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I won’t dare to speak for anyone but me, but personally the issue I have with blockchain is that is a solution looking for a problem. If you’ve ever done any b

I won’t dare to speak for anyone but me, but personally the issue I have with blockchain is that is a solution looking for a problem. If you’ve ever done any business (sales/purchasing), you’ll soon see that trust is not really a problem. Trust is only a problem in single-transaction deals (two entities trade once and expect to never trade again), which is pretty rare. Even in that weird case, branding and reputation are actually quite good ways of providing trust. In fact I would go further and say that the only entities that are impervious to the “conventional” approach are governments, by virtue of being monopolies. I’ve heard amazing tales of what blockchain should be able to do, but so far it looks like they’ve failed in everything they’ve set up to do. Blockchain currency (I’ll generalize a bit) was supposed to be a store of value. They are so bad at this that they’ve become an investing bubble, and one of the assets with highest volatility out there. I’m still waiting for useful demos of blockchain technology that aren’t contrived situations or just smoke and mirrors for startups to get funded.

xur17 6y ago
> If you’ve ever done any business (sales/purchasing), you’ll soon see that trust is not really a problem. Trust is only a problem in single-transaction deals (two entities trade once and expect to never trade again), which is pretty rare. Even in that weird case, branding and reputation are actually quite good ways of providing trust. It absolutely is a problem in business, but maybe not in the businesses you have experience in. For example - try selling gift cards online for payment. Your only real option is credit cards, which is ripe with fraud, and involves hefty fees (2-3%). Cash for the internet (which is one thing "blockchain" enables), solves both of these problems.
sickygnar 6y ago
at least for now, it's a solution for gambling, speculation, and no KYC lending and trading
vvpan 6y ago
I think the concerns are real. And I addressed some of what you are saying in a reply to the other comment. But I think the concerning difference in how you see the technology and how I see is due to the word "cryptocurrency". In seeing blockchain as only addressing payment or, worse, being an actual currency. Ethereum and other "smart contract" platforms are basically immutable virtual machines and people are coming up with novel ways to use it. Payments and currency narrative just sort of stuck. As I repeat often in these conversations my, by far, favorite project in recent times has been the Baseline Protocol which uses blockchain not for payment but for interbusiness communication. I posted some links of examples of it's use in my other reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24313941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24313941

xur17 6y ago

> If you’ve ever done any business (sales/purchasing), you’ll soon see that trust is not really a problem. Trust is only a problem in single-transaction deals (two entities trade once and expect to never trade again), which is pretty rare. Even in that weird case, branding and reputation are actually quite good ways of providing trust. It absolutely is a problem in business, but maybe not in the businesses you have experience in. For example - try selling gift cards online for payment. Your only real option is credit cards, which is ripe with fraud, and involves hefty fees (2-3%). Cash for the internet (which is one thing "blockchain" enables), solves both of these problems.

sickygnar 6y ago

at least for now, it's a solution for gambling, speculation, and no KYC lending and trading

vvpan 6y ago

I think the concerns are real. And I addressed some of what you are saying in a reply to the other comment. But I think the concerning difference in how you see the technology and how I see is due to the word "cryptocurrency". In seeing blockchain as only addressing payment or, worse, being an actual currency. Ethereum and other "smart contract" platforms are basically immutable virtual machines and people are coming up with novel ways to use it. Payments and currency narrative just sort of stuck. As I repeat often in these conversations my, by far, favorite project in recent times has been the Baseline Protocol which uses blockchain not for payment but for interbusiness communication. I posted some links of examples of it's use in my other reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24313941 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24313941