4 ms·

All the good bits of blockchain, we already had in git: a transaction ledger with hashes for tamper-proofing. Git came out in 2005, based on work going back a f

All the good bits of blockchain, we already had in git: a transaction ledger with hashes for tamper-proofing. Git came out in 2005, based on work going back a few decades. What we're seeing in practice is a lot of "Blockchain(tm)" products that are just this, and not actually a blockchain. Remember how Estonia has blockchains in everything and talks them up at every opportunity? Their local "KSI Blockchain" is just a ledger with hashes. https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/09/06/estonias-smartcard-security-problem-is-probably-not-blockchain-related-but-what-is-estonias-blockchain/ https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2017/09/06/estonias-sma... The Bitcoin-style decentralisation etc is not in practice useful for real things that aren't cryptocurrencies. Transaction ledgers with hashes are great stuff! So if they get used more, that'll be the good outcome of "Blockchain(tm)" hype. But this article is just full of what are literally Bitcoin hyperbolic claims, with the buzzword changed. This IEEE Spectrum "blockchain" issue has been consistently glib and lacking in detail. I'm very disappointed. This is supposed to be a magazine from an institute for engineers.

Lon7 9y ago
> All the good bits of blockchain, we already had in git This is not true at all and shows a common misunderstanding of why the blockchain is useful. The big breakthrough with blockchains and crypto currencies has very little to do with it it being a ledger with signed hashes. There are two main "good bits" of the blockchain: - it provides a consensus algorithm to agree on a set of updates to the ledger. Not in git. - it provides a mechanism for anyone to take part in this consensus algorithm while preventing sybil attacks. Also not in git.
- davidgerard 9y ago
  And, as I said, this consistently turns out not to be the useful bit for applications other than cryptocurrencies. And the stuff that is actually used - and marketed as "Blockchain" - is pretty much git. It's been eight years, "where's the beef" is a reasonable question by now.

Lon7 9y ago

> All the good bits of blockchain, we already had in git This is not true at all and shows a common misunderstanding of why the blockchain is useful. The big breakthrough with blockchains and crypto currencies has very little to do with it it being a ledger with signed hashes. There are two main "good bits" of the blockchain: - it provides a consensus algorithm to agree on a set of updates to the ledger. Not in git. - it provides a mechanism for anyone to take part in this consensus algorithm while preventing sybil attacks. Also not in git.

davidgerard 9y ago
And, as I said, this consistently turns out not to be the useful bit for applications other than cryptocurrencies. And the stuff that is actually used - and marketed as "Blockchain" - is pretty much git. It's been eight years, "where's the beef" is a reasonable question by now.