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Databases or data storage would be some of the dumbest applications of blockchain. Blockchain is very expensive way of storing data, much more expensive than pl

by dozzie 9y ago

Databases or data storage would be some of the dumbest applications of blockchain. Blockchain is very expensive way of storing data, much more expensive than plain DHT. > I've thought a little about it, and I wonder what could be achieved. You should have put less thought and more learning in the topic, especially history of cryptosystems. Blockchain is not the first idea of cryptographic money, and in fact, from cryptographic perspective it's not money at all, it's document timestamping service. > Does anyone have already studied the idea? Yes, cryptographers, for a long time.

AgentME 9y ago
>Blockchain is not the first idea of cryptographic money, Right: Bitcoin is just the first decentralized cryptographic money. The decentralized part is where blockchains shine; if you can have a trusted authority, then almost literally any other solution is much more efficient. I groan whenever I see blockchains suggested as a solution for something where trustlessness is not a priority. >and in fact, from cryptographic perspective it's not money at all, it's document timestamping service. I'm not sure that's mutually exclusive or that that's a useful distinction, unless the point is that Bitcoin/blockchains can also be easily used for timestamping.
- dozzie 9y ago
  >> and in fact, from cryptographic perspective it's not money at all, it's document timestamping service. > I'm not sure that's mutually exclusive or that that's a useful distinction, unless the point is that Bitcoin/blockchains can also be easily used for timestamping. Money is a token that can only be spent once by its current owner, and for verification it doesn't need knowledge about all the other tokens. There were attempts at designing cyrptographic protocol for money, and they had this property baked in at the cryptography level. Bitcoin's spending verification is placed not in the cryptographic protocol, but higher, in the protocol protected by the cryptographic protocol. Thus, Bitcoin is not money, but document timestamping. Money has different cryptographic properties, and Bitcoin implements money on top of document timestamping. People untrained in cryptography (and thus the ones unqualified to touching the protocol part) usually mistake one for the other, and are usually heavily surprised that you can do document timestamping with Bitcoin, which was designed specifically for that.

by dozzie 9y ago

AgentME 9y ago

>Blockchain is not the first idea of cryptographic money, Right: Bitcoin is just the first decentralized cryptographic money. The decentralized part is where blockchains shine; if you can have a trusted authority, then almost literally any other solution is much more efficient. I groan whenever I see blockchains suggested as a solution for something where trustlessness is not a priority. >and in fact, from cryptographic perspective it's not money at all, it's document timestamping service. I'm not sure that's mutually exclusive or that that's a useful distinction, unless the point is that Bitcoin/blockchains can also be easily used for timestamping.

dozzie 9y ago
>> and in fact, from cryptographic perspective it's not money at all, it's document timestamping service. > I'm not sure that's mutually exclusive or that that's a useful distinction, unless the point is that Bitcoin/blockchains can also be easily used for timestamping. Money is a token that can only be spent once by its current owner, and for verification it doesn't need knowledge about all the other tokens. There were attempts at designing cyrptographic protocol for money, and they had this property baked in at the cryptography level. Bitcoin's spending verification is placed not in the cryptographic protocol, but higher, in the protocol protected by the cryptographic protocol. Thus, Bitcoin is not money, but document timestamping. Money has different cryptographic properties, and Bitcoin implements money on top of document timestamping. People untrained in cryptography (and thus the ones unqualified to touching the protocol part) usually mistake one for the other, and are usually heavily surprised that you can do document timestamping with Bitcoin, which was designed specifically for that.