Re:“In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”
by Tesl on Tuesday January 01, 2019 @06:40PM
(#18803136)
It is not reasonable to compare Blockchain versus TCP. Only advocates do this because despite Blockchain technology being completely useless, it's a simple line that excuses all lack of progress / usecases, whilst simultaneously implying it will still take over the world.
It's a dishonest line to come out with and people on Hacker News should know better.
Re:“In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”
by bb88 on Tuesday January 01, 2019 @11:22PM
(#18804162)
I think if you go over my comment history, you'll not find me a fan of cryptocurrencies nor blockchains.
I'm partial to this comment I made recently.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18538733
The point wasn't to defend bitcoin and blockchain, but just the opposite, to point out how immature the technology is to something vastly simpler, moving data from point A to B on the internet. And TCP took years to get right.
Re:“In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”
by dhh2106 on Tuesday January 01, 2019 @05:17PM
(#18802755)
Agree it took decades for TCP. We might still be a long time away for blockchain and associated technologies (ipfs, zkp, etc.) going mainstream
The privacy use case in blockchain has trade-offs and is not a panacea. There are some situations where the centralized efficiency outweighs the risks
Keep in mind that both of those technologies took years. TCP started development in 1973. It didn't fully mature for another decade, and then it wasn't mainstream until 1994-1996.
And even then it was the web that drove the adoption of the internet, not the other way around. Until the web, the internet was more of an academic curiosity.
> Networks can benefit from economies of scale without the rent seeking bottlenecks of centralized agents.
But there are side effects of non-centralized agents -- everyone needs to agree upon running the same algorithm (forking, security holes, etc). And immature networks can suffer a majority attack.
Meanwhile from a security perspective, there's greater efficiency with a centralized system. One security hole can be fixed for everyone on the network in one spot.