Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by skywhopper 3048 days ago
I don’t see any actual practical use cases described here that make mainstream adoption of blockchain tech make any sense. Or any concrete arguments about how it improves current systems. And the weaknesses of blockchain are glossed over or ignored. And “it’s never been hacked” is the frankly pretty toothless argument in favor of its security. Basically this is a weak article for Y Combinator to be publishing. If this is the best they can come up with, then blockchain has worse prospects than I thought.
2 comments
EGreg 3048 days ago
Blockchains boil down to one thing:

Where before you had to trust one server, now you can have many. Multiple writers, multiple readers. That's all.

They are a drop-in replacement for having to trust admins.

On the other hand, backups and replicas could prevent other things, such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1d5VvCa8Fo

link
mrep 3048 days ago
> Where before you had to trust one server, now you can have many. Multiple writers, multiple readers. That's all.

Those multiple writers, multiple readers are not free. They waste billions in server/electricity costs over traditional architecture designs. The most prominent blockchain bitcoin costs 2.5 billion dollars a year [0] to process a miniscule fraction of what Visa can handle.

[0]: https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

link
hobofan 3048 days ago
YES, we know! If there truly isn't an alternative to PoW, yes then we are pretty much fucked. Quite a few more efficient alternatives are currently being tested (and I guess a lot more are to come), and it looks very promising.
link
tim333 3047 days ago
Of the top 8 coins on coinmarketcap I think four don't use proof of work - ripple, cardano, stellar and neo. So there seem to be alternatives.
link
arisAlexis 3048 days ago
you have a lot of hatred in you like others. did you stop to think why? the article is nice and describes use cases. "the best they can come up with"? sounds like they are trying to convince you. that's not happening. they are describing the endless possibilities offered by a new technology. it's you that needs to keep up.
link