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That's one of the problems I have with this crypto stuff. There is no problem with HN - it's one of the best place on the net, but hey let's imagine a solution

That's one of the problems I have with this crypto stuff. There is no problem with HN - it's one of the best place on the net, but hey let's imagine a solution with crypto. A solution to what exactly ? There is no problem to begin with. Just like with 99.999% of stuff that crypto is supposed to solve. I know it's just a thought exercise as you posted, so no offense, but it actually greatly illustrate the state of crypto applications (in my opinion)

robdachshund 7y ago
I think plenty of people would disagree.
Accujack 7y ago
A while back I did a design for a fully distributed discussion board, kinda like Reddit but with no central host that can be controlled and must be funded by a single entity or group. It was heavily based on the principles developed for the old USENET news network and designed to work around the problems discovered by users of that system. I found that cryptography was a necessary component of the distributed system - it's the only clean way to solve a host of problems associated with distributed discussion boards if you want to avoid things like censorship and special interests controlling discussion. For example allowing the moderators of a group to moderate and remove spam posts and e.g. hate speech without making that mechanism vulnerable to spoofed article cancellations is tricky. The simplest way to handle the issue was to use a public key crypto system to package moderation commands. Moderation commands to edit/delete articles are sent alongside an encrypted hash for the command. The command is only valid if the public key for the moderator decrypts the auth packet and the hash matches the command text. Crypto is also great for things like non-repudiation and reputation systems, both of which are important for a discussion system application. By the way, there IS a problem with HN... several, actually, depending on your view of what's desirable in a site like this. It's not terribly scalable, it's rather biased toward a particular locality's view of the world, and like many such sites everyone is effectively anonymous. The problem with HN that a distributed system is required to address is that HN belongs to a private company that has motivations based on its own interests instead of the good of the public or promotion of free speech. HN can be controlled, edited, is in a legal jurisdiction that allows a corrupt government to obtain control of it or otherwise interfere with it, and in general suffers from all the problems of a centralized discussion board.
- kixiQu 7y ago
  This is totally valid; I think the complaint was really with modeling a solution to a non-problem with a cryptocurrency, specifically.
coralreef 7y ago
The act of having a solution and looking for a problem isn't new or just crypto related. Angels and VCs are familiar with this, where entrepreneurs try to raise money by bringing novel algorithms/technologies/approaches to markets without product-market fit. Uber for dog walkers. Slack for neighbourhoods. Etc. However, crypto allows you bypass VCs entirely, allowing you to crowdfund. Naturally this results in a lot of exit scams, or stupid ideas with low probability getting funded where most experienced investors would have passed on.
antoineMoPa 7y ago
Yeah crypto is worth nothing, lets drop HTTPS and find unencrypted alternatives to ssh.

robdachshund 7y ago

I think plenty of people would disagree.

Accujack 7y ago

A while back I did a design for a fully distributed discussion board, kinda like Reddit but with no central host that can be controlled and must be funded by a single entity or group. It was heavily based on the principles developed for the old USENET news network and designed to work around the problems discovered by users of that system. I found that cryptography was a necessary component of the distributed system - it's the only clean way to solve a host of problems associated with distributed discussion boards if you want to avoid things like censorship and special interests controlling discussion. For example allowing the moderators of a group to moderate and remove spam posts and e.g. hate speech without making that mechanism vulnerable to spoofed article cancellations is tricky. The simplest way to handle the issue was to use a public key crypto system to package moderation commands. Moderation commands to edit/delete articles are sent alongside an encrypted hash for the command. The command is only valid if the public key for the moderator decrypts the auth packet and the hash matches the command text. Crypto is also great for things like non-repudiation and reputation systems, both of which are important for a discussion system application. By the way, there IS a problem with HN... several, actually, depending on your view of what's desirable in a site like this. It's not terribly scalable, it's rather biased toward a particular locality's view of the world, and like many such sites everyone is effectively anonymous. The problem with HN that a distributed system is required to address is that HN belongs to a private company that has motivations based on its own interests instead of the good of the public or promotion of free speech. HN can be controlled, edited, is in a legal jurisdiction that allows a corrupt government to obtain control of it or otherwise interfere with it, and in general suffers from all the problems of a centralized discussion board.

kixiQu 7y ago
This is totally valid; I think the complaint was really with modeling a solution to a non-problem with a cryptocurrency, specifically.

coralreef 7y ago

The act of having a solution and looking for a problem isn't new or just crypto related. Angels and VCs are familiar with this, where entrepreneurs try to raise money by bringing novel algorithms/technologies/approaches to markets without product-market fit. Uber for dog walkers. Slack for neighbourhoods. Etc. However, crypto allows you bypass VCs entirely, allowing you to crowdfund. Naturally this results in a lot of exit scams, or stupid ideas with low probability getting funded where most experienced investors would have passed on.

antoineMoPa 7y ago

Yeah crypto is worth nothing, lets drop HTTPS and find unencrypted alternatives to ssh.