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The discussion of blockchain tech on HN is puzzling to me. On the matter of value: I suspect that if we find ourselves able to send a message back in time two

by jMyles 8y ago

The discussion of blockchain tech on HN is puzzling to me. On the matter of value: I suspect that if we find ourselves able to send a message back in time two years (when BTC was less than $1,000 USD) and report that the price is now over $3,700, that we'll find this message to be met with an understanding that this is, at least, a validation of the use of blockchain tech as a store of value. I suspect that if we describe the details of the lightning network in this message and report that transactions are radically faster and cheaper for retail-scale use, that we'll hear cheers about blockchain utility as a currency. If we describe LivePeer and Fluence and the Origin protocol, if we stream talks from this year's DevCon about the incredible Python tooling that is coming of age and the progress on sharding, proof-of-stake, ring signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs, I'm certain that we'll hear nothing but confidence about the ecosystem and the extensibility of blockchain tech. If I am permitted to send one of my recent talks[0] back with this message about our progress at NuCypher on developing new cryptographic primitives and cryptological narratives to accompany them, I have no doubt whatsoever that we'll receive back both excitement and gratitude, not on account of our work but because everybody in December of 2017 will be so grateful to know that they're about to be alive during a time when organizations like ours actually have the funding and mission to dust off tech that has sat largely stagnant for the preceding 10-15 years and move it substantially forward. Yet, look at us HN. Instead of these reactions we're sitting here filled with cynicism and darkness. Why? Where have we misplaced our joy at these developments? I'll tell you what: let's just pretend that somebody from December of 2021 has posted a message here with similar signs of encouragement. Let's imagine that they've told us about Ethereum 2.0 and Monero coming online. That new turnkey technologies include decentralized access management via NuCypher, buttery transcoding via LivePeer, and fast and flexible decentralized queries via Fluence. Let's hear in our mind's voice about the next cohort of decentralized tech following these, including fully-homomorphic encryption (perhaps via NuFHE), solutions to several of the open oracle problems, and blockchain use in all sorts of gaming scenarios to ensure fairness of loot boxes and other intra-game economics. Let's celebrate all the adoption they report to us: medical devices that work without the need for trust in insurance companies, communications infrastructure with far greater robustness and in widespread use to thwart spy apparatuses of despotic governments, sharing frameworks to ensure that media is able to spread throughout the world despite attempts at censorship or outdated notions of "intellectual property." Please, let's let 2019 be a year when optimism and childlike curiosity are not only permitted in these parts but celebrated like they (largely) were just two years ago when the BTC price was less than 30% what it is today. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuY9WXK61gY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuY9WXK61gY

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
sp527 8y ago
You're reading way too hard into this. It skyrocketed to ~$20K and then plummeted to here because, plainly, it was a vehicle to manipulate morons out of their money. That's worth at least some "cynicism and darkness", and should be prompting our community to contemplate how, going forward, we can avoid hurting the tech illiterate masses when our own irrational exuberance, in concert with the more classically opportunistic and morally deficient business types, leads to damaging outcomes. This is in fact my gripe with the tech community more generally: we have demonstrated ourselves to be chronically incapable of tempering the innovative instinct with an even baseline understanding of the realities of human nature. And this is why we're becoming increasingly more responsible for breaking the world.
twblalock 8y ago
There will always be people who say a breakthrough is just around the corner. How many years should the rest of us wait wait before we decide that blockchain tech was a dead end? It's already been around for a while and I can't think of any successful use cases outside of cryptocurrency.
- jMyles 8y ago
  Are you insinuating that there have been no breakthroughs in the past 2 years? How do you respond to the ones I have listed in the comment to which you're replying?
  - twblalock 8y ago
    How have those so-called breakthroughs had an effect on the world outside the cryptocurrency bubble? Who has used them in industry?
    - jMyles 8y ago
      Ahh, yes, in that sense you're right. But I'm not sure that it's a meaningful standard. We've seen "the bubble" being poked sharply from the inside with relative trivialities like cryptokitties. We've also seen the more blunt effect of undermining prohibition policies - access to a wide variety of (psychoactive and other) forbidden medicines has been difficult to achieve since the garden of eden; this seems like a breakthrough to me. But yes, your larger point is sound: broader worldwide adoption hasn't happened, at least yet. I'm confident, though, that the next cryptokitties won't be cryptokitties and that the next OpenBazaar will be more effectual. We'll see.

by jMyles 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

sp527 8y ago

You're reading way too hard into this. It skyrocketed to ~$20K and then plummeted to here because, plainly, it was a vehicle to manipulate morons out of their money. That's worth at least some "cynicism and darkness", and should be prompting our community to contemplate how, going forward, we can avoid hurting the tech illiterate masses when our own irrational exuberance, in concert with the more classically opportunistic and morally deficient business types, leads to damaging outcomes. This is in fact my gripe with the tech community more generally: we have demonstrated ourselves to be chronically incapable of tempering the innovative instinct with an even baseline understanding of the realities of human nature. And this is why we're becoming increasingly more responsible for breaking the world.

twblalock 8y ago

There will always be people who say a breakthrough is just around the corner. How many years should the rest of us wait wait before we decide that blockchain tech was a dead end? It's already been around for a while and I can't think of any successful use cases outside of cryptocurrency.

jMyles 8y ago
Are you insinuating that there have been no breakthroughs in the past 2 years? How do you respond to the ones I have listed in the comment to which you're replying?
- twblalock 8y ago
  How have those so-called breakthroughs had an effect on the world outside the cryptocurrency bubble? Who has used them in industry?
  - jMyles 8y ago
    Ahh, yes, in that sense you're right. But I'm not sure that it's a meaningful standard. We've seen "the bubble" being poked sharply from the inside with relative trivialities like cryptokitties. We've also seen the more blunt effect of undermining prohibition policies - access to a wide variety of (psychoactive and other) forbidden medicines has been difficult to achieve since the garden of eden; this seems like a breakthrough to me. But yes, your larger point is sound: broader worldwide adoption hasn't happened, at least yet. I'm confident, though, that the next cryptokitties won't be cryptokitties and that the next OpenBazaar will be more effectual. We'll see.