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There's a bit more to it. Proof of work hashing and ledger consensus rules and difficulty targets and fee schedules and forks. It's still all standard bachelor
by avaer 9y ago
There's a bit more to it. Proof of work hashing and ledger consensus rules and difficulty targets and fee schedules and forks.
It's still all standard bachelor's degree algorithms, and I agree with the gp that it's not the interesting part. The interesting part is using these algorithms for social consensus on value.
- goatofhehills 9y agoThis. Seriously I was talking to a neighbor just the other day about how the most interesting aspect is the application!
- kobeya 9y agoI disagree those are essential. Federated chains like Elements Alpha are also considered block chains but lack many of those properties. I think it really is the case that a "block chain" is merely a singly linked list with hash linkages.
- icebraining 9y agoBut that's just an hash chain, it has existed for longer than the blockchain. For example, all digital invoices in my country are hash-chained, to prevent the merchant from swapping one for another, and this standard was published before Bitcoin.
- DennisP 9y agoThat sounds interesting. What is the standard called? I'd love to read more about it.
- icebraining 9y agoSAF-T: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAF-T https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAF-T It's not that special, each invoice gets assigned as hash of (invoice number + total amount + date of emission + hash of previous invoice). Besides having to send that XML file to the IRS each month with all the issued invoices, the hash also gets printed on the invoice given to the client (paper or PDF), so it gets tricky to change the past without getting caught.
- kobeya 9y agoI don't disagree with anything you said. Even generously most of the "blockchain" hype is an excuse for cryptography that has already existed without application for some time.