Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Filligree 2856 days ago
Why should it need to be decentralized?

A blockchain is a chain of blocks. Tautological, but the words mean something; it isn't just a name. If you hash blocks that contain hashes of previous blocks, you have a blockchain.

At most it might be argued that a centralized blockchain has no reason to exist, but I doubt that's true.
2 comments
losvedir 2856 days ago
> A blockchain is a chain of blocks. Tautological, but the words mean something; it isn't just a name.

No, it doesn't work like that. "Blockchain" is understood to mean something and you can't decompose the compound word and say "well, here's a block. Oh, and here's a chain. I guess this is a block chain." Your description, e.g., applies to a Merkle tree [0], which git uses, and was published in 1979. But no one has ever or will ever call it a blockchain.

Is a Ford F-150 that's been lit on fire a firetruck? How much straw is in a strawberry?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree

link
FabHK 2854 days ago
You're on the right side of the linguistic prescriptivism vs descriptivism debate, but I think the meaning of that word might not have settled enough yet. Personally, I think it makes sense to restrict "blockchain" to a chain (or DAG) of blocks with hashes, and refer to Bitcoin etc. technology as blockchain + POW (rather than having "blockchain" subsume the POW).

That might be a losing battle, but not sure the battle is over yet...

link
scott_s 2856 days ago
My go-to example for this is "putting a Hershey's bar in the microwave is not hot chocolate."
link
bittcto 2856 days ago
Because the term was coined by Nakamoto to describe the technology behind bitcoin. Decentralization, proof of work and other characteristics of bitcoin are intrinsic to making the system work. Otherwise you have an inefficient database that has no reason to exist.
link
mhluongo 2856 days ago
> Because the term was coined by Nakamoto to describe the technology behind bitcoin.

It wasn't- there's one mention of a "chain of blocks" in the white paper. The term "blockchain" appears to have been coined by Hal Finney.

link
pvg 2856 days ago
You don't really need the 'otherwise'.
link