3 ms·

I vote yes, but I'm probably a bit biased.

by bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago

sidcool 8y ago
What would your reasons be? I think we are all biased and I value strong opinions.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
  Not everything in the world needs to be decentralized, despite what your local snake oil ICO salesman might tell you. However, there are more than enough significant institutions and processes that can and will function better with a little bit of distribution, decentralization, federation, etc properly baked in at key friction points. Building that future is a worthy and potentially lucrative cause. I know I'm speaking incredibly broadly, but frankly I had a similar question as you some years ago but without the benefits of being a full stack engineer. Disclosure: MSc in Digital Currency holder.
  - sidcool 8y ago
    Thanks. However I am not much into Crypto and Blockchain, just distributed systems (not necessarily decentralised).
    - bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
      Completely understood!
  - throwaway0255 8y ago
    I always thought distributed systems weren’t necessarily decentralized systems. Is my understanding of the terminology wrong? For example a system that uses distributed algorithms for performance improvements, or a system that is distributed by design and necessity to retain the benefits of redundancy, could be considered both centralized and distributed.
    - horsestable 8y ago
      > I always thought distributed systems weren’t necessarily decentralized systems. Is my understanding of the terminology wrong? This is correct. Distributed is not the same as decentralization.
    - bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
      Nope. Your understanding is spot on. Mine is the one that's flawed :P.
  - anyfoo 8y ago
    That’s not what a distributed system is. I think OP was talking about distributed systems in the computer science sense, and the theory around it, e.g. lamport clocks, distributed synchronization mechanisms... You could argue that blockchains are also distributed systems, but only in a very limited sense. To OP: I think it’s absolutely worth it. Any car is a distributed system, even smartphones (by themselves, not just as part of a network!) have so many independent devices with full-blown CPU cores in them that you can call them distributed systems, and as you probably know by now, it’s absolutely a non-trivial topic. So if it’s something that deeply interests you, there is a market. Given your full stack background (by which I assume you mean web development?), you might first need to look for work on distributed systems that are strongly associated with the web, web services etc.

I vote yes, but I'm probably a bit biased.

sidcool 8y ago

What would your reasons be? I think we are all biased and I value strong opinions.

bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
Not everything in the world needs to be decentralized, despite what your local snake oil ICO salesman might tell you. However, there are more than enough significant institutions and processes that can and will function better with a little bit of distribution, decentralization, federation, etc properly baked in at key friction points. Building that future is a worthy and potentially lucrative cause. I know I'm speaking incredibly broadly, but frankly I had a similar question as you some years ago but without the benefits of being a full stack engineer. Disclosure: MSc in Digital Currency holder.
- sidcool 8y ago
  Thanks. However I am not much into Crypto and Blockchain, just distributed systems (not necessarily decentralised).
  - bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
    Completely understood!
- throwaway0255 8y ago
  I always thought distributed systems weren’t necessarily decentralized systems. Is my understanding of the terminology wrong? For example a system that uses distributed algorithms for performance improvements, or a system that is distributed by design and necessity to retain the benefits of redundancy, could be considered both centralized and distributed.
  - horsestable 8y ago
    > I always thought distributed systems weren’t necessarily decentralized systems. Is my understanding of the terminology wrong? This is correct. Distributed is not the same as decentralization.
  - bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
    Nope. Your understanding is spot on. Mine is the one that's flawed :P.
- anyfoo 8y ago
  That’s not what a distributed system is. I think OP was talking about distributed systems in the computer science sense, and the theory around it, e.g. lamport clocks, distributed synchronization mechanisms... You could argue that blockchains are also distributed systems, but only in a very limited sense. To OP: I think it’s absolutely worth it. Any car is a distributed system, even smartphones (by themselves, not just as part of a network!) have so many independent devices with full-blown CPU cores in them that you can call them distributed systems, and as you probably know by now, it’s absolutely a non-trivial topic. So if it’s something that deeply interests you, there is a market. Given your full stack background (by which I assume you mean web development?), you might first need to look for work on distributed systems that are strongly associated with the web, web services etc.