1. Blockchain was this clever solution related to money. Anonymous person invented it. Some news about crime around it. Lots of money around it. So blockchain is this money thing and technology thing? Sounds kinda sexy.
2. Business people heard about it, thought it might be The Next Big Thing. Ask boffins to investigate.
3. Other business people heard their rivals think blockchains are The Next Big Thing so they need to get on it too.
4. hmmmm, turns out a business is mostly all about being centralized which is at odds with a boockchain. hmmm it's actually kinda uselsss? Maybe we can get rid of all the bits we don't like about it? oops we just reinvented the wheel.
A "private blockchain with proof of authority" is like cutting the hump of a camel and calling it a horse. Just use Git.
There is much hype. However, as someone who was at least as skeptical (and cynical) as you a few months ago, but (somewhat accidentally) has ended up working this this space, and for cognitive dissonance-reduction reasons, has had to figure out what's real and what's hype (or just plain lies), I have to say that I don't think it is all as bogus as you perceive.
>A "private blockchain with proof of authority" is like cutting the hump of a camel and calling it a horse. Just use Git.
This sounds clever, but it isn't right: Git has no equivalent to consensus for transaction correctness, for example. It has no equivalent to smart contracts. It has no peer discovery mechanism. It has no automatic transaction propagation mechanism. And on...
Executive summary : "there may be a pony in there somewhere"
We sound quite similar. I also accidentally ended up working in this space a few months ago and started off incredibly cynical (my first meeting telling everyone there I don't think there are any useful applications relevant to the business whatsoever). Looks like I went one way (getting out and doing something else) and you stuck around :-) I hope you are right and the technology is actually useful for humanity. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.
I conjecture that blockchains have no applications beyond cryptocurrency. I hope someone can give me a very simple counterexample. I've seen blockchains for the music industry, for porn, for university, for bananas in Laos, for weed, for voting, for "supply chain" something or other. I've never seen an application explained simply that makes sense. I am highly skeptical of the field.
1. Blockchain was this clever solution related to money. Anonymous person invented it. Some news about crime around it. Lots of money around it. So blockchain is this money thing and technology thing? Sounds kinda sexy.
2. Business people heard about it, thought it might be The Next Big Thing. Ask boffins to investigate.
3. Other business people heard their rivals think blockchains are The Next Big Thing so they need to get on it too.
4. hmmmm, turns out a business is mostly all about being centralized which is at odds with a boockchain. hmmm it's actually kinda uselsss? Maybe we can get rid of all the bits we don't like about it? oops we just reinvented the wheel.
A "private blockchain with proof of authority" is like cutting the hump of a camel and calling it a horse. Just use Git.