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Hi, it's Trent here, CTO of BigchainDB. FYI we started working on the precursor to this in 2013 (ascribe). Bitcoin hadn't even hit the mainstream then, let alo

Hi, it's Trent here, CTO of BigchainDB. FYI we started working on the precursor to this in 2013 (ascribe). Bitcoin hadn't even hit the mainstream then, let alone blockchain. We didn't build it to mash together buzzwords. We built it because we saw a clear need for it. We had been building on Bitcoin, and (a) didn't scale to meet our needs and (b) was super-hard to use because it didn't act like a database. So we built BigchainDB to address issues (a) and (b). Obviously, good old "boring" MySQL is incredibly useful for tons of problems. If you're already solving a problem with MySQL, then BigchainDB is not a fit. Don't use it, stick with the thing that's working. Where it is useful is applications that want at least one of the following benefits: 1. decentralized, so that >1 orgs can share resources 2. immutable / tamper resistance, for provenance of ownership of art, spare parts, food, etc 3. assets, so you can exchange digital goods more readily. More details here: https://blog.bigchaindb.com/three-blockchain-benefits-ae3a2a5ab102 https://blog.bigchaindb.com/three-blockchain-benefits-ae3a2a...

willitpamp573 9y ago
My Cassanda db can be "decentralized" too by your definition because I can have it distributed between multiple corporations, where multiple people have read/write access. This is extremely common practice.
- trentmc 9y ago
  I'm not defining "decentralized" as simply "distributed between multiple corporations, where multiple people have read/write access". To be "decentralized", it's key that there are >1 sysadmins (ie runners of server nodes); and bad behavior from some sysadmins does not take the whole system down. We experimented with a bit with decentralizing Cassandra. From what we saw, it is possible to decentralized it in the way I define it. We also tested other DBs. We chose RethinkDB because we liked their approach to global oplog; and we preferred a document-store interface over a column store interface. Later we added MongoDB support because of customer interest and some technical benefits. (For the record we added this support before Rethink's woes. Glad to see it found a foundation:)

willitpamp573 9y ago

My Cassanda db can be "decentralized" too by your definition because I can have it distributed between multiple corporations, where multiple people have read/write access. This is extremely common practice.

trentmc 9y ago
I'm not defining "decentralized" as simply "distributed between multiple corporations, where multiple people have read/write access". To be "decentralized", it's key that there are >1 sysadmins (ie runners of server nodes); and bad behavior from some sysadmins does not take the whole system down. We experimented with a bit with decentralizing Cassandra. From what we saw, it is possible to decentralized it in the way I define it. We also tested other DBs. We chose RethinkDB because we liked their approach to global oplog; and we preferred a document-store interface over a column store interface. Later we added MongoDB support because of customer interest and some technical benefits. (For the record we added this support before Rethink's woes. Glad to see it found a foundation:)