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> Bitcoin is like the XHTML of blockchains. If XHTML had won you would not have had a bunch of web sites that wouldn't render. You would have had browsers ship

> Bitcoin is like the XHTML of blockchains. If XHTML had won you would not have had a bunch of web sites that wouldn't render. You would have had browsers shipping both the old HTML parsers and the XHTML parser, and attempting to send artisanal sites through the old HTML parser before failing. Hell, you probably would have still had Hixie's unifying algorithm for parsing the old HTML consistently across browsers. Because consistency would have still been a problem for the billions of sites that weren't XHTML. If people had adopted Bitcoin instead of the old technology "X"-- for any "X" I can think of-- you'd end up with a vastly inferior product and a network that probably performs several orders of magnitude slower than how "X" currently performs. The only exceptions I can think of for "X" atm are funding Wikileaks and funding Scihub. So no, blockchain is not the new XHTML.

lucideer 8y ago
This this this. If anything bitcoin is the new HTML5, though even that analogy isn't great. - it's hugely popular mostly on the basis of hype - the technological advantages over predecessors is overblown The analogy isn't great though because HTML5 largely succeeded on the back of scaremongering the flaws of its predecessor, rather than bitcoin's success being on the back of wild claims about its appropriateness as a technical solution in so many applications. In reality, the two histories aren't comparable.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  The html aspects of html5 have been hugely overblown, but css3 and the totality of javascript apis that have spotted under the html5 banner have been revolutionary.
  - SllX 8y ago
    “Works best in IE” has been replaced with either “works best in Google Chrome” or “works best when you allow us to assault your computer with every tracking script under the Sun”, usually represented by a blank page when JS isn’t enabled, and especially notable when you were probably only expecting text and images. The revolution has been glorious. Can’t wait for the next one.
- jancsika 8y ago
  "HTML5 is wildly popular. Every second tens of valid HTML5 documents are parsed throughout the world." I don't think you're quite there yet with your analogy.

lucideer 8y ago

This this this. If anything bitcoin is the new HTML5, though even that analogy isn't great. - it's hugely popular mostly on the basis of hype - the technological advantages over predecessors is overblown The analogy isn't great though because HTML5 largely succeeded on the back of scaremongering the flaws of its predecessor, rather than bitcoin's success being on the back of wild claims about its appropriateness as a technical solution in so many applications. In reality, the two histories aren't comparable.

beaconstudios 8y ago
The html aspects of html5 have been hugely overblown, but css3 and the totality of javascript apis that have spotted under the html5 banner have been revolutionary.
- SllX 8y ago
  “Works best in IE” has been replaced with either “works best in Google Chrome” or “works best when you allow us to assault your computer with every tracking script under the Sun”, usually represented by a blank page when JS isn’t enabled, and especially notable when you were probably only expecting text and images. The revolution has been glorious. Can’t wait for the next one.
jancsika 8y ago
"HTML5 is wildly popular. Every second tens of valid HTML5 documents are parsed throughout the world." I don't think you're quite there yet with your analogy.