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FWIW I've used the "Git is a blockchain" argument to argue in the opposite direction: i.e. that blockchains are not anything new or innovative.

olodus 4y ago
I think this is a much better way to take it. Blockchains are super useful. They solve problems in distributed systems very elegantly and effectivly. It is the consensus part of a crypto currency blockchains that is the part I usually have objections to. I have increasingly started to realize that it is surprisingly few situations you want such a rigid type of consensus and consistency. In computer systems you usually want something much more efficient and in human systems, in the places where you really need consensus it is usually very required to have systems like our institutions that are filled with checks and balances for fault tolerance and fairness. And in most places you just have to realize consensus in a society is really hard and reeeeally slow - and I don't know if that is possible to change.
abalashov 4y ago
I don't think the argument has to go both ways. Blockchains can be indebted to some prior art in distributed version control systems without being similar or identical to them, and without those DVCSs being blockchains.
- em-bee 4y ago
  the innovation with blockchain is that it adds a feature that git doesn't have, namely to make it expensive to add new entries and very difficult to fork the chain. on the other hand, i believe blockchain is used for many projects that don't need that new feature, where something similar to git would suffice. in other words a lot of blockchain uses are not innovative in that they don't enable something that would not have been possible without blockchain.
  - abalashov 4y ago
    Blockchain for blockchain's sake, in other words...
    - em-bee 4y ago
      part of the problem is that many people don't know that it is possible to build an immutable history without blockchain. that's why compariosns to git, like this one are useful. another part is that there are no general purpose libraries that are decoupled from file based version control (that i am aware of) that could be used. so people turn to blockchain because it is the most obvious thing to use. just like people use kubernetes even when in many cases that is overkill and unnecessary to solve a particular problem.

olodus 4y ago

I think this is a much better way to take it. Blockchains are super useful. They solve problems in distributed systems very elegantly and effectivly. It is the consensus part of a crypto currency blockchains that is the part I usually have objections to. I have increasingly started to realize that it is surprisingly few situations you want such a rigid type of consensus and consistency. In computer systems you usually want something much more efficient and in human systems, in the places where you really need consensus it is usually very required to have systems like our institutions that are filled with checks and balances for fault tolerance and fairness. And in most places you just have to realize consensus in a society is really hard and reeeeally slow - and I don't know if that is possible to change.

abalashov 4y ago

I don't think the argument has to go both ways. Blockchains can be indebted to some prior art in distributed version control systems without being similar or identical to them, and without those DVCSs being blockchains.

em-bee 4y ago
the innovation with blockchain is that it adds a feature that git doesn't have, namely to make it expensive to add new entries and very difficult to fork the chain. on the other hand, i believe blockchain is used for many projects that don't need that new feature, where something similar to git would suffice. in other words a lot of blockchain uses are not innovative in that they don't enable something that would not have been possible without blockchain.
- abalashov 4y ago
  Blockchain for blockchain's sake, in other words...
  - em-bee 4y ago
    part of the problem is that many people don't know that it is possible to build an immutable history without blockchain. that's why compariosns to git, like this one are useful. another part is that there are no general purpose libraries that are decoupled from file based version control (that i am aware of) that could be used. so people turn to blockchain because it is the most obvious thing to use. just like people use kubernetes even when in many cases that is overkill and unnecessary to solve a particular problem.