[ForHackernews]

I can explain TCP for a general audience: "TCP is the primary system computers use to talk to each other over a network these days. All the data is broken down into tiny little bits called 'packets' and sent out over the wire. TCP is important because it specifies how the computers should perform 'handshakes' at the start of the conversation, and includes rules for checking the data for errors, and resending corrupted or missing packets."

I know (more or less) what Ethereum is, and I understand (more or less) that these 'blobs' are yet another attempt to work around the fundamental inefficiencies inherent when trying to make a giant distributed system for ideological reasons (rather than a small centralized system).

[everfree]

Inefficiencies aren’t really inherent if they can be worked around.