[GTALUG] Blockchain, the solution to nothing

Thu Aug 27 08:19:45 EDT 2020

On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 07:37:45 -0400
Alvin Starr via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> Say it aint so...
> Are you telling me that your don't believe that the blockchain is the 
> solution for everything from climate change to erectile dysfunction.
> But seriously.
> There are some real uses for blockchain technologies but what we are 
> seeing is a repeat of the .com bubble.
> Where if you had a wacky idea and stuck the words "on the internet"
> in it somewhere and did your pitch you could get millions in funding.
> Hey. Have I told you of my plans to handle garbage disposal "on the 
> blockchain"..... The ICO is next week.
> People do this kind of thing constantly.
> Take a good idea and then push it till it is an amazingly bad idea.
> As for Siacoin and Storj I found that they used 100% of my available 
> internet bandwidth without using any storage.
> Luckily for me I opted for "unlimited bandwidth" but not so lucky for 
> Teksavvy.
> So doing something like sharing your few free TB could cost you big
> time if you were a Bell or Rogers customer.
> I have access to large amounts of excess storage but I have yet to be 
> convinced that I could even pay for the power that it takes to spin
> the drives.
> The concept is great but the economics does not seem to be there yet.
> 
you can also interchange "blockchain" with "AI" ?

as someone who started using my own AI tech in 2010 already, it never
amazes me how many people the past year or two uses "AI" somewhere and
in something - where it is not really "AI" but either simple timers or
very basic machine learning or simple pattern identification.

so, I guess in the recent words of the most powerful brain[1] on the
planet when told about 162 086 covid-19 related deaths: "...it is what
it is..."

maybe worth 1c ? 

Andre
++++++
[1] powerful brain is a brain in control a small red button, inside a
beautifully crafted leather briefcase (although the 'red' is not really
'red' but more of a vermillion) 

> 
> On 8/26/20 1:59 PM, Mauro Souza via talk 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 <mailto: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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