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>> I would love to know which societal problems can be reduced to a distributed trust problem. That would convince me that I'm wrong about blockchain technology

>> I would love to know which societal problems can be reduced to a distributed trust problem. That would convince me that I'm wrong about blockchain technology. I feel like Namecoin, the first Bitcoin fork, is ready to replace our current DNS system. The transaction fee for registering domains is comparable to current prices, and it gets us out of this horrible situation where we trust companies and governments not to abuse their power and sign new certificates (this is not just a theoretical issue). The problem of associating signing keys with domains is about as basic as you can get with distributed trust systems. Are you unconvinced by this use case?

meh2frdf 8y ago
So what would that transition look like, how would you phase the roll out? Practically how would this work and would the result be worth the effort to each individual involved or would it be a utopian ideal for ‘the greater good’?
- blotter_paper 8y ago
  Firefox and Chrome extensions that resolve .bit domains already exist, the relevant companies just need to audit them or write their own solutions and then bake them into their browsers. Nowadays, most users don't even know when their browser updates. Once every major browser resolves .bit addresses, the battle over secure DNS will be practically won. Hold-outs are okay, I feel no need to force people to use more secure systems. The result would allow us to avoid situations arising from incompetent or malicious signing authorities, like DigiCert Sdn Bhd or Diginator. The problems addressed are not delusional dystopian fantasies, but rather the security of the internet. Malicious signing happens, just read the news. All non-malicious entities using https should be overjoyed by the availability of a more secure system. The only problem I see for adoption is network effects.

meh2frdf 8y ago

So what would that transition look like, how would you phase the roll out? Practically how would this work and would the result be worth the effort to each individual involved or would it be a utopian ideal for ‘the greater good’?

blotter_paper 8y ago
Firefox and Chrome extensions that resolve .bit domains already exist, the relevant companies just need to audit them or write their own solutions and then bake them into their browsers. Nowadays, most users don't even know when their browser updates. Once every major browser resolves .bit addresses, the battle over secure DNS will be practically won. Hold-outs are okay, I feel no need to force people to use more secure systems. The result would allow us to avoid situations arising from incompetent or malicious signing authorities, like DigiCert Sdn Bhd or Diginator. The problems addressed are not delusional dystopian fantasies, but rather the security of the internet. Malicious signing happens, just read the news. All non-malicious entities using https should be overjoyed by the availability of a more secure system. The only problem I see for adoption is network effects.