4 ms·

>"Immutable" as in "immutable up until the folks at the top decide to alter history to benefit themselves financially". See also - Ethereum & The DAO. You seem

by nokcha 9y ago

>"Immutable" as in "immutable up until the folks at the top decide to alter history to benefit themselves financially". See also - Ethereum & The DAO. You seem to be implying that the Ethereum Foundation had the ability to unilaterally alter the blockchain for everybody. But that's not really true. While anyone can hard-fork the blockchain, that doesn't mean that anybody else is going to accept the new fork. In fact, a bunch of people revolted against the Ethereum Foundation's decision and kept the old blockchain alive as a Ethereum Classic. Ultimately, it was the market that decided to recognize the Ethereum Foundation's fork as the winner.

spookthesunset 9y ago
> Ultimately, it was the market that decided to recognize the Ethereum Foundation's fork as the winner. So instead of a carefully designed system of law that has thousands of years of evolution to get where it is today, we'll just regress back to what is basically mob rule?
- dorgo 9y ago
  Some call it mob rule. Others call it democracy..
- nokcha 9y ago
  Any currency is only worth what the market values it at. (Yes, this is true for fiat currencies too, as evidenced by countries that have suffered hyperinflation.) You can still use Ethereum Classic if you really want to, but it has a significantly smaller userbase and market cap than the Ethereum Foundation's fork.
  - spookthesunset 9y ago
    > You can still use Ethereum Classic if you really want to, but it has a significantly smaller userbase and market cap than the Ethereum Foundation's fork. That is comforting if my mortgage or deed to my house was tied to a smart contract running on that platform.
- jmeyer2k 9y ago
  The point is: people who want to manipulate history or cheat need to jump through many more hoops than currently exist. Instead of a simple unilateral decision from a company's CEO, the decision rests on a giant (and growing) ecosystem of developers, economists, and traders.

by nokcha 9y ago

spookthesunset 9y ago

> Ultimately, it was the market that decided to recognize the Ethereum Foundation's fork as the winner. So instead of a carefully designed system of law that has thousands of years of evolution to get where it is today, we'll just regress back to what is basically mob rule?

dorgo 9y ago
Some call it mob rule. Others call it democracy..
nokcha 9y ago
Any currency is only worth what the market values it at. (Yes, this is true for fiat currencies too, as evidenced by countries that have suffered hyperinflation.) You can still use Ethereum Classic if you really want to, but it has a significantly smaller userbase and market cap than the Ethereum Foundation's fork.
- spookthesunset 9y ago
  > You can still use Ethereum Classic if you really want to, but it has a significantly smaller userbase and market cap than the Ethereum Foundation's fork. That is comforting if my mortgage or deed to my house was tied to a smart contract running on that platform.
jmeyer2k 9y ago
The point is: people who want to manipulate history or cheat need to jump through many more hoops than currently exist. Instead of a simple unilateral decision from a company's CEO, the decision rests on a giant (and growing) ecosystem of developers, economists, and traders.