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* Because traditional databases are owned by a specific party. You have to trust that party. * Because most traditional databases are not designed to be decent
by pabe 5y ago
* Because traditional databases are owned by a specific party. You have to trust that party.
* Because most traditional databases are not designed to be decentralized.
* Because administrators by default can change data in databases. Of course you can work your way around that and get an audit for your solution. But it is a native feature of blockchains.
Let's say it is law pharmacies have to ensure each drug they sell was produced by a trusted vendor and rules regarding logistics (e.g. temperature) were respected. Nobody must be able to manipulate that data and it has to be available offline for all pharmacies in case the network goes down. It'd be almost trivial to set something like this up using a blockchain. In an early prototype, you'd just give each party one or more wallets (private keys), allow the pharma to mint a token for each package and track how those are sent between wallets, each representing a different state in the supply chain. Pharmacies run a full node to have data available in case anything goes down. I made it a bit easier here than it likely would be in reality, but I hope I can transport the beauty of the approach.
- cuteboy19 5y agoWhy not just have the trusted vendor expose an api for all the info? An append only linked list is ludicrously expensive solution to this problem. To a person with a hammer, everything is a nail. Also, the problem itself is very convoluted and likely doesn't exist in the real world. You trust the vendors enough to let them do the data entry but distrust them thinking that they will manipulate the entered data somehow? It's a very strange situation
- pabe 5y agoIt's not about a single trusted vendor here, it's about a supply chain on which multiple independent parties are working. The blockchain is kind of a neutral intermediary. Scenarios like this are not "very strange" but very real. Europe and China are actively working on blockchain projects, e.g. https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/2021/10/04/University+pilot+proves+value+of+a+European+Blockchain https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/2021... or https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-selects-pilot-zones-application-areas-blockchain-project-2022-01-30/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-selects-pilot-zone...