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Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by beambot on Friday June 10, 2022 @01:14AM (#31690319)
How do you prove that no one manually added or edited database rows? How do you store the transaction logs & verify their accuracy & authenticity?

By the time you build a system with historical "proofs" with enough replication, you'll basically have invented a Blockchain with more complexity.

Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by Zerverus on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:06AM (#31690626)
Oh gosh how does anything in the world work today without the blockchain
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by yata69420 on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:17AM (#31690695)
We mostly rely on trust and then prosecute frauds that are "worth" prosecuting (based on dollar value, frequency of fraud, and likelihood of recovery).
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by benjaminsuch on Friday June 10, 2022 @03:19AM (#31691101)
I think the parent was sarcasm
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by Termitiono on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:51AM (#31690892)
Just that we already do that successful while Blockchain now needs miners.
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by EdwardDiego on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:32AM (#31690773)
How do you defend against a 51% attack in an environment where Bitcoin mining is increasingly uneconomic?
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by randomran01234 on Friday June 10, 2022 @03:07AM (#31691020)
Switch to proof of stake which has better defense mechanisms against 51% attacks.
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by Quekid5 on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:05AM (#31690621)
Write-once physical storage?
Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by yellowapple on Friday June 10, 2022 @02:54AM (#31690909)
I'm sure it's theoretically possible to write a database that only allows reads/inserts and that runs off a CD-R burner, but it's weird that I haven't seen that in the wild. Seems like something that should be doable with SQLite's VFS support (and in fact I'm pretty sure the existing demo VFS for read-only support gets you most of the way there).

In any case, "write-once" media can still be rewritten; the same lasers that etch data into a CD-R can do so to destroy the same data. You're going to want redundancy/backups and you're going to want each new row in the table to cryptographically reference the previous (such that any data destruction invalidates all subsequent rows) - by which point you've reinvented most of what constitutes a blockchain anyway.

Re:In defense of cryptocurrency by Quekid5 on Friday June 10, 2022 @04:15PM (#31698899)
I guess I should have specified that I was being a bit tongue in cheek.

I do believe Write-Once was actually a thing with the banking mainframe I was acquainted with in my youth. It wasn't a CD-R thing, it was just an IBM thing which enforced write-only at the BIOS/Hardware level. Honestly, I'm not sure, I was young and impressionable :D. IOW, I might have been misled.

Anyway... All you need is logically write-once with proper signing, audits, etc. and you'll be just as close to unforgeable, etc. etc. as reality demands.

Heck, even journald on Linux provides unforgeable log entries. It is vulnerable to a destruction attack, so whatevs. Everything is. Even a blockchain -- witness the rugpulls.

> by which point you've reinvented most of what constitutes a blockchain anyway.

I love that.

Anyway, I'm here to dissuade you. Do whatever you want. Just be aware of the potential consequences.