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The author is missing the fact that the world has adapted to the requirement for centralised trust. That makes it very hard to see the value of a blockchain sys

by malanj 12y ago

The author is missing the fact that the world has adapted to the requirement for centralised trust. That makes it very hard to see the value of a blockchain system - you automatically think about problems and solutions within another constrained framework. It's similar to e-mail before people used email. It seems laughable now, but it wasn't obvious why e-mail would be useful ("I need to switch on my computer every time to check if I have a message!? A phone is so much easier..."). The value of a blockchain system will become more and more evident over time as we use it to solve problems that are hard to see in our current paradigm. Comparing the blockchain directly with centralised switching systems is like comparing e-mail with phone calls, and using "ability to speak" as the metric of comparison. E-mail allows you to do something else, but it took us a while to realise that something else is incredibly valuable. The blockchain will be the same. Simple example: we don't even think in terms of individuals or corporations issuing their own currency. It's not a "problem" that we generally acknowledge to exist. We'll certainly see it as one worth solving when companies and rich individuals start using blockchain technology to compete with countries in terms of issuing currency.

geoffwoo 12y ago
You're making strawman arguments e.g. a blockchain and a centralized database is much more similar than email and phone.
- malanj 12y ago
  I think your comment is affirming my statement implicitly. For the things you want to do with a centralised database they are very similar. Given the entirety of things you can do with a blockchain then are very different. You view email and phones as very different, because enough time has passed for those differences to become obvious.
  - geoffwoo 12y ago
    No, I think there's clear objective attributes that are different. Email vs. phone: async vs. sync, recorded vs. unrecorded, etc. The only real difference between blockchain vs. standard db is anyone can write who has 'x-coin' vs. trusted authority can write, and I argue that the difference really isn't that important.
    - yohanatan 12y ago
      I think if you replace phone with 'answering machine', his logic makes more sense.

by malanj 12y ago

geoffwoo 12y ago

You're making strawman arguments e.g. a blockchain and a centralized database is much more similar than email and phone.

malanj 12y ago
I think your comment is affirming my statement implicitly. For the things you want to do with a centralised database they are very similar. Given the entirety of things you can do with a blockchain then are very different. You view email and phones as very different, because enough time has passed for those differences to become obvious.
- geoffwoo 12y ago
  No, I think there's clear objective attributes that are different. Email vs. phone: async vs. sync, recorded vs. unrecorded, etc. The only real difference between blockchain vs. standard db is anyone can write who has 'x-coin' vs. trusted authority can write, and I argue that the difference really isn't that important.
  - yohanatan 12y ago
    I think if you replace phone with 'answering machine', his logic makes more sense.