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by nsxwolf 3155 days ago
Is blockchain actually being used for anything that people are actually using? I've never had such an experience of dissonance about a technology that I hear about incessantly yet can't see a single application of in the wild. Apparently it is consuming all the world's electricity, making graphics cards impossibly expensive, yet... where is it? What is it doing?
1 comments
alistproducer2 3155 days ago
The blockchain is not what's responsible for all of the things you describe; rather, it's the dominant algorithm for psuedo-randomly distributing the ability to modify the block chain, called proof-of-work (namely Satoshi's version). There are other, just as computationally wasteful algos that try to be memory hard as opposed to cpu-hard (Cuckoo cycle PoW for example.

Lots of folks are working on different, less wasteful ways of making blockchains more resistant to attack - the most well-known of the alternatives being proof-of-stake which is essentially a betting scheme. It's a fascinating area of computing if you go beyond the hype over the BTC price.

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nsxwolf 3155 days ago
Ok, but what are blockchains doing right now? Does my iPhone use them? Facebook? Small businesses? Tesla? My doctor? Who/what??
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alistproducer2 3154 days ago
Lots of financial institutions and other businesses have been researching ways to replace systems with private blockchain technology [0]. This is just one of several business partnerships exploring ways to integrate the tech.

Unless you're buying/selling or paying for things with cryptocurrencies, then, no, you probably aren't encountering any blockchain tech right now.

[0]: https://entethalliance.org/members/

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