Comment by Dowwie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Dowwie | Hacker News Reader

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In 2009, China had a very serious problem dealing with tainted milk, leading to infants dying and getting sick. People had sold more than 900 tonnes of tainted milk. It eventually executed two involved with the production process: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/24/china-executes...

The blockchain solution presented here wouldn't have verified safety in that case, although the author did mention the case which makes the article misleading. Melamine was added to the formula to fool a protein test. The chemical was added by trusted members of the supply chain. Since the members were trusted, they would pass the authenticity test of the blockchain.

Yeah, unfortunately you cant do a checksum on physical ingredients.

Actually, from the article, it mentions this:

> Leanne Kemp, an Australian who in 2015 founded a company called Everledger, has now encrypted the distinguishing features of 1.8 million diamonds and their provenance on a blockchain.

> More than 40 features are logged to create a fingerprint for each diamond, logging it from mine to ring.

So it seems, in the case of diamonds, they are unique enough to create a fingerprint. I'm no expert on diamonds, so that might not really work in reality.

I can't find very much information on Everledger's features process, just on the blockchain aspect, which doesn't inspire confidence. It's not enough for them to create 40 features you can fingerprint a diamond by, they have to be 40 features that are independently and consistently verifiable.

If I have to send my diamond to Everledger to verify it, I'm effectively just trusting them. Representing a physical object as a cryptographic hash for security doesn't work if the consumer can't independently verify the hash.

Surely you wouldn't hash a car?

Today we can't.

Actually I think we could. It just hasn't been implemented. (not to say it's practical).

Executed?

Can't say I have a problem with that.

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