[GTALUG] Blockchain, the solution to nothing

[ac]

+1

On Wed, 26 Aug 2020 14:59:12 -0300
Mauro Souza via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:

> It's really funny. It's more the result of "lets use blockchain!" on
> everything that creates those issues.
> 
> And blockchain is hyper-overhyped... It can help in a few specific
> problems, but not on every single problem without exception. But
> everyone liked the concept and ran away screaming blockchain all over
> the place. Blockchain on email. Blockchain to rent a car.
> Blockchain-powered lettuce salad... that's insanity. I like the
> technology, I study it and sometimes I answer things on forums, but
> all the time when people ask me if I believe blockchain would help
> them, I say NO
> 
> The "everybody must have everyone's data" is an issue. As the solution
> grows, the ledger grows, increasing the storage and processing
> requirements. With less people connected, you need an intermediary to
> access the blockchain, and those intermediaries can be attacked and
> take down the network. And there's few solutions to that.
> 
> One solution is the blockchain used by former Raiblocks (now Nano).
> It's a DAG (directed acyclic graph), so any client will have only his
> own transactions, and not the entire ledger. That allows one to run a
> client on an ESP32, for example. there will be special nodes that
> store the entire ledger (like the Dash supernodes), but the clients
> don't need that. Who/what would use it? No idea... crypto coins, and
> not much else.
> 
> And the smart contract solution... They aren't smart, they aren't
> contracts, and they aren't solutions. One mistake and everything
> crashes down instantly.The Ethereum DAO disaster, the Parity
> multi-signature contract, and that new DeFi that melted down in a day
> because people realized they made a mistake on the code, and nobody
> would ever have enough tokens to decide anything because of an
> arithmetic mistake. And many more examples.
> 
> If the "contract" can be changed after creation, you cannot trust it
> because it can be useful now (like tokens on a web game that you pay
> to play), but later the owner changes the contract, pockets all
> tokens, and takes down the game. If it cannot be changed, any error
> on the contract is set on stone forever with deadly consequences.
> There are some countermeasures to that, like proxy contracts: a main
> contract references secondary contracts with the functions, but the
> main contract holds the data and the tokens. if a secondary contract
> is found to have an error, you deploy an amended version, call a
> function on the main contract to reference the next one, and done.
> The downside is that it is more expensive to run this contract, and
> the owner can, you know, replace the secondary contracts and steal
> everything. You can add multi-signatures, quorum, external oracles,
> but those only increase the cost and put a little protection against
> a rogue owner.
> 
> There are very few things that blockchain can be useful, and one of
> them is distributed storage. Siacoin and Storj, for example, let you
> rent the extra space on that 4tb disk you already have for some
> coins. It is not profitable enough to make you buy storage just for
> that purpose, but you already have the space, right? And you can rent
> some space on the network for backing up things when you will
> reformat your computer, and want to store your data in case something
> breaks. It's cheaper than anything else, even cheaper than amazon
> glacier.
> 
> Those supply chain management things are useful too, if you can
> integrate it correctly (and that's a BIG if). If you own a bakery,
> for example, you scan all the ingredients you have, store them all on
> your wallet (or have your purchasing software do that automagically)
> and any time any of your suppliers have any recall on something you
> got, you are warned. And everything down the line gets warned that
> they bought a recalled bread from you. Your customers don't even need
> to get back to you so you reimburse them, the next time they come to
> buy something they already have a credit for that contaminated bread
> you sold to them last week. But to integrate everyone is a nightmare,
> there are lots of privacy issues, industrial secrets issues... on a
> limited scale, it can work. Too limited and doesn't solve anything.
> Too broad and all that privacy issues get into your face.
> 
> The fact is that there are very few cases that blockchain can be used
> that a database cannot. And databases are here since a long time ago,
> everyone knows how to build them, operate them, backup them, and
> extend them.
> 
> But just wait for the AI-generated, solar-powered, graphene-based
> multi-cloud stored 6G-capable IPv8-addressing blockchain...
> 
> Mauro
> http://mauro.limeiratem.com - registered Linux User: 294521
> Scripture is both history, and a love letter from God.
> 
> 
> Em qua., 26 de ago. de 2020 às 13:29, Christopher Browne via talk <
> talk at gtalug.org> escreveu:  
> 
> >
> > https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-nothing/86714927310-8f431cae
> >
> > I found it particularly hilarious when the writer of the article
> > asked the maker of the childrens' aid app if he had noticed that
> > the app didn't actually need blockchain at all.
> >
> > "That's right."
> >
> > But the punch line was even better...
> >
> > Isn't it strange that you won all these awards despite not really
> > using blockchain?
> >
> > "We keep trying to tell people, but it doesn’t seem to stick. You’re
> > calling me about it again now … ”
> > --
> > When confronted by a difficult problem, solve it by reducing it to
> > the question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
> > ---
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