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The "global spreadsheet" is the whole point of the blockchain. An excel spreadsheet obviously would break down over many companies and many users. A JSON api wo

The "global spreadsheet" is the whole point of the blockchain. An excel spreadsheet obviously would break down over many companies and many users. A JSON api would work but how will you enforce the API over many companies, devs, and users? How do you know someone didn't tweak some of the logic or change some info in their DB? The blockchain gives you the ability to make a shared interface, a shared DB, and a way to audit whenever someone changes the interface or the data. I could give you a dozen examples of someone just "throwing the internet" at some problem 20 years ago... Spotify just throws the internet at music distribution, etc... Those companies have turned out to be extremely valuable because they all solve real pain points of actual users and Balaji is a highly knowledgable investor who experiences this actual pain point so I wouldn't downplay this as throwing blockchain at anything and everything... - Balaji Fan

captn3m0 5y ago
>how will you enforce the API over many companies, devs, and users He's asking investment-companies to implement Ethereum inter-op, with significant investments in key-management,security, and regulatory risk. These companies could just come up with a standard instead? With significantly lesser investment (you don't have to worry about running a node or managing keys, or running a sync operation - you just publish your data in a "well-defined format"). All it takes is one company to start offering this (say Cava), and the others must follow suit to stay around and remain competitive. Maybe cava or Angel List could host your definitive captable and company.com/captable.json just does a redirect to angel.co/company/captable.json. A lot of the well-known URIs come from companies (and groups of them) deciding that a common standard might be helpful: https://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris/well-known-uris.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris/well-known-.... You'll find the same challenges even in the Ethereum space. Maybe some company wants to use Solana instead - now your captable can be published in multiple blockchains, with perhaps different token implementations (ERC-20 vs 721?). It's not like you get "standardization-for-free" with ethereum - companies still have to decide on it and get it right. >How do you know someone didn't tweak some of the logic or change some info in their DB? You have the same risk with what he's proposing. The keys are with the org, and he explicitly calls out for mistakes being correctable by creating a new captable from scratch (against perhaps even a new address). The data at the end of the day is "mirrored" from what is reality, and as such will always be as trustworthy as you deem the person who's controlling the keys to be. It's just that the keys change from "ethereum wallet key" to "server-TLS-key-for-company.com". I'd argue that the latter is better since the domain name is usually the primary identifier for the company (and not company.eth)[0] Balaji might be a highly knowledgable investor, but he also has a significant stake in crypto companies so he has a high incentive to push for these use-cases without considering the alternatives. [0]: Amazon.eth is on sale!

captn3m0 5y ago

>how will you enforce the API over many companies, devs, and users He's asking investment-companies to implement Ethereum inter-op, with significant investments in key-management,security, and regulatory risk. These companies could just come up with a standard instead? With significantly lesser investment (you don't have to worry about running a node or managing keys, or running a sync operation - you just publish your data in a "well-defined format"). All it takes is one company to start offering this (say Cava), and the others must follow suit to stay around and remain competitive. Maybe cava or Angel List could host your definitive captable and company.com/captable.json just does a redirect to angel.co/company/captable.json. A lot of the well-known URIs come from companies (and groups of them) deciding that a common standard might be helpful: https://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris/well-known-uris.xhtml https://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris/well-known-.... You'll find the same challenges even in the Ethereum space. Maybe some company wants to use Solana instead - now your captable can be published in multiple blockchains, with perhaps different token implementations (ERC-20 vs 721?). It's not like you get "standardization-for-free" with ethereum - companies still have to decide on it and get it right. >How do you know someone didn't tweak some of the logic or change some info in their DB? You have the same risk with what he's proposing. The keys are with the org, and he explicitly calls out for mistakes being correctable by creating a new captable from scratch (against perhaps even a new address). The data at the end of the day is "mirrored" from what is reality, and as such will always be as trustworthy as you deem the person who's controlling the keys to be. It's just that the keys change from "ethereum wallet key" to "server-TLS-key-for-company.com". I'd argue that the latter is better since the domain name is usually the primary identifier for the company (and not company.eth)[0] Balaji might be a highly knowledgable investor, but he also has a significant stake in crypto companies so he has a high incentive to push for these use-cases without considering the alternatives. [0]: Amazon.eth is on sale!