HYIP-Man: Real talk with a Blockchain Engineer
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Real talk with a Blockchain Engineer
Real talk with a Blockchain Engineer
I often hear these things touted by blockchain advocates: data ownership, supply chain, and "cutting out the middleman" I want to debunk these statements once and for all. Myth #1 Blockchain changes data ownership, giving power back to the consumer Anyone who becomes privy to some data has some ownership of it. Blockchain doesn't change that. If you want to share something with only a few select people you need inherent trust or an NDA. Myth #2 Blockchain can revolutionize supply chain Its a datastore with some cryptographic identity checks and tamper proof guarantees. It can't prove that a package made it from A to B or that it stayed at some ambient temperature IRL. It only records that someone attested to that, not whether its true. An ordinary database will do for an audit trail. Myth #3 It cuts out the Middleman You dont need blockchain to cut the middleman out of indusrty X. Any service trying to do this wants to be the new middleman with lower service fees cos' blockchain! Here are some axioms which I think will drive future blockchain use cases 1. The transfer of value must occur on the chain This is why digital currency is the #1 use case. We're already accustomed to digital value transfers when we use modern banking, the transfer of value is a few digits on our screens. 2. If you can't do 1) then it must be enforcable off-chain Take for example buying a house. I sign some papers at the bank and some more with an agent and then we all agree I own a house and owe the bank some money. We sign the papers because then its enforcable by law. Keyword "enforcable". If the legal system agrees a cryptographic signature on a digital record achieves this purpose then its as good as the paperwork. We're a few years away from proper legal recognition of smart contracts. Ricardian contracts seem to be a step in the right direction. Thanks for reading and hope it clears things up.
more
Written at 1:08 PM by Frank.
0 comments