5 ms·

Does anyone else think that the IBM commercial where they talk about tracking a tomato with a blockchain is laughable? Or is it just me?

ScottAS 9y ago
It's complete crap. The saddest part is that they do have some amazing technical minds behind the scenes. They give their stage to sleazy marketing and salespeople who have no idea what they're talking about way too often.
- hfdgiutdryg 9y ago
  Sounds an awful lot like Microsoft.
  - rsuelzer 9y ago
    I think Microsoft has turned the corner.
    - gaius 9y ago
      Yes - Azure is genuinely good
brandonmenc 9y ago
One of the few companies [0] in the space that I find interesting is doing exactly that. Tracking the authenticity or safety of physical products changing many hands is a perfect application of distributed, tamper-proof databases. [0] https://www.provenance.org https://www.provenance.org
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  That is the third time this week here I've seen the word "provenance." I had never encountered it before. Why is everyone now using it constantly on this site?
  - amdavidson 9y ago
    Perhaps the frequency illusion bias? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequ...
    - mixmastamyk 9y ago
      I know that's a thing, but am here for years and never encountered it. When I don't know a word I look it up so can't say I've never seen it even if I don't remember its meaning.
      - Domenic_S 9y ago
        It's just the bias at work. That word's been used around here plenty ;) https://hn.algolia.com/?query=provenance&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=provenance&sort=byDate&prefix&...
  - pjmorris 9y ago
    I first came upon 'provenance' in "Programming Pearls', Jon Bentley, 1986. The word has been traveling around hacker circles for some time.
- jankeymeulen 9y ago
  But what good is tracking e.g. a tomato with a tamper proof database when the label on the tomato is easily tampered with?
  - ghaff 9y ago
    Supply chain is an interesting case for blockchain. It doesn't eliminate the possibility of incorrect information being entered at some point in the chain. But there are probably still advantages to having transactions being immutable once they've been executed on a chain that's not under the control of any single party. Also smart contracts are potentially interesting.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  But how do you stop someone from putting incorrect information, or outright lying in the first place?

ScottAS 9y ago

It's complete crap. The saddest part is that they do have some amazing technical minds behind the scenes. They give their stage to sleazy marketing and salespeople who have no idea what they're talking about way too often.

hfdgiutdryg 9y ago
Sounds an awful lot like Microsoft.
- rsuelzer 9y ago
  I think Microsoft has turned the corner.
  - gaius 9y ago
    Yes - Azure is genuinely good

brandonmenc 9y ago

One of the few companies [0] in the space that I find interesting is doing exactly that. Tracking the authenticity or safety of physical products changing many hands is a perfect application of distributed, tamper-proof databases. [0] https://www.provenance.org https://www.provenance.org

mixmastamyk 9y ago
That is the third time this week here I've seen the word "provenance." I had never encountered it before. Why is everyone now using it constantly on this site?
- amdavidson 9y ago
  Perhaps the frequency illusion bias? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequency_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases#Frequ...
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    I know that's a thing, but am here for years and never encountered it. When I don't know a word I look it up so can't say I've never seen it even if I don't remember its meaning.
    - Domenic_S 9y ago
      It's just the bias at work. That word's been used around here plenty ;) https://hn.algolia.com/?query=provenance&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=provenance&sort=byDate&prefix&...
- pjmorris 9y ago
  I first came upon 'provenance' in "Programming Pearls', Jon Bentley, 1986. The word has been traveling around hacker circles for some time.
jankeymeulen 9y ago
But what good is tracking e.g. a tomato with a tamper proof database when the label on the tomato is easily tampered with?
- ghaff 9y ago
  Supply chain is an interesting case for blockchain. It doesn't eliminate the possibility of incorrect information being entered at some point in the chain. But there are probably still advantages to having transactions being immutable once they've been executed on a chain that's not under the control of any single party. Also smart contracts are potentially interesting.
s73v3r_ 9y ago
But how do you stop someone from putting incorrect information, or outright lying in the first place?