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Name one major bank not working on blockchain tech right now. I guess an upending isn't a totally accurate description but I haven't seen banks this motivated

by lugg 7y ago

Name one major bank not working on blockchain tech right now. I guess an upending isn't a totally accurate description but I haven't seen banks this motivated to innovate in a long time.

vkou 7y ago
> Name one major bank not working on blockchain tech right now. Name one major bank actually shipping something blockchain related that works better then what we had before. Major banks occasionally announce that they are tinkering with it. There's a couple of reasons for why they do so. 1. Some senior engineer who is personally interested in cryptocurrencies with political clout wants to work on a hobby project, and is chums with his boss, who said yes. It's never going to see the light of day, but who said big institutions are smart? 2. They want to be seen as hip places for engineering talent. What better way to do so, then to claim that there's people in the organization working on magical unicorns (Even though none of their work will ever see the light of day.) 3. Idiot board members/shareholders who don't understand anything about banking or crypto are asking directors 'What are you doing about crypto,' so the company builds a Potemkin village, to tick a checkbox on their next quarterly earnings call. The village will be torn down, and the villagers shot, as soon as this checkbox disappears. In short, the list of valid reasons for a bank to work on cryptocurrency are: 1. Someone with pull started a vanity project that slipped past the beancounters. 2. Cynical marketing for purposes of developer outreach. 3. Covering-your-ass against a powerful idiot, who wants to know why you are busy doing real work, instead of chasing a fad that he read about on Buzzfeed. Notice how this list omits "Building a useful product that will make us more money."
- jamisteven 7y ago
  LMAO - I work in IB and this is spot on.
- saltminer 7y ago
  "Blockchain" is also a really vague term. Depending on your definition, git may well be using blockchain technology, and submitting patches for it could count as working on blockchain stuff. >Notice how this list omits "Building a useful product that will make us more money." Absolutely. I remember seeing an email at a previous employer about their new blockchain as a service offerings. I looked at a couple of the examples they gave - the first was an over-engineered revision history system, and the second was a chain of trust that had no way to account for the item being swapped out or tampered with in transit. But I'm sure they bragged about it to their investors.

by lugg 7y ago

Name one major bank not working on blockchain tech right now. I guess an upending isn't a totally accurate description but I haven't seen banks this motivated to innovate in a long time.

vkou 7y ago

> Name one major bank not working on blockchain tech right now. Name one major bank actually shipping something blockchain related that works better then what we had before. Major banks occasionally announce that they are tinkering with it. There's a couple of reasons for why they do so. 1. Some senior engineer who is personally interested in cryptocurrencies with political clout wants to work on a hobby project, and is chums with his boss, who said yes. It's never going to see the light of day, but who said big institutions are smart? 2. They want to be seen as hip places for engineering talent. What better way to do so, then to claim that there's people in the organization working on magical unicorns (Even though none of their work will ever see the light of day.) 3. Idiot board members/shareholders who don't understand anything about banking or crypto are asking directors 'What are you doing about crypto,' so the company builds a Potemkin village, to tick a checkbox on their next quarterly earnings call. The village will be torn down, and the villagers shot, as soon as this checkbox disappears. In short, the list of valid reasons for a bank to work on cryptocurrency are: 1. Someone with pull started a vanity project that slipped past the beancounters. 2. Cynical marketing for purposes of developer outreach. 3. Covering-your-ass against a powerful idiot, who wants to know why you are busy doing real work, instead of chasing a fad that he read about on Buzzfeed. Notice how this list omits "Building a useful product that will make us more money."

jamisteven 7y ago
LMAO - I work in IB and this is spot on.
saltminer 7y ago
"Blockchain" is also a really vague term. Depending on your definition, git may well be using blockchain technology, and submitting patches for it could count as working on blockchain stuff. >Notice how this list omits "Building a useful product that will make us more money." Absolutely. I remember seeing an email at a previous employer about their new blockchain as a service offerings. I looked at a couple of the examples they gave - the first was an over-engineered revision history system, and the second was a chain of trust that had no way to account for the item being swapped out or tampered with in transit. But I'm sure they bragged about it to their investors.