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Philosophically speaking, immutability is an important component in a perfect record keeping system. You don’t ever want anyone to be able to doctor a document
by didericis 7y ago
Philosophically speaking, immutability is an important component in a perfect record keeping system. You don’t ever want anyone to be able to doctor a document without being able to see the prior document and who made the change.
Practically speaking, there are a number of other hurdles for implementing a perfect record keeping system, like accurately reconciling the record with reality.
What people really want is a record keeping system that’s hard to cheat. Blockchain technology makes certain types of cheating harder, but not others. So it’s not exactly what people want, but it looks like it’s a step in the right direction.
- bena 7y agoThe only thing blockchain prevents is for any particular actor to change the record. Which is a nice feature only if you don't trust the holder of the records.
- rickycook 7y agowell, don’t trust or don’t have a holder of the records per se. in the case of escrow, it also may be that you don’t trust the holder of some large amount of money, but you do trust them to arbitrate disputes.
- derefr 7y agoWith a public blockchain, you have no "holder of the records." This makes them useful for situations where you need multilateral cooperation between mutually hostile parties, e.g. people on either side of an illegal drug deal living in different countries with no treaty extradition obligations.