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If blockchain is the big new thing, why does it smell like snake oil?

Alex Kadis on February 23, 2019

(Photo: Public Domain, via Atlas Obscura) I think I get the basic concepts of what blockchain is and the technology behind it: A ledger (databas...
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Dian Fay • Edited

One note: energy usage isn't a blockchain problem, it's a proof-of-work problem. Cryptocurrencies (not blockchains) need to enforce resource scarcity somehow, and the first one people worked out involved wasting a lot of power.

That aside, it smells like snake oil because almost every time you hear about it it is snake oil. There are absolutely legitimate use cases for a distributed, immutable ledger, but 99% of the time somebody says "blockchain" it's to impress people who don't understand what a blockchain is.

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Eugene Cheah • Edited

Its not just block-chain as of now, its AI as well.

Both are tools designed to do one job well (like a specialised hex screw). But they seem to be duck tapped to a hammer, and being used as a hammer....

😓 which makes it pointless in the context of general purpose hammering, or worse a hazard (what if the duct tape falls out)

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vorsprung

Bruce Scheier writes about blockchain and finds it wanting