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Garbage in, garbage out. Tracking shipments only works if you have proof that the shipment wasn't tampered with. Tracking shipments is only as reliable as the c

Garbage in, garbage out. Tracking shipments only works if you have proof that the shipment wasn't tampered with. Tracking shipments is only as reliable as the carrier not mucking with it, and we already have tamper-proof tape for solving that one. It doesn't prove anything, though. It's merely a tool in our arsenal of confirming trust, that makes it easier to tell where the problem lies if someone along the chain is lying. If someone along the chain is lying, their blockchain record is no more meaningful than any other document they'd produce. Registry records and title deeds and stock assets are already solved problems, and there's an important problem that blockchain is trying to solve: It is possible for the centralized services to transfer ownership without the owner's permission. This is an important feature. It is used in things like bankruptcy proceedings [1] and other law enforcement action all the time. The people trying to create the "feature" of not having that feature are called anarchists, and decent societies lock them up, shortly before or after their crimes cause actual damage. All of these are reasons for actual cryptography - Signatures and Merkel Trees. Blockchains have no advantages in any of them. [1] https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/investing/ftx-bahamas-seizure https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/18/investing/ftx-bahamas-seizure - Whether the governments doing the seizure are trustworthy is an entirely different problem with an entirely different scope of solutions, but the places that have actual anarchy going on are not typically nice places to live[2] and other governments typically do their best to insulate their population from them. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_off_the_coast_of_Somalia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_off_the_coast_of_Somali...

everfree 4y ago
> It's merely a tool in our arsenal of confirming trust, that makes it easier to tell where the problem lies if someone along the chain is lying. That makes it a useful tool, no? > people trying to create the "feature" of not having that feature are called anarchists Smart contracts are partial to neither law nor anarchy. It's trivial to write token code that allows a centralized service to transfer said token without the owner's permission. And that token still enjoys the benefits of being interoperable by default with other tokens and contracts that may not be under that same centralized service's control, yet are written to the same protocol standard. > All of these are reasons for actual cryptography - Signatures and Merkel Trees. Blockchains have no advantages in any of them. Blockchains provide reliable ordering and timestamping, something that cryptography itself cannot provide. Cryptographic shipment signing/tracking isn't very useful if the company can retroactively create a conflicting chain of backdated signatures and purport it to be the canonical one.
- GauntletWizard 4y ago
  No, much cheaper and easier solutions to that already exist, in the form of "Every postal tracking app"
  - everfree 4y ago
    > the company can retroactively create a conflicting chain of backdated signatures and purport it to be the canonical one
    - GauntletWizard 4y ago
      Again, that can be incredibly easily solved with signatures stored in a separate system of record - Effectively, publishing a git sha somewhere else on a regular basis. This is not a blockchain, this is a merkle tree, which is a good idea and is currently unimplemented. The immense fraud and criminal behavior associated with the "Blockchain" ecosystem is the biggest inhibitor to actually good crypto being used for system-of-record. It sucks all the air out of the room and that's a bad thing.
      - everfree 4y ago
        Git does not guarantee the validity of timestamps stored within it, nor does it explicitly provide a single canonical tip. Those two guarantees are what prevent history from being forged. > The immense fraud and criminal behavior associated with the "Blockchain" ecosystem is the biggest inhibitor to actually good crypto being used for system-of-record. You could say the same thing about internet scams in the 90s. Eventually, everyone got over themselves and picked out the good parts.

everfree 4y ago

> It's merely a tool in our arsenal of confirming trust, that makes it easier to tell where the problem lies if someone along the chain is lying. That makes it a useful tool, no? > people trying to create the "feature" of not having that feature are called anarchists Smart contracts are partial to neither law nor anarchy. It's trivial to write token code that allows a centralized service to transfer said token without the owner's permission. And that token still enjoys the benefits of being interoperable by default with other tokens and contracts that may not be under that same centralized service's control, yet are written to the same protocol standard. > All of these are reasons for actual cryptography - Signatures and Merkel Trees. Blockchains have no advantages in any of them. Blockchains provide reliable ordering and timestamping, something that cryptography itself cannot provide. Cryptographic shipment signing/tracking isn't very useful if the company can retroactively create a conflicting chain of backdated signatures and purport it to be the canonical one.

GauntletWizard 4y ago
No, much cheaper and easier solutions to that already exist, in the form of "Every postal tracking app"
- everfree 4y ago
  > the company can retroactively create a conflicting chain of backdated signatures and purport it to be the canonical one
  - GauntletWizard 4y ago
    Again, that can be incredibly easily solved with signatures stored in a separate system of record - Effectively, publishing a git sha somewhere else on a regular basis. This is not a blockchain, this is a merkle tree, which is a good idea and is currently unimplemented. The immense fraud and criminal behavior associated with the "Blockchain" ecosystem is the biggest inhibitor to actually good crypto being used for system-of-record. It sucks all the air out of the room and that's a bad thing.
    - everfree 4y ago
      Git does not guarantee the validity of timestamps stored within it, nor does it explicitly provide a single canonical tip. Those two guarantees are what prevent history from being forged. > The immense fraud and criminal behavior associated with the "Blockchain" ecosystem is the biggest inhibitor to actually good crypto being used for system-of-record. You could say the same thing about internet scams in the 90s. Eventually, everyone got over themselves and picked out the good parts.