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> the end of an over-hyped era Hype is part of what drives technology and I don't see it going away any time soon - because a lot of people make a buck purely

> the end of an over-hyped era Hype is part of what drives technology and I don't see it going away any time soon - because a lot of people make a buck purely by milking hype cycles. I've come to see there are two modes of intelligence. The ability to understand something and say 'yes' to it is complemented by bullshit detectors, a more mature ability to see through other people muddying the waters trying to look smart, and reject their nonsense. Every cycle has its real innovators and hype-pedlars. At the height of blockhain madness a decade ago they had worked themselves into a frenzied fetish of near-supernatural woowooism. Once all the smoke and hullabaloo has cleared, and all the grandiose promises have fallen to the wayside, what remains is a core of genuinely useful and relatively simple core concepts that enter the canon, along with standards and protocols. This line in TFA sums it up: > I needed a database. The same happened with "data". The hype problem there has always been a lack of telos reminiscent of the underpants gnome's flawed "profit?" scheme. Somewhere is a crucial missing step, where we ask "Why?". And the answer is "don't worry, the data plus magical "AI" fairy dust will reveal why". There is a quite religious (faith-like) flavour to this. I blame the NSA. The idea that "collect it all" is anything but a thugish brute force excuse to waste of billions dollars building data-centres, has led to commercial obsession with "data" as a panacea. It isn't "big data" per se that's a problem. Some applications, like in medicine or environmental science, absolutely thrive on large sets and sophisticated analytics. But the fact is that in most applications it's mostly useless, burdensome, energy-consuming, and space-wasting. But "data-hoarding" and over-analysis is pushed by those with sledgehammers to sell for cracking nuts.

Swizec 4y ago
> Once all the smoke and hullabaloo has cleared, and all the grandiose promises have fallen to the wayside, what remains is a core of genuinely useful and relatively simple core concepts that enter the canon, along with standards and protocols has this happened with blockchain yet? I'm not seeing it. Maybe I haven't been around the block enough because blockchain is the first hype tech I've seen that keeps not doing anything that existing tech can't do better. And yes I've looked, a lot. The underlying tech sounds super promising and I hope someone figures something out. Not much luck so far.
- phil21 4y ago
  > has this happened with blockchain yet? I'm not seeing it. No one wants to admit it for some reason, but Bitcoin is the killer app for Blockchain. > The underlying tech sounds super promising and I hope someone figures something out. Not much luck so far. Plenty of luck for me at least. Bitcoin solved exactly the problem it told me it would when it was created - permissionless digital "cash" transactions that cannot be reversed. It's a very specific use case, but one I am quite happy exists when I need it. Those who have never had their money stolen by the banking system or denied the ability to use their money as they see fit likely won't understand my take. Those that do are using the currency today. All the other crud around blockchain is line noise hype. Cryptocurrency already solved exactly the problem it set out to, it's just not easy to get rich off it.
  - na85 4y ago
    >Bitcoin is the killer app for Blockchain If the killer app of the Blockchain is Bitcoin, what does it say about the underlaying technology that the "killer app" is useful only as an extremely volatile speculation vehicle, and an ecologically disastrous one at that, with a tertiary use case of paying for illegal goods and services?
    - correlator 4y ago
      I think OP was saying the ledger mechanics are the useful part here, not the volatile speculation.
      - na85 4y ago
        The ledger mechanics have no practical use beyond Bitcoin, which itself useless except for the cases I outlined.
    - ByteJockey 4y ago
      > a tertiary use case of paying for illegal goods and services? This is the use case mentioned. The OP is saying that everything else about it is useless. Having the option to do something illegal should the need arise is a benefit to some people, and government control of the financial sector is not beloved by everyone.

Swizec 4y ago

> Once all the smoke and hullabaloo has cleared, and all the grandiose promises have fallen to the wayside, what remains is a core of genuinely useful and relatively simple core concepts that enter the canon, along with standards and protocols has this happened with blockchain yet? I'm not seeing it. Maybe I haven't been around the block enough because blockchain is the first hype tech I've seen that keeps not doing anything that existing tech can't do better. And yes I've looked, a lot. The underlying tech sounds super promising and I hope someone figures something out. Not much luck so far.

phil21 4y ago
> has this happened with blockchain yet? I'm not seeing it. No one wants to admit it for some reason, but Bitcoin is the killer app for Blockchain. > The underlying tech sounds super promising and I hope someone figures something out. Not much luck so far. Plenty of luck for me at least. Bitcoin solved exactly the problem it told me it would when it was created - permissionless digital "cash" transactions that cannot be reversed. It's a very specific use case, but one I am quite happy exists when I need it. Those who have never had their money stolen by the banking system or denied the ability to use their money as they see fit likely won't understand my take. Those that do are using the currency today. All the other crud around blockchain is line noise hype. Cryptocurrency already solved exactly the problem it set out to, it's just not easy to get rich off it.
- na85 4y ago
  >Bitcoin is the killer app for Blockchain If the killer app of the Blockchain is Bitcoin, what does it say about the underlaying technology that the "killer app" is useful only as an extremely volatile speculation vehicle, and an ecologically disastrous one at that, with a tertiary use case of paying for illegal goods and services?
  - correlator 4y ago
    I think OP was saying the ledger mechanics are the useful part here, not the volatile speculation.
    - na85 4y ago
      The ledger mechanics have no practical use beyond Bitcoin, which itself useless except for the cases I outlined.
  - ByteJockey 4y ago
    > a tertiary use case of paying for illegal goods and services? This is the use case mentioned. The OP is saying that everything else about it is useless. Having the option to do something illegal should the need arise is a benefit to some people, and government control of the financial sector is not beloved by everyone.