[ghoshbishakh]

I would not say useless. But blockchain has very limited use outside cryptocurrencies. Although, some of the innovations that happened around blockchains are useful in many other scenarios.

P.S. I do have a Ph.D. in trying to fit blockchain for other use cases.

[Calavar]

What are some good noncrypto uses of blockchains that you've seen?

[latchkey]

Timestamping (which is actually what bitcoin is). For better or worse, this is one commercial application of it: https://guardtime.com/platform

[cypherpunks01]

Guatemalan dev Rafael Cordon made a project called Simple Proof that leverages OpenTimestamps for election security.

It was used in the Guatemalan 2023 elections to timestamp tally sheets in different election districts around the country, so they can't be manipulated at a later time.

[latchkey]

Timestamp.com is owned by a buddy of mine. Long before blockchain, we tried to build a company around being an SMTP relay and a special HP PCIe card that took the GPS signal as its source. The card was special because it was encased in glass and an inert gas, which could sense if it was tampered with. Ahh... the good old days.

[delfinom]

....or, you just use the same timestamp mechanism available for code signing. Aka you ask a CA to issue a signed timestamp against a content hash and while you are at it, you can get multiple CAs in it.

[joshlemer]

The fact that there are other ways to work around previous limitations to accomplish something doesn't render the use-case invalid. The GP was asking for a usecase outside of currency and one was provided. If a valid use-case for electricity was asked, and someone described a lightbulb, you could just as well say "...or, you could just use an oil lamp"

[halfcat]

The problem with any privately run, or centrally controlled blockchain, is that it’s difficult as the operator of the blockchain to demonstrate to a third party that the blockchain hasn’t been tampered with.

If I run a blockchain that I, or my business, has full control of, and I show you as a form of “proof”, you shouldn’t believe me. A time stamped Twitter post would hold more weight.

The power of, say, the bitcoin blockchain, is in the fact that it’s widely distributed and publicly verifiable by anyone, and due to the size of the network it is prohibitively expensive to tamper with.

[everfree]

My favorite example is Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

Instead of a patchwork of DNS servers that can go down, registrars that go through enshittification cycles, and complicated ownership/transfer rules that vary based on country and TLD, ENS presents a single unified database that runs on signed message broadcasts.

To change an ENS entry, you just sign a message and broadcast it anywhere. No need to interface with a registrar. The global resolver gets updated seconds later.

It reduces an incredibly complex system of registries and registrars, authoritative and recursive resolvers, domain transfers - it distills it down to a system of just sending signed messages to update a single global name database that gets replicated to everyone who cares to have a copy.

[hocuspocus]

Clearly, digital ownership for something that truly lives on the blockchain and not outside is an obvious use case. But it also illustrates that blockchains are pretty useless beyond that.

I also wonder how the long-term monetary incentives work for a truly trustless domain name scheme. Having a quick look at https://app.ens.domains this doesn't seem terribly cheaper than a traditional registrar.

[cyberax]

> To change an ENS entry, you just sign a message and broadcast it anywhere. No need to interface with a registrar. The global resolver gets updated seconds later.

Yeah. And if your domain name keys are stolen or lost, they're gone. Forever. Or held for ransom. That's a huge reason why people are not rushing to use blockchain-based DNS.

[everfree]

Have you ever had a domain name stolen? They're also gone forever in most cases. There is no standard recovery path once a domain leaves the hands of your registrar. You might as well be trying to reverse an international wire transfer.

ENS is not worse in this respect than DNS. The DNS solution is for your registrar to require 2FA to protect your name from being transferred out in the first place. The ENS solution is for your custodian to... require 2FA to protect your name from being transferred out in the first place.

The difference is that anyone has the option to custody their own domain name if they want to - entrusting a third party is not a necessity.

Edit: Additionally, ENS gives you the equivalent of DNSSEC for free. So no need for certificate authorities, which represent DNS' reliance on cryptographic keys that would be catstrophic if stolen anyways.

[cyberax]

> Have you ever had a domain name stolen? They're also gone forever in most cases.

If it's a high-value domain, you call the registrar and get it back. Worst case, you can sue the thief if you hold a trademark for the name.

> There is no standard recovery path once a domain leaves the hands of your registrar.

There is. It's called "a lawsuit".

[everfree]

> If it's a high-value domain, you call the registrar and get it back.

When a domain name is stolen, definitionally it leaves control of the registrar.

> Worst case, you can sue the thief if you hold a trademark for the name.

You can also sue a thief who has a blockchain name. Blockchains don't magically make it so you can't sue someone and win a judgement.

International lawsuits for domain recovery work fine if you're a medium to large company. But "just sue an international thief" doesn't work so well if you're a small business or an individual. In that case, DNS doesn't hold any legal advantage over ENS, whereas ENS allows for much greater flexibility in secure custody setups to prevent theft in the first place.

> There is. It's called "a lawsuit".

And you can just as "easily" sue someone who steals a blockchain name. Just dig past the fake identity they're hiding behind, figure out which city and country they live in, hire a private investigator to determine their name and address, and hire a lawyer that practices in the theif's country but speaks your native language. It's not any harder than suing someone who stole your DNS name.

[scyclow]

You can always hold the ENS in a multisig wallet, or hold it in a smart contract with whatever arbitrary custom logic you want.