Current Events > Blockchain study finds 0.00% success rate

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/30/blockchain_study_finds_0_per_cent_success_rate/

Though Blockchain has been touted as the answer to everything, a study of 43 solutions advanced in the international development sector has found exactly no evidence of success.

Three practitioners including erstwhile blockchain enthusiast John Burg, a Fellow at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), looked at instances of the distributed crypto ledger being used in a wide range of situations by NGOs, contractors and agencies. But they drew a complete blank.

"We found a proliferation of press releases, white papers, and persuasively written articles," Burg et al wrote on Thursday. "However, we found no documentation or evidence of the results blockchain was purported to have achieved in these claims. We also did not find lessons learned or practical insights, as are available for other technologies in development."

Blockchain vendors were keen to puff the merits of the technology, but when the three asked for proof of success in the field, it all went very quiet.

"We fared no better when we reached out directly to several blockchain firms, via email, phone, and in person. Not one was willing to share data on program results, MERL [monitoring, evaluation, research and learning] processes, or adaptive management for potential scale-up. Despite all the hype about how blockchain will bring unheralded transparency to processes and operations in low-trust environments, the industry is itself opaque."

Burg was an enthusiastic advocate for blockchain until recently as he explained in this Medium post.

"Blockchain is like a loom that can weave together multiple strands of separate things... into an integrated fabric where you can see what the data means and adjust resources in response," he swooned.

Blockchain has been wildly mis-sold, but underneath it is a database with performance and scalability issues and a lot of baggage. Any claim made for blockchain could be made for databases, or simply publishing contractual or transactional data gathered in another form.

Its adoption by non-technical advocates is faith-based, with vendors' and consultants' claims being taken at face value, as Eddie Hughes MP (Con, Walsall North) cheerfully confessed to the FT recently.

"I'm just a Brummie bloke who kept hearing about blockchain, read a bit about it, and thought: this is interesting stuff. So I came up with this idea: blockchain for Bloxwich," said Hughes.

As with every bubble, whether it's Tulip Mania or the Californian Gold Rush, most investors lose their shirts while a fortune is being made by associated services the advisors and marketeers can bank their cash, even if there's no gold in the river.

For example, Fujitsu offers fast-track consulting services starting at 9,900 to tell you if blockchain is appropriate for your project (that's something we can confidently tell you for nothing: no, it isn't).

And the magic B-word enabled doomed tech quango Digital Catapult to conduct a Houdini-like escape.

Now that's magic.

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someone described blockchain as computers playing Numberwang from Mitchell and Webb Look and I've never been able to stop thinking about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-cXBhkl-E" data-time="
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this will help bitcoin
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Butterfiles posted...

someone described blockchain as computers playing Numberwang from Mitchell and Webb Look and I've never been able to stop thinking about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-cXBhkl-E" data-time="

Numberwang is one of my favorite bits they've done.
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Womp womp

Butterfiles posted...

someone described blockchain as computers playing Numberwang from Mitchell and Webb Look and I've never been able to stop thinking about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-cXBhkl-E" data-time="

That's numberwang!
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what

the fuck

is blockchain

But I'm totes in it for the miracle tech, not the money dood.
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When you were having premarital sex, I mastered the blockchain.
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Can someone explain in plain english what a blockchain is
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RoboLaserGandhi posted...

what

the fuck

is blockchain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8OlkkwRpc" data-time="

The foundation for the incoming 4th industrial revolution.
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Sad_Face posted...

RoboLaserGandhi posted...

what

the fuck

is blockchain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl8OlkkwRpc" data-time="

The foundation for the incoming 4th industrial revolution.

Except that it's not.
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is it just a dataminer to make bitcoin hashes?
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Lmao
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Private blockchains are a joke that defeat their very purpose.
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RoboLaserGandhi posted...

what

the fuck

is blockchain

Startup Executives: IDK but I want 7 of them.
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RoboLaserGandhi posted...

what

the fuck

is blockchain

A hashed linkedlist, each node ("block") corresponding to a subsequent timeframe and containing a hash tree with transactions which have occurred in that timeframe.

In general, the hash for each block is of a certain "difficulty" - that is to say, containing a nonce in their data such that the hash has a certain number of leading zeros.

The computational complexity of computing these hashes in conjunction with the fact that everything can be cryptographically verified means the "ledger" blockchains represent are in theory resistant to tampering, granted the amount of legitimate computing power exceeds the amount of illegitimate computing power.

In public networks - which is what they were engineered for - this also secures the chains against fraudulent forks containing transactions which may contradict the state conveyed by the main / legitimate chain.

In "proof-of-work" cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin, "miners" (users that compute these hashes) are awarded "coin" for computing these hashes, and for confirming transactions in the network, which they may then transfer to others and use as fees for others to confirm transactions, depending on whoever "mined" the last block.

This system is rather convoluted for any sort of enterprise application, and it's genuinely a waste of time for businesses and other closed organizations. For business-to-business and other sorts of transactions between parties that do not trust each other completely, perhaps it's applicable.
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It's hard to understand what 'success' means here, never mind boiling down to a percentage. There doesn't seem to be a "study" in the OP.

Seems like silly clickbait, which seems hypocritical.
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When you were having premarital sex I mastered the blockchain
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I heard it was a valid potential replacement for public key cryptography.
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Its almost like it was an elaborate scheme to get the early investors rich. Got a bunch of new unknown worthless shit? Tell people its valuable and theyll start buying it
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P4wn4g3 posted...

I heard it was a valid potential replacement for public key cryptography.

It's an application of public key cryptography, not a replacement.
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TheMikh posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

I heard it was a valid potential replacement for public key cryptography.

It's an application of public key cryptography, not a replacement.

Oh. Well that's not as interesting as I thought.
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thronedfire2 posted...

Its almost like it was an elaborate scheme to get the early investors rich. Got a bunch of new unknown worthless shit? Tell people its valuable and theyll start buying it

Tell that to migrants fleeing corrupt and wartorn countries with their life savings intact.

Everything is intrinsically worthless without demand and practical utility.

The intent was to create a reliable medium of exchange that couldn't be controlled or otherwise manipulated by a central entity, and with respect to that it's doing a decent job.

Most every technology and trend tends to reward early adopters that assume risk - in this case, in the form of time and effort spent developing and proliferating the technology, and money spent on infrastructure to support it. In that regard, it has probably been the lowest risk highest reward investment in history.
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P4wn4g3 posted...

TheMikh posted...

P4wn4g3 posted...

I heard it was a valid potential replacement for public key cryptography.

It's an application of public key cryptography, not a replacement.

Oh. Well that's not as interesting as I thought.

That it's at the intersection of game theory, economics, cryptography, and systems engineering is what makes it most interesting.

From a pure cryptographic standpoint, it doesn't seem to bring much that is new to the table. Then again, the ins and outs of cryptography aren't my strong point.
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I need to get my security+
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BitConnnnnnnnnnect!
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TheMikh posted...

This system is rather convoluted for any sort of enterprise application, and it's genuinely a waste of time for businesses and other closed organizations. For business-to-business and other sorts of transactions between parties that do not trust each other completely, perhaps it's applicable.

That is an understatement. A trustless environment to do business, smart contract where people have to abide to their word to get what they want, who wouldn't want this? Imagine if the government spending was on a blockchain, where the budget is set up in a smart contract. The people could verify every action the government takes. It'll take a level of transparency to a whole new level since all transactions are posted in the ledger. If government is misusing their funds, then they will no longer have access to the funding. I know my local government desperately needs this system.

Blockchain technology opens up a whole new world of possibilities especially via smart contracts. I hear what's preventing smart contracts from reaching their full potential is the oracle problem, since oracles provide smart contracts with the information that the conditions have been met to execute the smart contract, but we need a way for oracles to be trustless...
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https://imgur.com/CyFyMRL
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Its still too new really

When you were having premarital sex I mastered the blockchain
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YukihoHagiwara posted...

https://imgur.com/CyFyMRL

lol classic