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by dvt 3175 days ago
This is, of course, pretty cool. But I don't really share much enthusiasm for the blockchain. It reminds me of Bit Torrent in the early 2000s. Sure, it had a decent impact on the Internet, but not really as revolutionary as everyone was hyping it to be.

Smart contracts are cool, but it's nothing you couldn't achieve with any other decentralized protocol. The only interesting part of cryptocurrencies (imo) is the ledger, and from what I've seen, the BTC ledger is becoming a bit unwieldly. ETH will probably follow suit.
2 comments
ric2b 3175 days ago
> It reminds me of Bit Torrent in the early 2000s. Sure, it had a decent impact on the Internet, but not really as revolutionary as everyone was hyping it to be.

It forced two gigantic industries (music and movie) to re-invent themselves, how can you say it only had a decent impact?

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mseebach 3175 days ago
The hype around BitTorrent was a lot more hypey than that, and the revolution you're describing was already well underway by then by means of Napster and LimeWire and what not.

I think the "let-down" is akin to what it would feel like if the end-result of the blockchain in a decade would amount to little more than cheap, low-friction international payments (and those not even powered by a blockchain, but simply by the banks getting their shit together). That's great and all, but the blockchain hype is way up there with enabling anarchist utopia.

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austinheap 3175 days ago
> It forced two gigantic industries (music and movie) to re-invent themselves, how can you say it only had a decent impact?

Seriously! It completely up-ended entertainment and forced new business models on multi-billion dollar entrenched players. Hundred of billions of dollars later it's no longer a question if it had a revolutionary impact IMHO.

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Bromskloss 3175 days ago
> Smart contracts are cool, but it's nothing you couldn't achieve with any other decentralized protocol.

What are those other ways?

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