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it will be a core part of the story of our era. ROFL, wow... that's not grandiose at all. It's a database. On the internet. I'm gonna go out on a limb and b

by zzalpha 12y ago

it will be a core part of the story of our era. ROFL, wow... that's not grandiose at all. It's a database. On the internet. I'm gonna go out on a limb and bet at least a few billion folks on the planet likely won't see their lives change much any time soon because Etherium was conceived. Edit: Ahh. Zapchain again. Now I get it. Times like this I wish there was a way to filter my Hacker News RSS feed to cull out posts from particular users or sources...

aianus 12y ago
A few billion folks live the same life now as they did before the computer was invented. Does that make the computer an insignificant part of our era?
- zzalpha 12y ago
  What? That's not at all true. Just because a person doesn't, themselves, own a computer, doesn't mean their lives aren't touched by their existence. As the first example that springs to mind: computers have enabled access to telecommunications infrastructure (think cell phones), which have utterly transformed the lives of many of the world's poorest. But a pipedream consensus database running on the internet? Colour me skeptical that it's going to utterly transform the world the way the computer has.
- yuvadam 12y ago
  It certainly gives some very relevant perspective about the privileges we enjoy, absolutely.
lazaroclapp 12y ago
So, here is the thing, let's not consider the question of whether Ethereum will or won't be successful. I don't have the faintest clue whether it will be or not. But, let's for a moment assume it is successful, wildly so. Would it be a big deal? Yes, it likely would be. If Ethereum is as successful as some of people working on it hope it will be, it could be as important as HTTP. Yeah, HTTP is one protocol... on the internet, most people have little idea about how it works or what it's about, yet it does affect billions of people and is an important part (at the infrastructure level) of one of the defining phenomenons of our era: the Internet. Some people hope that cryptocurrencies are going to be next decade's Internet and Ethereum is going to be its HTTP. The main break from the standard internet given by Ethereum is the following: fully distributed apps that exist not in any server, but as a public contract between their users. If you want eBay on the internet, you build a program on a server you own and tell it how to mediate transactions between buyers and sellers. If you want eBay on Ethereum, you publish a contract about how buyers and sellers should behave, and include in that contract some provisions that enforce themselves, no middleman required. Will this be practical? Who knows. Would it be useful if it works? I believe it would be. Would it be industry changing? Perhaps. Would it be world changing? Well... let's say it at least has a chance. Now, whether Ethereum is another http/www/html or, say, another Project Xanadu, that's a different question. Ethereum is an idea that can only work if many untested pieces turn out to work together as desired and the main benefits from those technologies are sufficient for people to buy into what would be a clean departure from the existing web. Experience shows that such departures are seldom successful (remember when every website was going to be a Java Applet? That was still way less of a moonshot than Dapps). But the thing is, regardless of whether Ethereum succeeds or not, its development is likely to produce useful ideas, and it is a project that, at least in principle, should it succeed, really can change our infrastructure. It is worth keeping in mind, that, in some cases, changing infrastructure has changed the world quite significantly (e.g. trains, telegraph, Internet, and even WWW vs the telnet/email era of the Internet).

by zzalpha 12y ago

aianus 12y ago

A few billion folks live the same life now as they did before the computer was invented. Does that make the computer an insignificant part of our era?

zzalpha 12y ago
What? That's not at all true. Just because a person doesn't, themselves, own a computer, doesn't mean their lives aren't touched by their existence. As the first example that springs to mind: computers have enabled access to telecommunications infrastructure (think cell phones), which have utterly transformed the lives of many of the world's poorest. But a pipedream consensus database running on the internet? Colour me skeptical that it's going to utterly transform the world the way the computer has.
yuvadam 12y ago
It certainly gives some very relevant perspective about the privileges we enjoy, absolutely.

lazaroclapp 12y ago

So, here is the thing, let's not consider the question of whether Ethereum will or won't be successful. I don't have the faintest clue whether it will be or not. But, let's for a moment assume it is successful, wildly so. Would it be a big deal? Yes, it likely would be. If Ethereum is as successful as some of people working on it hope it will be, it could be as important as HTTP. Yeah, HTTP is one protocol... on the internet, most people have little idea about how it works or what it's about, yet it does affect billions of people and is an important part (at the infrastructure level) of one of the defining phenomenons of our era: the Internet. Some people hope that cryptocurrencies are going to be next decade's Internet and Ethereum is going to be its HTTP. The main break from the standard internet given by Ethereum is the following: fully distributed apps that exist not in any server, but as a public contract between their users. If you want eBay on the internet, you build a program on a server you own and tell it how to mediate transactions between buyers and sellers. If you want eBay on Ethereum, you publish a contract about how buyers and sellers should behave, and include in that contract some provisions that enforce themselves, no middleman required. Will this be practical? Who knows. Would it be useful if it works? I believe it would be. Would it be industry changing? Perhaps. Would it be world changing? Well... let's say it at least has a chance. Now, whether Ethereum is another http/www/html or, say, another Project Xanadu, that's a different question. Ethereum is an idea that can only work if many untested pieces turn out to work together as desired and the main benefits from those technologies are sufficient for people to buy into what would be a clean departure from the existing web. Experience shows that such departures are seldom successful (remember when every website was going to be a Java Applet? That was still way less of a moonshot than Dapps). But the thing is, regardless of whether Ethereum succeeds or not, its development is likely to produce useful ideas, and it is a project that, at least in principle, should it succeed, really can change our infrastructure. It is worth keeping in mind, that, in some cases, changing infrastructure has changed the world quite significantly (e.g. trains, telegraph, Internet, and even WWW vs the telnet/email era of the Internet).