Re:The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transfo...
by davidgerard on Thursday June 15, 2017 @07:49AM
(#14559449)
> The real revolution is in smart contracts and virtual machines that run on a blockchain and the ability to define ownership of a distributed organization to distribute profits accordingly.
e.g., the $50 million distributed to The DAO hacker.
The DAO was the first famous smart contract, on the first popular smart contract platform. Every objection to smart contracts in the past couple of decades (computer programs model real law badly, immutability means you need to be a perfect programmer, immutability copes badly with changes in circumstances) came true, bang bang bang.
Though I think even blockchain objectors were surprised when Ethereum came up with a new one: your smart contract is IMMUTABLE right up to the moment the big boys are in danger of losing money.
Later of course we were reminded of the programming perfection requirement extending to all layers of the stack, e.g. the Solidity compiler bug that meant that a mathematically-proven-perfect contract could have a 'sploit.
Smart contracts are a terrible and stupid idea, and The DAO should have put the idea firmly in the bin. That it didn't is a testament to human gullibility and the power of wishful thinking rather than the value of smart contracts.
e.g., the $50 million distributed to The DAO hacker.
The DAO was the first famous smart contract, on the first popular smart contract platform. Every objection to smart contracts in the past couple of decades (computer programs model real law badly, immutability means you need to be a perfect programmer, immutability copes badly with changes in circumstances) came true, bang bang bang.
Though I think even blockchain objectors were surprised when Ethereum came up with a new one: your smart contract is IMMUTABLE right up to the moment the big boys are in danger of losing money.
Later of course we were reminded of the programming perfection requirement extending to all layers of the stack, e.g. the Solidity compiler bug that meant that a mathematically-proven-perfect contract could have a 'sploit.
Smart contracts are a terrible and stupid idea, and The DAO should have put the idea firmly in the bin. That it didn't is a testament to human gullibility and the power of wishful thinking rather than the value of smart contracts.