6 ms·

While the mainstream argues about whether bitcoin is or isn't this or that, while bitcoin attracts all the attention because of its spectacularly high price, pe

While the mainstream argues about whether bitcoin is or isn't this or that, while bitcoin attracts all the attention because of its spectacularly high price, people are working on blockchain things all over the place, relatively quietly in the background. Whether or not bitcoin does this or that is immaterial to growth of non-currency blockchain applications.

joshuamcginnis 9y ago
What's a good resource for finding and following new blockchain projects?
- tenaciousDaniel 9y ago
  This is particular to Ethereum, but https://www.stateofthedapps.com/ https://www.stateofthedapps.com/
- bitoneill 9y ago
  Q: What are the best news sources about blockchain technology? https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-news-sources-about-blockchain-technology https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-news-sources-about-b...
lurr 9y ago
Yeah, but is anyone working on useful blockchain applications as opposed to shoving Blockchain in because HYPE.
- sebleon 9y ago
  Bitcoin/Monero/Zcash are already incredibly useful by making things like Wikileaks possible, which was previously shut out of the world financial system from US Govt pressure. This contribution to international politics alone has changed the world.
  - paulie_a 9y ago
    Does anyone see WikiLeaks as a good thing anymore? The concept is interesting but WikiLeaks is beyond worthless and Julian is just an attention seeking whore, being played by global superpowers
    - cortic 9y ago
      i'd expect that kind of stupidity from reddit, but here? Has mainstream media truly got such a hold over everyone? that they can destroy the reputation of a service (and a political refugee) while doing absolutely everything they accuse the service of doing, except blatantly and malevolently? Starting to wonder whether the west deserves a service like Wikileaks; maybe we should be condemned back into the days where whistle blowers were quietly dealt with and the population could live in dumb ignorance.
      - lurr 9y ago
        > i'd expect that kind of stupidity from reddit, but here and the very next sentence > Has mainstream media truly got such a hold over everyone
        ghostcluster 9y ago
        Even mainstream media admitted its sins the day after the 2016 election. This is from the political director of CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugn... Unfortunately, it's only seemed to have gotten even worse over the past year, even after such a mea culpa.
        lurr 9y ago
        Whereas fox remains as steadfastly committed to propaganda as ever. CBS should fire that guy.
        9y ago
- alistproducer2 9y ago
  There are quite a few projects vying for owning the next generation of block chain. Generally known as ffm tech (fast,free,and minerless). They depend on some variation of PoS, hierarcal blockchains, and Byzantine consensus algos. Basically there's lots of serious work going into making blockchain ledgers scalable to permit money-like usage. Some examples are Raiblocks and Ethereum's Plasma protocol.
  - tomp 9y ago
    Did anyone solve the "no stake" problem in "proof of stake"?
    - DennisP 9y ago
      The solution in Casper: if you approve more than one block at the same height, someone can submit both your approvals to the winning chain, which destroys your stake on that chain. The submitter gets a reward. There's a long delay to withdraw your stake so plenty of time for someone to submit.
      - xorcist 9y ago
        What if the alternate chain is kept secret until it is sure to be victorious? In a situation where this type of conspiracy takes place it makes economic sense to join them.
        DennisP 9y ago
        It's fine for your favored chain to win. And maybe you can get a group of validators to cooperate and make that happen. But they better have bet on only that chain, or they will lose their stake. If the validators are conspiring on a secret chain, and they're betting only on the secret blocks, the public blocks won't be finalized.
    - ralexstokes 9y ago
      You generally get around the "nothing at stake" problem by requiring validators (consensus-forming nodes) to submit a deposit that is subject to deletion upon proof of bad behavior. For example, if I get two conflicting messages signed by you in Ethereum's Casper network, I can present that data as proof to the Casper smart contract where you lose your deposit.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  You could argue that Ethereum is a useful application because it allows for about fifty other major coins to work, becoming like a provider for virtual currencies.
  - imron 9y ago
    Turtles all the way down
vadimberman 9y ago
True, but the article is not about the blockchain; moreover, I'd be shocked if CNBC were discussing inner works of software and technical concepts that the general public has no interest in.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- hanselot 9y ago
  I'd be shocked if CNBC discussed any news that was based on fact.
malloryerik 9y ago
Yes and no, sadly. If bitcoin collapses in disgrace, many people might be biased against all things blockchain for quite some time.
- disordinary 9y ago
  As a means of investment, which is never what it was intended for, but they won't care at all about underlying technology.
panarky 9y ago
Yes, the longer they don't take us seriously, the farther ahead we'll be when they finally understand. Let them think cryptocurrencies are a passing fad. Let them believe they're secure in their offices and studios. The longer they believe this the better for us.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
User23 9y ago
One reason that people are working on blockchain things all over the place because money is pouring into it at an absurd rate thanks to investors' fear of missing out on the next big thing. This is not a criticism, there is nothing wrong with entrepreneurs going where the capital is.
- beefield 9y ago
  Well, you could argue that there is something wrong in entrepreneurs going where the capital is if the capital happens to be in a wrong place.
  - marcosdumay 9y ago
    I would instead argue that this is a problem with the capital, not with the entrepreneurs. This is relevant because if you want to fix it, it would be completely useless to act on the entrepreneurs.
ghostcluster 9y ago
> people are working on blockchain things all over the place, relatively quietly in the background "Kodak shares have more than tripled since company announced 'KodakCoin'" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/kodak-shares-have-more-than-tripled-since-announcing-kodakcoin.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/kodak-shares-have-more-than-... This is not the future I signed up for..
- em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
  But seriously there is great potential in a blockchain system that tracks intellectual property ownership in a distributed fashion.
  - stuntkite 9y ago
    Also verifying image authenticity in a world quickly hurtling past a the uncanny valley with turn key neural nets to fake just about any media at no cost and with no special skills.
  - easytiger 9y ago
    All this can be done better as a non distributed system.
    - Cthulhu_ 9y ago
      I think what might be happening here is that the traditional software development practices and habits would get on that, turning it into a project costing millions, taking years, and not doing what it promised.
- ourmandave 9y ago
  I think someone is doing a pump and dump at Kodak. At CES they also came out with the Kodak Kashminer. The terms are so hilariously bad it can't be real. https://twitter.com/chrisbhoffman/status/950861459302445056 https://twitter.com/chrisbhoffman/status/950861459302445056
disordinary 9y ago
There are very few good use cases for blockchains, a lot of companies are doing things with blockchain tech that are not suited and they would be better off simply using a traditional database and APIs. But, for the right use cases it's revolutionary.
andirk 9y ago
Right. Satoshi, brought us bitcoin, but possibly more importantly, he brought blockchain in eyesight of the master branch.
ur-whale 9y ago
Mainstream media tends to bundle in the term "blockchain" two separate things: 1) an append-only, verifyable, transaction log/db 2) a distributed consensus based update mechanism #1 is IMO fairly mundane and uninteresting. Unfortunately, a whole lot of the "blockchain" work happening is focusing on it. #2 is much more interesting and what will power truly interesting innovations. Sadly, it is largely under-advertized.
lmm 9y ago
10 years on there are no non-currency blockchain applications that make any sense. And even if they did exist, since the blockchain integrity guarantees only work if there is a valuable reward for "mining", a failure of blockchain-as-currency would doom non-currency blockchain applications as well.

joshuamcginnis 9y ago

What's a good resource for finding and following new blockchain projects?

tenaciousDaniel 9y ago
This is particular to Ethereum, but https://www.stateofthedapps.com/ https://www.stateofthedapps.com/
bitoneill 9y ago
Q: What are the best news sources about blockchain technology? https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-news-sources-about-blockchain-technology https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-news-sources-about-b...

lurr 9y ago

Yeah, but is anyone working on useful blockchain applications as opposed to shoving Blockchain in because HYPE.

sebleon 9y ago
Bitcoin/Monero/Zcash are already incredibly useful by making things like Wikileaks possible, which was previously shut out of the world financial system from US Govt pressure. This contribution to international politics alone has changed the world.
- paulie_a 9y ago
  Does anyone see WikiLeaks as a good thing anymore? The concept is interesting but WikiLeaks is beyond worthless and Julian is just an attention seeking whore, being played by global superpowers
  - cortic 9y ago
    i'd expect that kind of stupidity from reddit, but here? Has mainstream media truly got such a hold over everyone? that they can destroy the reputation of a service (and a political refugee) while doing absolutely everything they accuse the service of doing, except blatantly and malevolently? Starting to wonder whether the west deserves a service like Wikileaks; maybe we should be condemned back into the days where whistle blowers were quietly dealt with and the population could live in dumb ignorance.
    - lurr 9y ago
      > i'd expect that kind of stupidity from reddit, but here and the very next sentence > Has mainstream media truly got such a hold over everyone
      - ghostcluster 9y ago
        Even mainstream media admitted its sins the day after the 2016 election. This is from the political director of CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugness-of-the-press-presidential-election-2016/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/commentary-the-unbearable-smugn... Unfortunately, it's only seemed to have gotten even worse over the past year, even after such a mea culpa.
        lurr 9y ago
        Whereas fox remains as steadfastly committed to propaganda as ever. CBS should fire that guy.
        9y ago
alistproducer2 9y ago
There are quite a few projects vying for owning the next generation of block chain. Generally known as ffm tech (fast,free,and minerless). They depend on some variation of PoS, hierarcal blockchains, and Byzantine consensus algos. Basically there's lots of serious work going into making blockchain ledgers scalable to permit money-like usage. Some examples are Raiblocks and Ethereum's Plasma protocol.
- tomp 9y ago
  Did anyone solve the "no stake" problem in "proof of stake"?
  - DennisP 9y ago
    The solution in Casper: if you approve more than one block at the same height, someone can submit both your approvals to the winning chain, which destroys your stake on that chain. The submitter gets a reward. There's a long delay to withdraw your stake so plenty of time for someone to submit.
    - xorcist 9y ago
      What if the alternate chain is kept secret until it is sure to be victorious? In a situation where this type of conspiracy takes place it makes economic sense to join them.
      - DennisP 9y ago
        It's fine for your favored chain to win. And maybe you can get a group of validators to cooperate and make that happen. But they better have bet on only that chain, or they will lose their stake. If the validators are conspiring on a secret chain, and they're betting only on the secret blocks, the public blocks won't be finalized.
  - ralexstokes 9y ago
    You generally get around the "nothing at stake" problem by requiring validators (consensus-forming nodes) to submit a deposit that is subject to deletion upon proof of bad behavior. For example, if I get two conflicting messages signed by you in Ethereum's Casper network, I can present that data as proof to the Casper smart contract where you lose your deposit.
Cthulhu_ 9y ago
You could argue that Ethereum is a useful application because it allows for about fifty other major coins to work, becoming like a provider for virtual currencies.
- imron 9y ago
  Turtles all the way down

vadimberman 9y ago

True, but the article is not about the blockchain; moreover, I'd be shocked if CNBC were discussing inner works of software and technical concepts that the general public has no interest in.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
hanselot 9y ago
I'd be shocked if CNBC discussed any news that was based on fact.

malloryerik 9y ago

Yes and no, sadly. If bitcoin collapses in disgrace, many people might be biased against all things blockchain for quite some time.

disordinary 9y ago
As a means of investment, which is never what it was intended for, but they won't care at all about underlying technology.

panarky 9y ago

Yes, the longer they don't take us seriously, the farther ahead we'll be when they finally understand. Let them think cryptocurrencies are a passing fad. Let them believe they're secure in their offices and studios. The longer they believe this the better for us.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

User23 9y ago

One reason that people are working on blockchain things all over the place because money is pouring into it at an absurd rate thanks to investors' fear of missing out on the next big thing. This is not a criticism, there is nothing wrong with entrepreneurs going where the capital is.

beefield 9y ago
Well, you could argue that there is something wrong in entrepreneurs going where the capital is if the capital happens to be in a wrong place.
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  I would instead argue that this is a problem with the capital, not with the entrepreneurs. This is relevant because if you want to fix it, it would be completely useless to act on the entrepreneurs.

ghostcluster 9y ago

> people are working on blockchain things all over the place, relatively quietly in the background "Kodak shares have more than tripled since company announced 'KodakCoin'" https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/kodak-shares-have-more-than-tripled-since-announcing-kodakcoin.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/10/kodak-shares-have-more-than-... This is not the future I signed up for..

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
But seriously there is great potential in a blockchain system that tracks intellectual property ownership in a distributed fashion.
- stuntkite 9y ago
  Also verifying image authenticity in a world quickly hurtling past a the uncanny valley with turn key neural nets to fake just about any media at no cost and with no special skills.
- easytiger 9y ago
  All this can be done better as a non distributed system.
  - Cthulhu_ 9y ago
    I think what might be happening here is that the traditional software development practices and habits would get on that, turning it into a project costing millions, taking years, and not doing what it promised.
ourmandave 9y ago
I think someone is doing a pump and dump at Kodak. At CES they also came out with the Kodak Kashminer. The terms are so hilariously bad it can't be real. https://twitter.com/chrisbhoffman/status/950861459302445056 https://twitter.com/chrisbhoffman/status/950861459302445056

disordinary 9y ago

There are very few good use cases for blockchains, a lot of companies are doing things with blockchain tech that are not suited and they would be better off simply using a traditional database and APIs. But, for the right use cases it's revolutionary.

andirk 9y ago

Right. Satoshi, brought us bitcoin, but possibly more importantly, he brought blockchain in eyesight of the master branch.

ur-whale 9y ago

Mainstream media tends to bundle in the term "blockchain" two separate things: 1) an append-only, verifyable, transaction log/db 2) a distributed consensus based update mechanism #1 is IMO fairly mundane and uninteresting. Unfortunately, a whole lot of the "blockchain" work happening is focusing on it. #2 is much more interesting and what will power truly interesting innovations. Sadly, it is largely under-advertized.

lmm 9y ago

10 years on there are no non-currency blockchain applications that make any sense. And even if they did exist, since the blockchain integrity guarantees only work if there is a valuable reward for "mining", a failure of blockchain-as-currency would doom non-currency blockchain applications as well.