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> Ah, hardcore libertarians. You're all completely mad, but I won't deny you're consistent. The key point is that while laws may be minimally, moderately, or h

> Ah, hardcore libertarians. You're all completely mad, but I won't deny you're consistent. The key point is that while laws may be minimally, moderately, or highly flawed, the rule of law is the idea that we should have a proper way of changing them to prevent future events, not just decree one person an evil hacker and a group of other people victims. The hard fork is like if a no parking sign was installed on a street and tickets were issued to everyone who had parked there the previous year, before the sign was in place. Putting up the sign is not a problem, nor is enforcing the rule post-sign, the problem is making a decree that impacts what happened in the past. A ban on ex post facto law is such a core concept in Western civilization that it's pretty shocking anyone would actually think such a rule is a good idea. I suppose one thing that is a universal among humans is the strong desire to form corrupt groups to extract wealth from human systems.

mthoms 10y ago
>A ban on ex post facto law is such a core concept in Western civilization that it's pretty shocking anyone would actually think such a rule is a good idea. Not really a fair comment IMHO. Western Civilizations also have the core concept that intent matters and that not every potential conflict/problem can be foreseen. Thus, you have vaguely worded laws that are subject to human interpretation (courts). I understand that ETH billed itself as being above all that. So I can see why some are justifiably upset. I just think your comment about ex post facto law is a little misleading given that there is, in fact, a great deal of wiggle room afforded to the courts in the West.
- grandalf 10y ago
  Fair point. While I think smart contracts are somewhat modeled after Western courts, the beauty of them is that they are predictable and deterministic. Doing various sorts of forks is quite messy, so perhaps the ideal smart contract system would have another layer between VM and forking.

mthoms 10y ago

>A ban on ex post facto law is such a core concept in Western civilization that it's pretty shocking anyone would actually think such a rule is a good idea. Not really a fair comment IMHO. Western Civilizations also have the core concept that intent matters and that not every potential conflict/problem can be foreseen. Thus, you have vaguely worded laws that are subject to human interpretation (courts). I understand that ETH billed itself as being above all that. So I can see why some are justifiably upset. I just think your comment about ex post facto law is a little misleading given that there is, in fact, a great deal of wiggle room afforded to the courts in the West.

grandalf 10y ago
Fair point. While I think smart contracts are somewhat modeled after Western courts, the beauty of them is that they are predictable and deterministic. Doing various sorts of forks is quite messy, so perhaps the ideal smart contract system would have another layer between VM and forking.