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Can Smart Contracts Make the World 10x More Efficient?

verdverm 5y ago
This would imply inefficiencies of 90% or more. I suspect the combined material and social deviances from equilibrium to be less than that for most applications. I also suspect that the transfer point from IRL to digital is not alleviated by Blockchain and requires technologies and methods which would apply equally well to non blockchain systems.
quantified 5y ago
To take the example of shopping for smaller insurers, size matters when you’re shopping for insurance, because you need your insurer to be solvent. Will they make my car get 10x the mileage, can I grow 10x the crops per input? No. Short and trite clickbait, move along.
- davidajackson 5y ago
  The size/capital of the insurers is potentially irrelevant with smart contracts, as a small insurer with a small amount of capital can be just as reliable as a large one -- open source code enforces payouts so it likely won't matter. This doesn't apply to all industries, and I agree about your example of crops. But specifically in finance, there will be a lot of 10x's.
  - quantified 5y ago
    Article suggests that my premiums drop by 90%, otherwise this phrase is meaningless, worse than the Geico 15% tag line: > having much clearer access is one way that smart contracts could save consumers 10 times more money than they do today. How does an insurer become strongly capitalized through smart contracts? The example is for a bidding market for insurance, not how it lowers any costs for the insurer or decreases their risks relative to capital on hand. The following sentence that supposedly explains it isn’t even coherent: > It seems reasonable to assume that a free market price where all parties in the world have the opportunity to bid will be much much cheaper than a centralized large corporation that is likely lock you into some sort of monopolistic relationship by throwing large amounts of paperwork and requirements at you. I expect a policy to cost less, in any market, than a large company. If I could buy State Farm for the price of my car insurance premium, I surely would.

This would imply inefficiencies of 90% or more. I suspect the combined material and social deviances from equilibrium to be less than that for most applications. I also suspect that the transfer point from IRL to digital is not alleviated by Blockchain and requires technologies and methods which would apply equally well to non blockchain systems.

quantified 5y ago

To take the example of shopping for smaller insurers, size matters when you’re shopping for insurance, because you need your insurer to be solvent. Will they make my car get 10x the mileage, can I grow 10x the crops per input? No. Short and trite clickbait, move along.

davidajackson 5y ago
The size/capital of the insurers is potentially irrelevant with smart contracts, as a small insurer with a small amount of capital can be just as reliable as a large one -- open source code enforces payouts so it likely won't matter. This doesn't apply to all industries, and I agree about your example of crops. But specifically in finance, there will be a lot of 10x's.
- quantified 5y ago
  Article suggests that my premiums drop by 90%, otherwise this phrase is meaningless, worse than the Geico 15% tag line: > having much clearer access is one way that smart contracts could save consumers 10 times more money than they do today. How does an insurer become strongly capitalized through smart contracts? The example is for a bidding market for insurance, not how it lowers any costs for the insurer or decreases their risks relative to capital on hand. The following sentence that supposedly explains it isn’t even coherent: > It seems reasonable to assume that a free market price where all parties in the world have the opportunity to bid will be much much cheaper than a centralized large corporation that is likely lock you into some sort of monopolistic relationship by throwing large amounts of paperwork and requirements at you. I expect a policy to cost less, in any market, than a large company. If I could buy State Farm for the price of my car insurance premium, I surely would.