Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by MichaelBurge 3234 days ago
Is "blockchain" singular, plural, or some kind of lowercase Proper Noun?

> Blockchains fall

Okay, blockchain is singular, so it always refers to a single object.

There is a universe U of objects, and "Blockchain" is a predicate on U. So for any given x in U, "Blockchain(x)" is a proposition. In other words, we can ask whether something is a blockchain or not.

> Step one is to figure out a framework for analyzing blockchain

Here it's being used as a plural, like you might study a herd of blockchain. That's okay in principle - some words are their own plurals, like "sheep" or "fish". But above, it had an "s" at the end, so it can't be plural.

Another possibility is that "blockchain" is the name of some specific object. "Fred went to the store" -> "I asked blockchain for some money".

That's no problem: Your name can be "Archer" and you can study Archery.

There is a constant c in U such that Blockchain(c). Something somewhere is named "blockchain".

> blockchain does not have the capability to support

> For everything Blockchain does worse than other databases

More evidence that he's talking about some specific blockchain. Christians capitalize God in every sentence to show reverence, while Atheists tend to leave it as a lowercase god.

Is something similar happening here? Which blockchain are people even talking about?

2 comments

Blockchain should be singular - "blockchains" should be used when referring to the technology in general. Getting this wrong is the #1 indicator that an article on blockchains isn't worth reading.
I'm not sure if it should be plural when referring to the technology in general. "Powered by blockchains technology" doesn't seem correct to me.

I do hope you'll read the article regardless!

The word "blockchain" works just like the word "computer". You can have a blockchain or multiple blockchains, just as you can have a computer or multiple computers. And you'd refer to "blockchain technology" just as you'd refer to "computer technology."
I probably should not be capitalizing it ever and using it as singular everywhere. Thanks for pointing that out