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In my opinion, very little current business practices fall under a positive answer to this: "Are the entities with write access having a hard time deciding who

In my opinion, very little current business practices fall under a positive answer to this: "Are the entities with write access having a hard time deciding who should be in control of the datastore" Because by definition, if the business practice exists in the first place it is because they already found a solution to collaborate. I'm almost tempted to add a snarky: "for further information, please refer to this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law"

darawk 8y ago
I understand why you might think that that isn't an issue, but it absolutely is. Think about stagnant systems that persist for seemingly incomprehensible reasons. SWIFT payments, paper stock settlement, do you know how bond trading works? Paper. Someone has to physically sign it over. Do you know why these legacy methods persist? They persist not because the people involved don't know there's a better way. They persist because nobody can agree on who should control the new way. This is exactly the problem that blockchains solve. This point is subtle, but it is extremely important, and it absolutely needs to be taken seriously. I should point out, that Git solves exactly the same problem, by the way. You don't want a centralized entity hosting your project? Great, use git. Git, by the way, is a blockchain.
- dreamcompiler 8y ago
  Git is not a secure blockchain. It's quite easy to rewrite history in git to change the true order of events (after all, that's the whole purpose of rebase). A true blockchain has to be protected by cryptographic signing protocols; git is not.
  - darawk 8y ago
    A) What is your point? B) Git is perfectly secure if you don't accept pushes.
    - dreamcompiler 8y ago
      My point is that it cannot solve the problems a blockchain can. You could not build a digital currency on git.
      - darawk 8y ago
        Cryptocurrencies are just git + proof of work. Git, on its own, is a blockchain. Adding proof of work to a blockchain solves the timestamping problem, which allows you to use that blockchain as a currency (i.e. prevent double spends). Many times that property is useful (more than just in currencies, e.g. trading stocks), but not always, and it is not an essential property of a 'blockchain'.

darawk 8y ago

I understand why you might think that that isn't an issue, but it absolutely is. Think about stagnant systems that persist for seemingly incomprehensible reasons. SWIFT payments, paper stock settlement, do you know how bond trading works? Paper. Someone has to physically sign it over. Do you know why these legacy methods persist? They persist not because the people involved don't know there's a better way. They persist because nobody can agree on who should control the new way. This is exactly the problem that blockchains solve. This point is subtle, but it is extremely important, and it absolutely needs to be taken seriously. I should point out, that Git solves exactly the same problem, by the way. You don't want a centralized entity hosting your project? Great, use git. Git, by the way, is a blockchain.

dreamcompiler 8y ago
Git is not a secure blockchain. It's quite easy to rewrite history in git to change the true order of events (after all, that's the whole purpose of rebase). A true blockchain has to be protected by cryptographic signing protocols; git is not.
- darawk 8y ago
  A) What is your point? B) Git is perfectly secure if you don't accept pushes.
  - dreamcompiler 8y ago
    My point is that it cannot solve the problems a blockchain can. You could not build a digital currency on git.
    - darawk 8y ago
      Cryptocurrencies are just git + proof of work. Git, on its own, is a blockchain. Adding proof of work to a blockchain solves the timestamping problem, which allows you to use that blockchain as a currency (i.e. prevent double spends). Many times that property is useful (more than just in currencies, e.g. trading stocks), but not always, and it is not an essential property of a 'blockchain'.