Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds of years

Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by torstenvl on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @10:08PM (#26575790)

So these non-fungible blocks that proved you had a stake... could you maybe trace back the transaction history for a piece of property using some kind of chain of these blocks?

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by bourgoin on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @11:13PM (#26576170)

I would guess consuming the amount of wood required to implement such a transaction history might end up proving to have disastrous results on the environment.

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by function_seven on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @11:15PM (#26576191)

But proving you have a stake doesn't take that much work, right?

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by dylan604 on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @11:39PM (#26576349)

to prove that, you had to rub the block as fast as possible. this heat generated was then used to heat the houses

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by brobdingnagians on Thursday March 25, 2021 @02:30AM (#26577107)

The original "block chain"

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by vijayr02 on Thursday March 25, 2021 @02:40AM (#26577156)

Yes, and the people using it were the original "block heads" :)

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by runiq on Thursday March 25, 2021 @03:12AM (#26577269)

The first image in OP's Wikipedia link depicts something I would definitely describe as "blockchain": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick#/media/File:SAM_PC...

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by airstrike on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @10:28PM (#26575889)

Yes, but then things evolved into more sophisticated and less cumbersome methods of ensuring authenticity.

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by Cthulhu_ on Thursday March 25, 2021 @05:48AM (#26578159)

Sophistication and uncumbersomeness (?) are not necessarily good things.

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by wisty on Thursday March 25, 2021 @07:07AM (#26578716)

I bet a lot of the advocates of these block chains would claim that the lack of sophistication and cumbersomeness was an advantage.

You'd say things like "if it ever caught on in a big way, what's to stop banks or even governments issuing block-denominated securities, causing inflation? Would people put blocks in banks for safe-keeping, where they'd just end up recreating the fractional reserve system you claim these blocks avoid?".

And advocates would say "no, that won't happen, people would like to keep a hold of their own blocks, no-one would want an IOU from a bank if they could physically hold their very own block instead".

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by bongoman37 on Thursday March 25, 2021 @12:57AM (#26576742)

There would be some work required to prove that a particular chain of blocks is the correct one and not another.

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by dls2016 on Thursday March 25, 2021 @10:21AM (#26580629)

I prefer Rai stones... the transaction history is encoded as an oral history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rai_stones

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Re:Lawyers used sheepskin as anti-fraud device for hundreds ... by adolph on Thursday March 25, 2021 @09:03AM (#26579696)

Maybe a future blockchain would be based on biology in silico and rates of mutation would be the coin.

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