3 ms·
Hi, it's Trent here, CTO of BigchainDB. The word "blockchain" is much misunderstood. There is a ton of argument over what it actually is. Just a linked list of
by trentmc 9y ago
Hi, it's Trent here, CTO of BigchainDB.
The word "blockchain" is much misunderstood. There is a ton of argument over what it actually is. Just a linked list of hashes? Bitcoin and nothing else? I could go on and on.
To me, that debate is less interesting than building systems that actually work. For this, it's useful to think about compute stacks in the past, from mainframe to desktop, from web to cloud to mobile. In each, there are core building blocks that each have their own way of instantiating the elements of computing (storage, processing, communications). Yes, let's go back to first principles:)
Take cloud, on say AWS. Here are some blocks:
* Storage:blob storage -- S3
* Storage:database -- DynamoDB
* Processing -- EC2
* And so on.
The emerging decentralized stack [1] is no different. There is no single monolithic block called "blockchain" that magically does everything, though much of the rhetoric would have you believe that. Rather, there are emerging building blocks.
* Storage:blob storage -- IPFS + FileCoin (and more)
* Storage:database -- BigchainDB
* Storage:pure-play-token -- Bitcoin (this is specific to decentralized space)
* Processing:business logic (aka "smart contracts) -- Ethereum (and more)
"Blockchain" is best treated as a label for the space of decentralization. Side by side with other fields like "artificial intelligence" or "cloud computing".
I think we can all agree that DynamoDB is not "a cloud". It's just an implementation of the "database" building block for the "cloud computing" field. Similarly, BigchainDB is not "a blockchain". It's just an implementation of the "database" building block for the "blockchain" field.
[1] https://blog.bigchaindb.com/blockchain-infrastructure-landscape-a-first-principles-framing-92cc5549bafe https://blog.bigchaindb.com/blockchain-infrastructure-landsc...