[snissn]

AFAIK the author means imagine "Amazon" as a concept around a popular marketplace for books, food and computers. Not imagine that tomorrow amazon is supplanted. Amazon is not built as a blockchain competitor. If you imagine that it is, then imagine forking it...

[simias]

As for most things the blockchain solves .1% of the problems Amazon solves. Dealing with delivery issues alone is something the blockchain cannot solve on its own. Dealing with warehouses, making deals with shipping companies, managing stock, providing results tailored to the user etc... The Blockchain isn't magic, it can't deal with that. You might be able to build a complex system of oracles and smart contracts to reimplement all that functionality but I posit that it won't be more effective or cheaper than a centralized system.

Think about the price you're paying for your Amazon prime subscription or your Visa card. Now think about the amount of complexity these companies have to deal with, handling thousands of third parties that are willing to take advantage of the system if given the chance. Dealing with human error. Dealing with scammers. Think how well it works on average. Now you want to undercut that using slow, inefficient and redundant distributed trustless technology? Good luck.

I could be wrong, but the burden of proof is on the cryptocurrency enthusiasts' shoulders because Amazon and Visa work today while Openbazaar and the Lightning network are still highly experimental.

>If you imagine that it is, then imagine forking it...

Can you imagine if we had 100THz computers? How cool would that be.

[snissn]

it feels like we're speaking two separate languages, I don't know how to tell you what you want to hear

> the burden of proof is on the cryptocurrency enthusiasts' shoulders

It feels very unfair to walk into a conversation with an internet stranger who believes that. If you feel so strongly, who am I to try to change your mind?

[simias]

I don't think it's unfair to say that the proponents of a technology that does not yet exist have the burden to prove that it's superior to the technology that does exist and work today. "Imagine if you could fork Amazon" is not a reasonable premise.