Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ThomPete 1654 days ago
Blockchain governs the DIGITAL sphere and in there can actually enforce. People who are trying to combine crypto with physical assets are a shrinking number. Focus on digital and its absolutely enforcable, to an extent not even governments can accomplish.
3 comments

Not at all, blockchains can't enforce intellectual property rights either. For example, how is a blockchain going to stop an individual from using unlicensed content on their website?
Thats not what is meant by it being enforcable.

You are confusing things here.

With enforcable, what is meant is anything that can be programmed into a contract and be executed will be executed (enforced).

That can as an example be someone raising a million dollars for a crypto game by offering 10000 tokens for 100$ each. The million dollars are going to be unlocked in phases. 50k for proof of concept, 250k for alpha etc. Each phase have to be approved by the toke holders. If they dont agree that the proof of concept is good enough they can vote the unlocking down and there is nothing the game developers can do about that. That is what is meant by enforable.

We already know what "enforce" means. You said blockchains can enforce "digital" whatever that means. The only thing blockchains can "enforce" is that data are added to the chain according to some rules. There isn't any type of property right, digital or real, that can be enforced in this way.
I already explained what enforcement means in this context giving you a very concrete example. Why don't you show how that example is not what I claim it is. Instead of just repeating what you already said.

I can't help you see something you don't want to see.

> Why don't you show how that example is not what I claim it is.

Because, quite honestly, I don't what your claim is. You're saying that a blockchain can "enforce DIGITAL" which is a meaningless sentence. Are you claiming that you can write a program and execute it on a blockchain? Sure. I can do the same on my computer. This is not an example of enforcing property rights, which was what we were talking about.

I am not talking about property rights and I am not sure where you are getting that from. So maybe you were thinking of someone else.
> Focus on digital and its absolutely enforcable, to an extent not even governments can accomplish.

The Winklevosses came up with an elaborate system to store and secure their own private keys. They cut up printouts of their private keys into pieces and then distributed them in envelopes to safe deposit boxes around the country, so if one envelope were stolen the thief would not have the entire key.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/technology/bitcoin-winkle...

> Blockchain governs the DIGITAL sphere and in there can actually enforce.

how?

it's all based on cryptographic keys, if I stole the keys, how can blockchain block me, without someone intervening?

You are answering your own question by asking the wrong one.

This is only a problem if it's in fact enforcable. There are many ways to solve the stealing among others multisig.

you're not answering the question though.

the only thing the system can do is ask more and more from their users, but there is no way to know if the transaction is good: if it looks good, it is good.

so it can't enforce anything on its own.

a CC payment can look good, but it can be reversed because there other other channels, outside of the CC circuit, to prove those transactions are to be considered fraudulent.

There is no such mechanism in the crypto space, so basically they are good unless you have an issue that can't be solved by the chain itself.

Because the chain can't enforce anything.

p.s. note that I wrote the keys (plural) not the key (singular)

basically your answer is "have a multifactor authentication" but if that is broken by some malevolent actor, I can go to the police.

There's not true fro Cryptos, if they are stolen they are lost.

nothing you can do about it, except begging

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dv4a/hacked-cryptocurrency...

I have answered it and again you are answering it ex. here:

"A CC payment can look good, but it can be reversed because there other other channels, outside of the CC circuit, to prove those transactions are to be considered fraudulent.

There is no such mechanism in the crypto space, so basically they are good unless you have an issue that can't be solved by the chain itself."

This is a feature NOT a bug. It comes with it's own consequences of course but that's exactly what makes it enforceable just like physics enforce its laws.

This is a complete FAILURE to enforce property rights. If by stealing your car, I automatically own it, that means there are no property rights whatsoever.
No it's not. You are assuming that the entry on the ledger is a person it's not. It's a thing. I can steal all sorts of things from you in real life and if you don't know I stole them, then they will be gone forever.

You are still not understanding what is meant by enforcing.