Re:Design Thinking for Blockchains
by Animats on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @01:03AM
(#17018933)
A blockchain is an immutable distributed ledger. That's all. If you have a problem for which an immutable distributed ledger is useful, and there's no one you can trust, then a blockchain may help. So far, there are not many of those.
As for programmable applications on a blockchain, see this list of successful "dApps".[1] They're mostly gambling. The top Etherium application is CryptoKitties. The big problem is that any application which relates to the real world needs reliable info from the real world, like "did it get delivered". That means trusting some data source. In which case a blockchain doesn't help much.
Most blockchain applications involve empowering something illegal somewhere. First it was drugs, then it was getting money out of China. The binary options crowd had an ICO, but the system never came up. There's proposed "blockchain FOREX". All gambling, really.
As for programmable applications on a blockchain, see this list of successful "dApps".[1] They're mostly gambling. The top Etherium application is CryptoKitties. The big problem is that any application which relates to the real world needs reliable info from the real world, like "did it get delivered". That means trusting some data source. In which case a blockchain doesn't help much.
Most blockchain applications involve empowering something illegal somewhere. First it was drugs, then it was getting money out of China. The binary options crowd had an ICO, but the system never came up. There's proposed "blockchain FOREX". All gambling, really.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/7s81tu/successful...