It’s not still the early days of blockchain

Re:It’s not still the early days of blockchain by wayoutthere on Saturday January 15, 2022 @07:46AM (#29945925)

I’m not convinced that blockchains would actually reduce the cost or provide any benefit over a federated system where each nation (or group of nations like the EU) controls the data of its own citizens. I run into this problem with nearly every potential blockchain application I hear: it’s usually faster / cheaper / less disruptive to use a centralized or federated system governed by legal agreements that are hashed out in negotiations.

Politics underpins all of it — a lot of blockchain advocates look at blockchain as a way to sidestep political squabbles, when really the politics exist at a lower level of the stack upon which blockchain governance rules are built. A nation could unilaterally cease participation in any blockchain at any time, and use political pressure in other areas (trade, defense, etc) to get other nations to join them.

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Re:It’s not still the early days of blockchain by chucke on Saturday January 15, 2022 @08:21AM (#29946124)

Blockchains can, and most likely will, be federated. Legal agreements can be managed via such a system. Bear in mind that the blockchain does not solve politics, and all the problems you mention are a problem of the currently most common implementation of a blockchain, which is cryptocurrencies.

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Re:It’s not still the early days of blockchain by wayoutthere on Saturday January 15, 2022 @08:36AM (#29946229)

But like, why? Sure, blockchain can do a lot of things, but it’s not clear that it’s better than an API for the vast majority of applications while being worse in a number of ways. You can put similar governance rules on an API without the complexity. The flexibility inherent in human interpretation of legal agreements is a key feature of a common law system like we have in the US.

To echo the author’s thesis, we’re no longer in the early days of blockchain. We’re over a decade in and nobody has gained traction with a use case that isn’t purely speculative. That in and of itself should say something.

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Re:It’s not still the early days of blockchain by chucke on Saturday January 15, 2022 @09:57AM (#29946783)

Blockhains can be as simple as an API. See the 7 layer stack in the Nexus blockchain (you definitely don't need to go smart contract all the time).

I think the author exaggerates a bit the tone. Sure, 10 years is a lot of Internet time. But the steam engine took 50 years to become viable. Then the industrial revolution was a period of 80 years. Put that into perspective.

I guess, by speculative, you mean the cryptocurrency craze.and I can agree is a speculative bubble, an MLM scheme. But then you also have https://cyber.ee/resources/news/digital-identity-and-blockch... . You'll soon have CDBCs. And when it's here, you'll barely remember what this conversation.

Your bitcoin might be worthless by then.

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Re:It’s not still the early days of blockchain by wayoutthere on Saturday January 15, 2022 @10:39AM (#29947139)

I’ve done some work in the supply chain space around blockchain; the problem is that in many industries there is already an oligopoly of 2 or 3 companies that control things. They have no incentive to give up any amount of control; instead preferring to lock their customers in to their products and platforms. Governments are the same in an international sense.

The technical problems are solvable. The political ones are not.

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