Yossarian wrote:

When you say a backdoor into blockchain, what exactly do you mean? If you mean a way to affect the blockchain ledger, then from my understanding it’s extrememly difficult as you have to affect more than 50% of the potentially millions of individual ledgers at once for this to work. As for scaling, as the computing power is distributed and everyone with a computer who wants to have a chance at earning a bit of money can join simply by downloading and running some software, scalability is baked into the system.

I never said "backdoor", as it's distributed, there won't be one. So the extant records can't be changed as the historical record is out there for all to see. But that doesn't mean there's no way to exploit or disrupt the system. How do conflicting claims or records get resolved? What happens if some bellends like Lizard Squad decide to DDOS the system with false claims somehow?

(and also, as soon as you say something is "extremely difficult", odds are that it's piqued a nerd's interest and they'll take a swing at it).

And you say scalability is "baked in", but can it handle the christmas rush? 
And how large are these ledgers and how large will they become if the world adopts it as a currency system? Will that scale?
I'm hugely dubious of basing a currency system on how many terawatts of energy people can turn into heat with pointless computations. At least Otoy's RenderToken is actually doing something useful with the GPU cycles:  https://uploadvr.com/render-token-blockchain-otoy/

FWIW, people at work with a far greater understanding of maths than I’ll ever have have taken apart the blockchain theory and proof and it seems pretty watertight.

Yossarian wrote:

FWIW, people at work with a far greater understanding of maths than I’ll ever have have taken apart the blockchain theory and proof and it seems pretty watertight.

Yeah, I've seen enough "how did this ever work?" moments in code to be skeptical of both mathematical proofs and code implementations of mathematical systems.

Crikey, as of December, bitcoin blockchain is 149GB:  https://www.statista.com/statistics/647523/worldwide-bitcoin-blockchain-size/

So not only would the world's GPU resources be used pumping out useless heat hashing crypto, but our nation's bandwidth gets rinsed to fuck passing around an ever-growing 149GB database. Good luck buying anything a g.man's house!

https://www.coindesk.com/what-is-the-bitcoin-block-size-debate-and-why-does-it-matter/

I'm still dubious about what usefulness it offers the average punter over a credit card. 
Other than paying for illicit stuff on silkroad, of course.

You don’t pass around the whole 149GB file, just the last block of that file.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_scalability_problem

Bitcoin's blocks include the transactions on the bitcoin network.[4]:ch. 2 In contrast to Visa's peak of 24,000 transactions per second,[5] the bitcoin network's theoretical maximum capacity with the 1MB block size limit sits between 3.3 and 7 transactions per second

Mastercard handles 160,000,000 transactions an hour, 74Billion in a year.

Current total number of transcations in the 149GB bitcoin ledger? 294,629,301.
https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions-total?timespan=all

So in 1.8 hours Mastercard processes more transactions than bitcoin has ever done in 9 years.

If this is expected to scale as a distributed payment system, we're going to need a lot more GPUs out there doing the mining and a lot more fibre laying.

Ref voting.
I could see it working, would have to be an option phased in of course, like postal is an option.

One question. I understand the blockchain would be safe but what about the the processes between a voter clicking their mouse button on their computer (pressing phone screen whatever) and that data entering the blockchain process.
Presumably there would still be some kind of manipualtable coding involved, the website would still be html or whatever.

djchump wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

You don’t pass around the whole 149GB file, just the last block of that file.

But the file exists, and must be verified and passed around to be distributed, surely? So whenever a new transaction is added, the ledger must be passed around eventually.

AFAIK, you only need to complete one set of verifications on a block until it’s set, once it’s been set and passed around, there’s no need to keep reverifying it or keep passing it around.

Aye, for limited applications like buying stuff on silkroad, or distributed cloud CGI rendering and stuff, sounds grand and very handy.

As a "disruptive technology" that's going to "change the world"? I'm not seeing it yet. 
What with all the kerfuffle around elections these days I certainly wouldn't want more computers involved with voting either.

djchump wrote:

Aye, for limited applications like buying stuff on silkroad, or distributed cloud CGI rendering and stuff, sounds grand and very handy.

As a "disruptive technology" that's going to "change the world"? I'm not seeing it yet. 

Yeah, that’s where I’m at. Even if Bitcoin were accepted everywhere, where’s the benefit for users in switching? Making sense of value when dealing with a new currency, especially one far removed from your own, takes a lot of effort. Without a clear benefit, there’s no reason for people to put themselves through that, and currently plenty of downsides to it.

djchump wrote:

Yup. 
VHS -> DVD -> bluray = okay, I see the benefits to me and I'm on board.
Pounds + credit cards + applepay etc -> bitcoin = why would I?

There’s a lot of forgotten tech along that VHS road though - bitcoin might be like Betamax.

No exchange rates if you're using a worldwide currency.

monkey wrote:

No exchange rates if you're using a worldwide currency.

This is kind of possible already seeing as dollars are pretty much a de facto global currency anyway. Not so much at a consumer level, but global business can simply use dollars.

Those questions barely factor in to most people’s day to day thinking about money. Answering them provides no incentive to switch my currency.

Really? Even the billions living in poverty?