing their financial data with their competitors prior to 2008. Why they changed their mind here is beyond me, but that's the reason these systems weren't implemented prior. Transparency, thus far, has always been a bug and not a feature.
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    Companies? Most of work in distributed and e-commerce schemes was academia with them publishing it from journals to stories on tech and financial news. Some companies published work and design descriptioms too. I've been collecting and reading such stuff since the 90's. The only thing new IIRC was making old things use proof-of-work and (global?) broadcast. Which also caused its problems. So, no, the stuff wasn't obscure, locked away... anything. Just ignored outside of transaction, database, security, and accounting subfields. The few doing it made slow but steady gains on technologies. And thanks to Bitcoin, they might get some mainstream attention and more R&D.
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  This would be a valuable comment if you included names. As it is the only thing I can glean from this is that you know things other people don't? I guess... congratulations?
  - nickpsecurity 11y ago
    Can't do that every Bitcoin post on HN as too little time. Instead, I included some of the terms to Google in that and other comments here. Googling such things, especially with "pdf," is how I found the work. Following the references and related work sections helps, too. Doing their homework for them just ain't productive. Not people riding a fad that is. Note: A quick Google in response to one comment here led me to two, new papers with one having pretty awesome properties. Just goes to show how easy it is.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

Btw, did you know that... in addition to cryptocurrencies... there were distributed, resilient database and transaction processing designs without Bitcoin's biggest problems (esp scalability & commit time)? And that people ignored them until a large gold rush appeared in 2008 using a clever, but inefficient, version of the ideas? And it took many years for people to rediscover some of the old work and start making wiser investments of developer time? I know, it all blew my mind too.

brighton36 11y ago
Most of these companies never cared about sharing their financial data with their competitors prior to 2008. Why they changed their mind here is beyond me, but that's the reason these systems weren't implemented prior. Transparency, thus far, has always been a bug and not a feature.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Companies? Most of work in distributed and e-commerce schemes was academia with them publishing it from journals to stories on tech and financial news. Some companies published work and design descriptioms too. I've been collecting and reading such stuff since the 90's. The only thing new IIRC was making old things use proof-of-work and (global?) broadcast. Which also caused its problems. So, no, the stuff wasn't obscure, locked away... anything. Just ignored outside of transaction, database, security, and accounting subfields. The few doing it made slow but steady gains on technologies. And thanks to Bitcoin, they might get some mainstream attention and more R&D.
erikpukinskis 11y ago
This would be a valuable comment if you included names. As it is the only thing I can glean from this is that you know things other people don't? I guess... congratulations?
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Can't do that every Bitcoin post on HN as too little time. Instead, I included some of the terms to Google in that and other comments here. Googling such things, especially with "pdf," is how I found the work. Following the references and related work sections helps, too. Doing their homework for them just ain't productive. Not people riding a fad that is. Note: A quick Google in response to one comment here led me to two, new papers with one having pretty awesome properties. Just goes to show how easy it is.