5 ms·

Elk is the easiest way to start building decentralized hardware projects

32 points by karanbhangui 7y ago

tyingq 7y ago
I suppose if you're involved in blockchain, selling shovels isn't a bad idea.
- imake 7y ago
  The blockchain space (or, more accurately, the decentralization space), is still very nascent and there ought to be developments on various parts of the ecosystem for it to gain widespread adoption. Myself and the team at Elk are excited about what decentralization can bring, and are interested in exploring what it could bring to embedded devices. Granted, most of the applications are futuristic, but now is a good time to build proper tools to help spark people's imagination and creativity in this space. We'll be posting lots of projects you can build with Elk. Sign up for our newsletter at https://elk.cc https://elk.cc and let us know if you have any further thoughts or questions.
ncmncm 7y ago
Crowd-sourced flim-flam-enabled hardware? Seriously, doesn't mentioning "blockchain" automatically kill any proposal, yet?
- rosser 7y ago
  I am a huge skeptic of most of what we've done around "blockchain". Almost every new project that I learn about in the space confirms my bias that people are profoundly, debilitatingly myopic when it comes to the technology. Content-free dismissals, however, strike me as more or less the exact opposite problem to poorly examined proclamations of panacea.
- IAmLiterallyAB 7y ago
  Step aside granddad. The IoT Blockchain is here. After all, if your internet connected thermostat isn't on the Blockchain, is it _really_ a thermostat?
Animats 7y ago
It's just another microprocessor development board. I was hoping for a low cost PC board assembly service.
- imglorp 7y ago
  Looks like. The comm layer is the value prop, really: > By default and when possible, Elk runs a light node and communicates directly with the blockchain and not through a hosted service. Elk pushes decentralization to the edge!
  - rhizome 7y ago
    Your days of centralized decentralization are over!
    - Animats 7y ago
      If this thing sells, it will jam up the Etherium blockchain the way Crypto Kitties did.
hlieberman 7y ago
You're kidding, right? This is some kind of belated, unfunny April Fools joke, right? This is a specialty IoT device for "blockchain", something whose only hardware requirements is some kind of on-board crypto device... and it doesn't even have one. "Elk doesn't have any form of hardware security and shouldn't at any point in time be used to hold significant amounts of (real) crypto assets." Kickstarter should remove the project for being a scam.
- woah 7y ago
  It’s a “scam” now to sell hardware bundled with special purpose software? This post is almost a parody of the shrill anti blockchain rants on HN. And your damning criticism of this device is that it doesn’t contain a hardware security module and shouldn’t be used to secure millions of dollars? You’re tearing someone down for trying to support their open source software by selling hardware with it pre-flashed.
  - geezerjay 7y ago
    > And your damning criticism of this device is that it doesn’t contain a hardware security module and shouldn’t be used to secure millions of dollars? From a bird's eye view, objectively the project appears to be marketing a generic low-powered SoC which at best runs some blockchain software. And the "millions of dollars" was your claim, so if you want to criticise someone for making it then the only one you have to criticise is yourself. > You’re tearing someone down for trying to support their open source software by selling hardware with it pre-flashed. It's actually the other way around. Someone is trying to sell uninteresting hardware at a premium by making unbelievablr hyperbolical claims about its capabilities, which sounds quite honestly like a blatant scam.
    - woah 7y ago
      There's nothing hyperbolic about the claims- all of it is easily possible with some software on the device. They are very open about this, and the software is open source. You begrudge them trying to make a living by selling hardware with the software conveniently pre-flashed.
liaohuqiu 7y ago
I thought ELK was ElasticSearch, Logstash, and Kibana.
- analognoise 7y ago
  I thought it was the Eclipse Layout Kernel.
  - imglorp 7y ago
    Or the Extension Language Kit of yore, in Scheme.
- mrk299 7y ago
  I thought it was a thing that looked like a big deer.
Ycros 7y ago
Upon reading the headline I had assumed this had something to do with the ELK embedded operating system, it doesn't. Maybe not a good idea to pick the same name as another product already in the embedded space?
exoesquitur 7y ago
Looks like an interesting software project, bringing powerful and cool libraries to the arduino ecosystem. Too bad they chose the "let's make a redundant copy of the pi zero-w (or another 10k boards out there) without any actual application specific hardware" model of monetization. This is really a software project, and the people doing it are looking to sell hardware to fund the development?
- imake 7y ago
  Hey exoesquitur, thanks for your comments. This is imake from the Elk team. We did actually think of building Elk as a pure software project, but we opted not to because we didn't find hardware that we could use that would provide the 10x better embedded blockchain development experience that we want to deliver. We wanted something that's breadboard compatible, 3.3v and 5v tolerant, integrated emmc preloaded with our OS, plug-and-play as a regular micro controller board not a single board computer, an RGB LED for indicating status, and no irrelevant and unneeded ports (HDMI, Audio, Ethernet, camera, etc). Additionally, building out our own hardware paves the way for us to add hardware security in future iterations of the board. We'll be adding more details and shedding more light into our development experience in upcoming blog posts. Please subscribe at https://elk.cc https://elk.cc to learn more. Happy to address any other concerns you might have.

32 points by karanbhangui 7y ago

tyingq 7y ago

I suppose if you're involved in blockchain, selling shovels isn't a bad idea.

imake 7y ago
The blockchain space (or, more accurately, the decentralization space), is still very nascent and there ought to be developments on various parts of the ecosystem for it to gain widespread adoption. Myself and the team at Elk are excited about what decentralization can bring, and are interested in exploring what it could bring to embedded devices. Granted, most of the applications are futuristic, but now is a good time to build proper tools to help spark people's imagination and creativity in this space. We'll be posting lots of projects you can build with Elk. Sign up for our newsletter at https://elk.cc https://elk.cc and let us know if you have any further thoughts or questions.

ncmncm 7y ago

Crowd-sourced flim-flam-enabled hardware? Seriously, doesn't mentioning "blockchain" automatically kill any proposal, yet?

rosser 7y ago
I am a huge skeptic of most of what we've done around "blockchain". Almost every new project that I learn about in the space confirms my bias that people are profoundly, debilitatingly myopic when it comes to the technology. Content-free dismissals, however, strike me as more or less the exact opposite problem to poorly examined proclamations of panacea.
IAmLiterallyAB 7y ago
Step aside granddad. The IoT Blockchain is here. After all, if your internet connected thermostat isn't on the Blockchain, is it _really_ a thermostat?

Animats 7y ago

It's just another microprocessor development board. I was hoping for a low cost PC board assembly service.

imglorp 7y ago
Looks like. The comm layer is the value prop, really: > By default and when possible, Elk runs a light node and communicates directly with the blockchain and not through a hosted service. Elk pushes decentralization to the edge!
- rhizome 7y ago
  Your days of centralized decentralization are over!
  - Animats 7y ago
    If this thing sells, it will jam up the Etherium blockchain the way Crypto Kitties did.

hlieberman 7y ago

You're kidding, right? This is some kind of belated, unfunny April Fools joke, right? This is a specialty IoT device for "blockchain", something whose only hardware requirements is some kind of on-board crypto device... and it doesn't even have one. "Elk doesn't have any form of hardware security and shouldn't at any point in time be used to hold significant amounts of (real) crypto assets." Kickstarter should remove the project for being a scam.

woah 7y ago
It’s a “scam” now to sell hardware bundled with special purpose software? This post is almost a parody of the shrill anti blockchain rants on HN. And your damning criticism of this device is that it doesn’t contain a hardware security module and shouldn’t be used to secure millions of dollars? You’re tearing someone down for trying to support their open source software by selling hardware with it pre-flashed.
- geezerjay 7y ago
  > And your damning criticism of this device is that it doesn’t contain a hardware security module and shouldn’t be used to secure millions of dollars? From a bird's eye view, objectively the project appears to be marketing a generic low-powered SoC which at best runs some blockchain software. And the "millions of dollars" was your claim, so if you want to criticise someone for making it then the only one you have to criticise is yourself. > You’re tearing someone down for trying to support their open source software by selling hardware with it pre-flashed. It's actually the other way around. Someone is trying to sell uninteresting hardware at a premium by making unbelievablr hyperbolical claims about its capabilities, which sounds quite honestly like a blatant scam.
  - woah 7y ago
    There's nothing hyperbolic about the claims- all of it is easily possible with some software on the device. They are very open about this, and the software is open source. You begrudge them trying to make a living by selling hardware with the software conveniently pre-flashed.

liaohuqiu 7y ago

I thought ELK was ElasticSearch, Logstash, and Kibana.

analognoise 7y ago
I thought it was the Eclipse Layout Kernel.
- imglorp 7y ago
  Or the Extension Language Kit of yore, in Scheme.
mrk299 7y ago
I thought it was a thing that looked like a big deer.

Ycros 7y ago

Upon reading the headline I had assumed this had something to do with the ELK embedded operating system, it doesn't. Maybe not a good idea to pick the same name as another product already in the embedded space?

exoesquitur 7y ago

Looks like an interesting software project, bringing powerful and cool libraries to the arduino ecosystem. Too bad they chose the "let's make a redundant copy of the pi zero-w (or another 10k boards out there) without any actual application specific hardware" model of monetization. This is really a software project, and the people doing it are looking to sell hardware to fund the development?

imake 7y ago
Hey exoesquitur, thanks for your comments. This is imake from the Elk team. We did actually think of building Elk as a pure software project, but we opted not to because we didn't find hardware that we could use that would provide the 10x better embedded blockchain development experience that we want to deliver. We wanted something that's breadboard compatible, 3.3v and 5v tolerant, integrated emmc preloaded with our OS, plug-and-play as a regular micro controller board not a single board computer, an RGB LED for indicating status, and no irrelevant and unneeded ports (HDMI, Audio, Ethernet, camera, etc). Additionally, building out our own hardware paves the way for us to add hardware security in future iterations of the board. We'll be adding more details and shedding more light into our development experience in upcoming blog posts. Please subscribe at https://elk.cc https://elk.cc to learn more. Happy to address any other concerns you might have.