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Completely agree - Technology is supposed to solve a problem, and the usual approach is to say "Here is a problem I have identified, here are the requirements I

by Closi 4y ago

Completely agree - Technology is supposed to solve a problem, and the usual approach is to say "Here is a problem I have identified, here are the requirements I want it to meet, and considering that here is an array of technology choices I can choose from, and based on that X is the best fit". With Crypto, it seems to go the opposite way, i.e. "Let's think of possible problems that Crypto could tenuously solve, and then build a blockchain". Going the other way though leads to solving problems that might not exist, and a technology choice that isn't necessarily best-fit. I work in Supply Chain, and as an example, while Supply Chain Traceability has long been touted as a 'golden child' example of where the blockchain can help, in the last 15 years centralised solutions have had much more traction and success. My personal explanation? Starting with blockchain as the solution led to the problem statement focussing on decentralisation, which actually hasn't turned out to be that important compared to other NFR's. Look at other technologies such as a REST APIs, which solved lots more propblems across the first 15 years of their life despite being much a more subtle improvement from a technology perspective. Despite this, REST API's didn't come with the same level of hype from the general public, because you couldn't sell REST-API-COINS and speculate on them.

emn13 4y ago
Yeah. And it goes beyond solution-in-search-of-problem; money clearly makes things worse here. Finding great solutions might sometimes need thinking outside of the box; I can see solutions in search of problems as being that kind of long shot that's rarely but sometimes spectacularly useful. But crypto is particularly tricky for that, because it's not just a solution in search of a problem; it's also a Ponzi scheme. And it's really hard to disentangle the two. Were "crypto" merely a bunch of clever algorithms allowing an ever broader set of zero-knowledge proofs... then perhaps we'd find actually useful problems to solve with that. But instead, it's already a huge market by virtue of its artificial scarcity. Any new cool thing these algorithms might do is overshadowed by the lure of the Ponzi scheme; even a tiny probability of turning that pyramid into something solid is easily worth more than a long-shot at some revolutionary technology you probably couldn't even control if you did think it up. It's the combination of so much money that drowns out everything else with a dash of gambling, a sprinkling of a pyramid scheme, all lathered onto a solution in search of a problem that makes it particularly dispiriting.
vaylian 4y ago
> Completely agree - Technology is supposed to solve a problem Or give you new tools to make art with.

by Closi 4y ago

emn13 4y ago

Yeah. And it goes beyond solution-in-search-of-problem; money clearly makes things worse here. Finding great solutions might sometimes need thinking outside of the box; I can see solutions in search of problems as being that kind of long shot that's rarely but sometimes spectacularly useful. But crypto is particularly tricky for that, because it's not just a solution in search of a problem; it's also a Ponzi scheme. And it's really hard to disentangle the two. Were "crypto" merely a bunch of clever algorithms allowing an ever broader set of zero-knowledge proofs... then perhaps we'd find actually useful problems to solve with that. But instead, it's already a huge market by virtue of its artificial scarcity. Any new cool thing these algorithms might do is overshadowed by the lure of the Ponzi scheme; even a tiny probability of turning that pyramid into something solid is easily worth more than a long-shot at some revolutionary technology you probably couldn't even control if you did think it up. It's the combination of so much money that drowns out everything else with a dash of gambling, a sprinkling of a pyramid scheme, all lathered onto a solution in search of a problem that makes it particularly dispiriting.

vaylian 4y ago

> Completely agree - Technology is supposed to solve a problem Or give you new tools to make art with.