4 ms·

If someone comes back 100 years from the future, one of the few things I'd bet to still be around would be Bitcoin and JavaScript.

rimbo789 1y ago
What a hell that would be
ben_w 1y ago
Around? Perhaps. When I was a kid, I had a typewriter. Was even still possible to buy ink ribbons for it in a local stationary store, not that I could afford them on pocket money, but I've not seen ink ribbons in a stationary store since the early 90s. Despite that, typewriters are still around: https://www.amazon.com/Royal-79101t-Classic-Manual-Typewriter/dp/B07SWV2X82 https://www.amazon.com/Royal-79101t-Classic-Manual-Typewrite...
- owebmaster 1y ago
  I think Bitcoin will be the currency of an interplanetary humanity. And I don't even own any bitcoins or think it will continue going up in the next years. But technically, blockchains will be key as store of data in the (distant) future.
  - Ekaros 1y ago
    Bitcoin is absolute crap for interplanetary use. Delay to Mars is between 3 and 22 minutes. So at worst you would have 2 blocks in between. Have fun with double spends. Or distributing the mining... Expand to other solar system and it will get worse still.
  - ben_w 1y ago
    Blockchains don't need to be a currency, we've already got git, it's much less computationally intensive. If you're using the bitcoin consensus approach in an interplanetary era, you quickly end up with using the full output of Dyson swarm just to stop someone else doing the same, not for any real gain over "I trust you to keep this ledger correct because we all know what 'accountants' and 'lawsuits' are".
    - owebmaster 1y ago
      Will people be talking about 'accountants' and 'lawsuits' in a 100 years?
      - ben_w 1y ago
        "Talking about" is relatively easy for all four; but IMO the use of accountants and lawsuits is much more likely than people using Bitcoin and JavaScript. If we don't have lawsuits, there's no process by which someone's failure to have an accountant could be held against them. If you don't have something accountant-shaped that can examine the real world, then you have no way to audit that your debit of 100 Martian Pesos was balanced with a credit of 100 traditional Martian didgeridoos, no matter if the Martian Peso was a cryptocurrency, a fiat currency, or commodity money consisting of transmuted post-transuranic-island-of-stability-metal. If you don't care about that, you're probably only playing with money and assets anyway and are functionally post-scarcity. We might be post-scarcity, annihilated, or post-apocalyptic in 100 years, but none of these three would likely keep Bitcoin, and only one JavaScript.
Cthulhu_ 1y ago
Definitely Java, it's the cobol of our time. JS, maybe in a different form, still the runtime but Typescript has overtaken it [0] in popularity. BTC might still be around but very much in the background in favor of newer ones. [0] https://www.libhunt.com/index https://www.libhunt.com/index
rbanffy 1y ago
All COBOL programs would be on a blockchain and rewards would be issued for running them.

rimbo789 1y ago

What a hell that would be

ben_w 1y ago

Around? Perhaps. When I was a kid, I had a typewriter. Was even still possible to buy ink ribbons for it in a local stationary store, not that I could afford them on pocket money, but I've not seen ink ribbons in a stationary store since the early 90s. Despite that, typewriters are still around: https://www.amazon.com/Royal-79101t-Classic-Manual-Typewriter/dp/B07SWV2X82 https://www.amazon.com/Royal-79101t-Classic-Manual-Typewrite...

owebmaster 1y ago
I think Bitcoin will be the currency of an interplanetary humanity. And I don't even own any bitcoins or think it will continue going up in the next years. But technically, blockchains will be key as store of data in the (distant) future.
- Ekaros 1y ago
  Bitcoin is absolute crap for interplanetary use. Delay to Mars is between 3 and 22 minutes. So at worst you would have 2 blocks in between. Have fun with double spends. Or distributing the mining... Expand to other solar system and it will get worse still.
- ben_w 1y ago
  Blockchains don't need to be a currency, we've already got git, it's much less computationally intensive. If you're using the bitcoin consensus approach in an interplanetary era, you quickly end up with using the full output of Dyson swarm just to stop someone else doing the same, not for any real gain over "I trust you to keep this ledger correct because we all know what 'accountants' and 'lawsuits' are".
  - owebmaster 1y ago
    Will people be talking about 'accountants' and 'lawsuits' in a 100 years?
    - ben_w 1y ago
      "Talking about" is relatively easy for all four; but IMO the use of accountants and lawsuits is much more likely than people using Bitcoin and JavaScript. If we don't have lawsuits, there's no process by which someone's failure to have an accountant could be held against them. If you don't have something accountant-shaped that can examine the real world, then you have no way to audit that your debit of 100 Martian Pesos was balanced with a credit of 100 traditional Martian didgeridoos, no matter if the Martian Peso was a cryptocurrency, a fiat currency, or commodity money consisting of transmuted post-transuranic-island-of-stability-metal. If you don't care about that, you're probably only playing with money and assets anyway and are functionally post-scarcity. We might be post-scarcity, annihilated, or post-apocalyptic in 100 years, but none of these three would likely keep Bitcoin, and only one JavaScript.

Cthulhu_ 1y ago

Definitely Java, it's the cobol of our time. JS, maybe in a different form, still the runtime but Typescript has overtaken it [0] in popularity. BTC might still be around but very much in the background in favor of newer ones. [0] https://www.libhunt.com/index https://www.libhunt.com/index

rbanffy 1y ago

All COBOL programs would be on a blockchain and rewards would be issued for running them.