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Actually, big banks are interested in blockchain technology, because having a distributed ledger of stock ownership would help cut out exchanges and brokers, an

Actually, big banks are interested in blockchain technology, because having a distributed ledger of stock ownership would help cut out exchanges and brokers, and facilitate international trade. The broker divisions of big banks are probably afraid of it, or dismissive, but trade execution and asset management divisions are investing in the concept. My (probably unpopular) bet: blockchain will revolutionize much of finance, but Bitcoin specifically will crash and eventually be ignored.

Frogolocalypse 9y ago
Separating bitcoin from blockchain is separating it from its incentive structure, which is the very thing that makes it a disruptive invention. It's almost like they're trying to unmake the invention.
- leereeves 9y ago
  Nothing wrong with using the blockchain without paying billions to the people who bought Bitcoin early.
  - Frogolocalypse 9y ago
    None of that belief has anything to do with bitcoin and nakamoto consensus.
    - leereeves 9y ago
      Indeed. Big banks using blockchain technology as a distributed ledger of stock ownership might have nothing to do with bitcoin.
      - Frogolocalypse 9y ago
        Blockchain without the distributed consensus structure and independent incentivized miners is just an inefficient redundant database.
AVTizzle 9y ago
"My (probably unpopular) bet: blockchain will revolutionize much of finance, but Bitcoin specifically will crash and eventually be ignored." I'm with you. Just because it's clear a new technology will change everything (the internet, blockchain), it's not clear which individual players will win the race (Myspace, Altavista, Friendster).
pythonaut_16 9y ago
Could blockchain be used to replace/side step aging mainframes written in COBOL? I'm not expert in the legacy systems or in blockchain but my understanding is that the reason transactions in traditional systems take so long to complete is that the COBOL mainframes are still set up to do batch processing. I wonder if using a (regulated) blockchain to record and process transactions could work to replace or enhance the legacy systems to process transactions in more realtime.

Frogolocalypse 9y ago

Separating bitcoin from blockchain is separating it from its incentive structure, which is the very thing that makes it a disruptive invention. It's almost like they're trying to unmake the invention.

leereeves 9y ago
Nothing wrong with using the blockchain without paying billions to the people who bought Bitcoin early.
- Frogolocalypse 9y ago
  None of that belief has anything to do with bitcoin and nakamoto consensus.
  - leereeves 9y ago
    Indeed. Big banks using blockchain technology as a distributed ledger of stock ownership might have nothing to do with bitcoin.
    - Frogolocalypse 9y ago
      Blockchain without the distributed consensus structure and independent incentivized miners is just an inefficient redundant database.

AVTizzle 9y ago

"My (probably unpopular) bet: blockchain will revolutionize much of finance, but Bitcoin specifically will crash and eventually be ignored." I'm with you. Just because it's clear a new technology will change everything (the internet, blockchain), it's not clear which individual players will win the race (Myspace, Altavista, Friendster).

pythonaut_16 9y ago

Could blockchain be used to replace/side step aging mainframes written in COBOL? I'm not expert in the legacy systems or in blockchain but my understanding is that the reason transactions in traditional systems take so long to complete is that the COBOL mainframes are still set up to do batch processing. I wonder if using a (regulated) blockchain to record and process transactions could work to replace or enhance the legacy systems to process transactions in more realtime.