[gimme_treefiddy]

Slightly tangential question: Couldn't Bitcoin be implemented on something other Blockchain, since Blockchain is so computationally intensive. Like why not use a SQL database instead. It's definitely not technically infeasible, and you can reliably achieve all objectives of Bitcoin by doing so.

The idea of independent financial system is great, but the inefficiency of it's usage is something I am very doubtful about.

[xtracto]

I think technologically a blockchain like DB could be implemented I Cassandra: every person has a node which replicates n% of the ledger. We implement a "block-chain" verification system by hashing the content of each previous transaction and there you have a ledger.

The main issue is concensus in a distributed system were we dobt trust each other (i.e. no central source of truth/authority) If 2 transactions collide/conflict with each other, who do you trust? Who has the last word? How do you prevent double spending? (Given the eventual co consistency of the DB and an adversarial environment).

The truth is that these questions and more are answered to a certain degree by different Blockchain protocols. Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance is one, PoS is other, PoW yet another and we even have crazy ones like Chia (proof of space time).

It's like the token ring vs star topilogies ir ipx/spx vs tcp/IP or http vs gopher vs ftp vs nntp vs smtp.

Did you know that around the 90s there were a lot of us purists that made a lot of noise because people were sharing files in a very inefficient way through SMTP? you've got to base64 or uuencode it... its wasteful. FTP instead was made for file transfer.

The same thing will happen with blockchain technology. Inefficiencies will be ironed out.

[alkonaut]

You could use a centralized blockchain to ensure immutability but there is then a central trusted party such as a central bank.

This seems to me like the “proper” way of managing digital currency, but obviously those that like Bitcoin see the independce and decentralization as a feature.

[Cycl0ps]

The blockchain model is designed to be immutable, a block of transactions are locked in place by the blocks before and after it. A traditional database structure wouldn't have that form of baked-in security, though I'm sure there are other models that could work.

[gimme_treefiddy]

You, that’s the word I was looking for. There are solutions out there which achieve similar objective. It’s like they the benefits of blockchain are being used for bitcoin, but if you designed one with bitcoin in mind, there is efficient solution there.

[imtringued]

A decentralized application requires you to download all of its data so that you can verify it yourself. An SQL database on top of a blockchain doesn't really change anything except make data storage less efficient.

[gimme_treefiddy]

No, I meant instead of blockchain.

[BenjiWiebe]

Well, if it wasn't a blockchain, it would be a lot easier to rewrite history and give myself millions of bitcoins.