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Solve an actual, real life problem. All I see are Long Island Ice Tea Blockchain Corp. and Walmat saying that they're using blockchain to help their supply cha
by madeofpalk 8y ago
Solve an actual, real life problem.
All I see are Long Island Ice Tea Blockchain Corp. and Walmat saying that they're using blockchain to help their supply chain (whatever that means).
The reality is is that Blockchain is no longer new. Compare it to iPhone - they both roughly came out at the same time, yet we're still having the same conversations - "What problem does Blockchain solve" - while the iPhone found its place in the market. The reality is is that if Blockchain had a 'killer app' beyond tech bros speculating, we would have found it by now.
- bsparker 8y agoI believe the actual problem this solves, the "killer application," is already out there.
- wool_gather 8y agoCan you specify what that is?
- kirillseva 8y agoBlockchain conferences.
- Trundle 8y agoBuying drugs off the internet.
- torpfactory 8y agoMurder for hire?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- abritinthebay 8y agoThe sad thing about the Walmart usecase is all they really mean is hashing. Just hashing. That’s it.
- wolfgke 8y ago> The reality is is that Blockchain is no longer new. Compare it to iPhone - they both roughly came out at the same time, yet we're still having the same conversations - "What problem does Blockchain solve" - while the iPhone found its place in the market. I still do not understand what kind of problem the iPhone solves (seriously!), while I can imagine quite well what kind of problem Bitcoin attempted to solve when it came out. If you want to understand it, consider the coinbase parameter in the Genesis block: > https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks". This summarizes quite well the situation at that time: People feared that the dollar and euro system was on the brink of collapse; because of the bailouts and money printing, people feared inflation; the central banks became highly distrusted institutions etc. So at that time, a currency system that - is not based on a central trusted institution - has a limit on maximum amount of currency that can exist (so it is free of inflation) became a very desired one. We know that history turned out somewhat different - most people would argue that the trust in the national currencies has at least partly been reestablished. On the other hand, at least the original bitcoin protocol was eventually not able to abide its promises (e.g. scaling) or properties that people projected into it (anonymity; Bitcoin was never anonymous, only pseudonymous). So to me it is quite obvious what kind of Bitcoin attempted to solve and why at that time this solution seemed quite attractive. From today's perspective, we can probably say that Bitcoin - as in the original protocol - has mostly failed. On the one hand, people regained trust in the central banks (whether this trust is justified, can of cours be debated for hours), which makes the Bitcoin product now less attractive to the masses. On the other hand, the original protocol had scalability issues. Bitcoin promoters will argue that the scalability issues are now solved, altcoin promoters will argue that their altcoin offers properties that people loved to project into Bitcoin (anonymity). For most people, with the regained trust in national currencies, the problem that Bitcoin attempts/attempted to solve is - in opposite to the situation 2008/2009 - simply not a burning issue anymore. My opinion is: Bitcoin was an idea that seemed very attractive at the time when it came out, but history turned out differently (for good or bad).
- madeofpalk 8y agoWhile I'm not certain I could state what problem iPhone (or smartphones in general) solves, it's definitely proven market fit. Bitcoin has not.