Re: Why blockchain technology isn't that novel...

On 28 April 2014 07:40, Joel Dietz <jd@evr.gr> wrote:

> I think "Bitcoin is the next internet," is primarily marketing material
> from clever VCs investing in the space. It is used because these VCs know
> the political dimensions to money issuance and circulation, and they need
> the mainstream public, including regulators, to believe that the early
> associations with illegal activity and extreme libertarian sentiment will
> fade over time. The Internet is the appropriate metaphor because it began
> in "dark corners" and expanded to more legitimate usages.
>
> The primary benefit of the particular nature of blockchain technology as
> it currently exists is that it allows one to dodge the regulations that
> currently inhibit innovation in the payments space. For some weird reason,
> if you run a payment through an intermediate node, then that node needs to
> get licensed as an MSB. If it is fully P2P, then you have the feature that
> both the network cannot be shut down and the individual participants cannot
> be regulated.
>
> This also allows funny workarounds like Ripple's "algorithmic currency"
> and the claim that they simply provide the software instead of actually
> processing transactions.
>
> I think if you were to design a payment network from scratch that was
> optimal, that optimal design would be rather far from Bitcoin. That said,
> often the winner is the one that achieves appropriate scale first, not
> necessarily the best.
>
> Lest I be too critical, let me note that I run a wonderful youtube channel
> with lots of information on Ethereum's very innovative applications of
> Blockchain technology: www.youtube.com/user/EtherCasts
>
> There are tons of uses of a fully distributed database with a smart
> contract capability that haven't even been imagined up yet.
>

I'm confident that the web + javascript can deliver all of these use cases
at massive scale.  I like ethereum conceptually, but, imho, it remains to
be seen whether another scripting language will become popular.


>
> Cheers,
>
> Joel
>
>
> Joel Dietz
> CEO Greenz | @fractastical <http://www.twitter.com/fractastical> |
> greenz.io
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 6:27 PM, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>wrote:
>
>> A couple of counter-points to the "Bitcoin is the next Internet" and
>> "Blockchain technology will re-invent entire industries" rhetoric:
>>
>> Is Bitcoin Really the Next Internet?
>> http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-really-next-internet/
>>
>> The blockchain story is bullshit
>> http://geoffreywoo.com/the-blockchain-story
>>
>> The blockchain story is bullshit (Part 2)
>> http://geoffreywoo.com/the-blockchain-story-part-2
>>
>> The basic premise is that Bitcoin is in a pretty big bubble right now.
>> Blockchain technology has a narrow set of problems that it could be
>> applied to and it doesn't necessarily solve those problems in a way that
>> is performant, or acceptable to most of society. Some very good points
>> made in the articles. Then again, many technologies that ended up
>> changing the trajectory of humanity (like the automobile or the Web)
>> started out as inferior solutions to the status quo.
>>
>> -- manu
>>
>> PS: I'm personally still undecided, but it's good to get some
>> counter-points into our heads.
>>
>> --
>> Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
>> Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
>> blog: The Marathonic Dawn of Web Payments
>> http://manu.sporny.org/2014/dawn-of-web-payments/
>>
>>
>