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It still baffles me that the Nobel Prize for Economics was not awarded to Satoshi Nakamoto albeit a pseudonym for real person/people.

garmaine 9y ago
There's not any new economics in bitcoin...
- shripadk 9y ago
  Can you point me to any paper (other than the Satoshi paper) that describes an immutable distributed ledger and it's implementation? If there was no new economics in Bitcoin, can you explain why the paper would be nominated for Nobel Prize for Economics in the first place? https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/satoshi-nakamoto-nominated-for-the-nobel-prize-in-economics-1447088488/ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/satoshi-nakamoto-nomina... It's quite clear that the nomination was rejected on flimsy grounds of not awarding the Prize for "unknown people" because there is no such "precedence".
  - amarkov 9y ago
    "Look at my great new financial product!" just isn't that interesting from a theoretical perspective, even if it really is cool and innovative. Knowing how to implement an immutable distributed ledger won't help you understand anything about the economy on its own.
  - Asdfbla 9y ago
    Not that creating Bitcoin wasn't an achievement, but it built upon heaps of existing systems that explored proof of work, distributed ledgers and so on. The main innovation was the combination of ledgers with proof of work to prevent Sybil attacks in the face of a system with unidentified participants.
  - garmaine 9y ago
    Those are computer science advances. The nobel prize for economics about economics, not comp sci. There isn’t new economic theory in bitcoin.
TheCowboy 9y ago
Because creating the blockchain hasn't yet been shown to have either advanced the field of the study of economics, or increased our understanding of economics. It is often years later that economists are awarded. Giving an award for Bitcoin right now would seem more like giving an award to the financial institutions that created securitized loan products before the housing crisis. Right now it seems more like a novelty technology that hasn't yet made itself relevant for long-term innovation except to generate excitement about it. And you underestimate that you still can't give someone an award who does not exist to receive it.
- shripadk 9y ago
  What you said makes sense. > And you underestimate that you still can't give someone an award who does not exist to receive it. Which is what baffles me. I thought we should be honouring ideas and the people who created/discovered them (whether or not they exist to receive the award). It's weird that people get more precedence over ideas. What's worse is that the prize isn't awarded posthumously as well!
Method-X 9y ago
Someday he'll likely get it.
jokoon 9y ago
The achievement of bitcoin is not about economics, it's about the software design, authenticity and proof of work. It would justify a Nobel in software engineering, not economics.

garmaine 9y ago

There's not any new economics in bitcoin...

shripadk 9y ago
Can you point me to any paper (other than the Satoshi paper) that describes an immutable distributed ledger and it's implementation? If there was no new economics in Bitcoin, can you explain why the paper would be nominated for Nobel Prize for Economics in the first place? https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/satoshi-nakamoto-nominated-for-the-nobel-prize-in-economics-1447088488/ https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/satoshi-nakamoto-nomina... It's quite clear that the nomination was rejected on flimsy grounds of not awarding the Prize for "unknown people" because there is no such "precedence".
- amarkov 9y ago
  "Look at my great new financial product!" just isn't that interesting from a theoretical perspective, even if it really is cool and innovative. Knowing how to implement an immutable distributed ledger won't help you understand anything about the economy on its own.
- Asdfbla 9y ago
  Not that creating Bitcoin wasn't an achievement, but it built upon heaps of existing systems that explored proof of work, distributed ledgers and so on. The main innovation was the combination of ledgers with proof of work to prevent Sybil attacks in the face of a system with unidentified participants.
- garmaine 9y ago
  Those are computer science advances. The nobel prize for economics about economics, not comp sci. There isn’t new economic theory in bitcoin.

TheCowboy 9y ago

Because creating the blockchain hasn't yet been shown to have either advanced the field of the study of economics, or increased our understanding of economics. It is often years later that economists are awarded. Giving an award for Bitcoin right now would seem more like giving an award to the financial institutions that created securitized loan products before the housing crisis. Right now it seems more like a novelty technology that hasn't yet made itself relevant for long-term innovation except to generate excitement about it. And you underestimate that you still can't give someone an award who does not exist to receive it.

shripadk 9y ago
What you said makes sense. > And you underestimate that you still can't give someone an award who does not exist to receive it. Which is what baffles me. I thought we should be honouring ideas and the people who created/discovered them (whether or not they exist to receive the award). It's weird that people get more precedence over ideas. What's worse is that the prize isn't awarded posthumously as well!

Method-X 9y ago

Someday he'll likely get it.

jokoon 9y ago

The achievement of bitcoin is not about economics, it's about the software design, authenticity and proof of work. It would justify a Nobel in software engineering, not economics.