Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Grustaf 1513 days ago
This is not necessarily a flaw in the technology, it's just one way in which it differs from what we are used to.

I think most coiners, who skew strongly libertarian, would argue that it's up to you to make sure your smart contracts work.
1 comments
dmitriid 1513 days ago
> I think most coiners, who skew strongly libertarian, would argue that it's up to you to make sure your smart contracts work.

Ah yes, it's up to the user to review and debug code written in an esoteric programming language to make sure that it works... When even creators of said contracts can't find bugs in their code and fall prey to mistakes (sometimes after multiple audits)

link
ulzeraj 1513 days ago
That's correct. Smart contracts are absolutely bleeding edge features that work on top of an Ethereum-like chain which by itself doesn't mind advancing the roadmap even if something breaks. People should be advised about that before participating in smart contracts, which unfortunately doesn't always happen due to greed and hype.

It doesn't mean however that we should just throw everything blockchain cryptocurrency related into the same sack and say its nonsense.

link
Grustaf 1513 days ago
Yes exactly.
link
dmitriid 1513 days ago
"This is not necessarily a flaw in technology".

When is the last time you needed to debug the contract when you buy coffee?

link
Grustaf 1513 days ago
Why would you need to involve a smart contract to buy coffee?
link
dmitriid 1513 days ago
Coffee is just an extreme example.

The actual example I usually go for is selling/buying an apartment. I'm currently in Sweden, and I've gone through the process twice now. The contracts were several pages if clear text that even I, with my rudimentary knowledge of Swedish could understand. Good luck checking that everything is correct with a "smart contract" version.

link
Grustaf 1513 days ago
I've also bought property in Sweden, it's very simple. No need to involve a lawyer even.

So where do smart contracts come in? Who would want to use a smart contract to buy an apartment? Unless possible the apartment deed was stored on the blockchain or something, but that is highly unlikely. Real estate is a very poor fit, since it's very heavily regulated in numerous ways. It's not just about ownership, and anonymous ownership of real estate is definitely a non-goal. It's an anti-goal.

link