The Blockchain: what the heck is it and why do I care?

[TheMysteriousGX]

Something I've been curious about is, well, the thread title? I've been hearing about The Blockchain for well over a decade now but zero people have managed to tell me exactly what it does in a way that's anything other than a clunky database

So what is it, and why do tech bros get excited when it exists?

 

[Baffle]

If tech bros didn't pretend to be excited no one would buy into it and it would be a very flat, very shit pyramid.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Another libertarian sinkhole with an exponentially increasing resource cost

If tech bros didn't pretend to be excited no one would buy into it and it would be a very flat, very shit pyramid.

And therein lies the grift.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

From what I understand, blockchain by itself is all based around digital bookkeeping- it's just a chain of recorded transactions that's spread across numerous recordkeepers, each record regularly checking itself against the others and each "block" becoming permanent once filled, therefore reducing the likelihood of forgery or mistakes.

Judging by all the cryptocurrency thefts we've seen, crypto doesn't even utilize that properly. (Of course, no small number of its proponents are far more interested in its function as an untraceable method of payment for illegal goods and services, easily hidden from the government and therefore untaxable.)

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Something I've been curious about is, well, the thread title? I've been hearing about The Blockchain for well over a decade now but zero people have managed to tell me exactly what it does in a way that's anything other than a clunky database

So what is it, and why do tech bros get excited when it exists?

The best explanation I've gotten on Blockchain tech is that it's a decentralised network of computers shouting NUMBERWANG! at each other.

As for Techbros they always get excited when they have a solution that needs a problem.

 

[Dalisclock]

If tech bros didn't pretend to be excited no one would buy into it and it would be a very flat, very shit pyramid.

A flat pyramid would be quite shit considering it would cease to be a pyramid...and yeah, I totally get what you mean there.

 

[Satinavian]

Judging by all the cryptocurrency thefts we've seen, crypto doesn't even utilize that properly. (Of course, no small number of its proponents are far more interested in its function as an untraceable method of payment for illegal goods and services, easily hidden from the government and therefore untaxable.)

Nearly all the cryptocurrency thefts happen at the interface. Someone has to exchange real money/goods for cryptocurrency and that is a vulnerable point. Another vulnerability are those strange cryptobanks handling your cryptowallets like real banks do with accounts. Of course they can manipulate as well.

But the biggest scams have always been initial coin offerings of worthless new currencies. Basically everyone can make a new cryptocurrency with low effort. The hard part is convincing people it is valuable and get it used.



Blockchain itself is indeed just a recordkeeping method with verifying utility that could be used to store information decentralized and still keep it somewhat safe from manipulation. That is nice but not really that useful. In fact, there are hardly any uses beside cryptocurrencies and other even more stupid cryptotokens.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Right, like...

What possible use is it for Kickstarter?

 

[Satinavian]

None ?

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Now, to be fair, there's always some use for it for someone somewhere. It's just most likely nothing to do with helping the customer. Expanding the payment methods to include other groups of people, like money launderers and such can only be good for business. As long as you don't think too much about the future of course.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[Dirty Hipsters]

It's a decentralized database that no one is supposed to be able to manipulate or delete because no one has access to all of the data.

It's also a huge energy resource sink because looking up information using block chain requires millions of computers to run instead of 1.

Right, like...

What possible use is it for Kickstarter?

I think you could use the blockchain to essentially encrypt information in a way that would make it almost impossible to hack. So if kickstarter was really serious about preventing identity theft for the people funding projects it may be useful in that regard. I rather doubt that's what they're actually using it for though.