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Blockchain is very experimental. It could be true that it won’t revolutionize even a single aspect of publishing. However what’s great is there are enthusiasts
by seibelj 6y ago
Blockchain is very experimental. It could be true that it won’t revolutionize even a single aspect of publishing. However what’s great is there are enthusiasts and entrepreneurs experimenting with many novel, unique solutions.
One underappreciated aspect of blockchain tech is the ecosystem it provides. Creating a useful building block is very hard. In addition to the risk of hacks and bugs, simply developing useful software that is efficient within the constraints of a blockchain stack is difficult and time consuming. However once a building block is battle tested and useful, it dramatically increases the utility of the entire system. See Uniswap and how it enables anyone to create a market, and how its AMMs are used in a huge number of other systems.
It would not surprise me if one of the experimental toys in blockchain related to publishing establishes a niche. It’s very hard to predict how this space will go. I wouldn’t count it out.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago> Blockchain is very experimental How so? "Cryptographer David Chaum first proposed a blockchain-like protocol in his 1982 dissertation ... The first blockchain was conceptualized by ... Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain#History
- RIMR 6y agoBlockchain tech, as far as I can tell, is fully fleshed out. There's really no revolutionary direction I can see it going. It's influential, I'll give it that, but it's about as revolutionary as taking up a gambling habit.
- SubiculumCode 6y agoI'm not so sure about that. There is quite a bit of innovation occurring in this space e.g. multichain interoperability, etc. Now if you are speaking only to the underlying mathematics, then perhaps yes, but certainly not the applications, or larger structures that can be built with these legos
- carlosdp 6y agoThis is a ridiculous statement for anyone even casually following crypto, I'm sorry. There's a plethora of innovations, so many it's hard to track. Just a few popular ones right now: Layer 2 solutions with smart contracts (Optimism, for example), zkRollups, Stateless smart contract-based chains, proof of stake validation, chain sharding, proof of storage, proof of X (many new consensus algos with various uses being developed). The list goes on. If crypto were the internet, we're not even at the NSF-net days imo
- seibelj 6y agoThe concept of the internet was formed / fleshed out in the 1960s. I would say it was experimental for a long time afterwards.
- lacker 6y agoAI was first proposed many decades ago, but it's still an experimental technology, because its applications in business are still being developed. I would consider a technology no longer experimental when no startup has raised funds based on an innovation in that area of technology for years. For example, elevator technology is no longer experimental.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y agoHomeopathy dates back to 1796, and is still in that liminal, "being developed" phase. I for one would not actually call it "experimental".