> That being said, blockchain technology is not Bitcoin. Blockchain technology will likely be revolutionary, while Bitcoin is essentially worthless.
People keep saying this but what exactly is the value proposition of blockchain again?
People keep saying this but what exactly is the value proposition of blockchain again?
Double-entry accounting made it much harder to cook the books (a record of where money is coming from and a record of where it is going). Blockchains store every transaction within the coin itself and are validated by the entire network as valid transactions.
People promote Bitcoin as anonymous, but it's actually the opposite - every transaction is traceable and open source, even if the accounts are not tied to a person directly.
There are uses for this but I think the unintended consequences remain to be seen. I think of how people were able to be identified by that Netflix ratings datadump a few years ago, so imagine how easy it would be if Bitcoin became a common currency? I am not positive this is possible (I think it is?) but imagine I buy an apple from Whole Foods and pay with Bitcoin. Now I know what account they use and I can go back through the blockchain to see every other transaction they've ever made: bam, now I know all financial data about Whole Foods over Bitcoin including which accounts pay them the most and the datestamps of those transactions.
>Blockchains store every transaction within the coin itself and are validated by the entire network as valid transactions.
Is true for bitcoin, but is not necessarily true for all blockchains. Bitcoin != blockchain, even though Bitcoin is the original blockchain.
An application like this would use a new address for every transaction, and never use it again. There are desktop software wallets that do this, in the interests of privacy.
https://hackernoon.com/why-everyone-missed-the-most-importan...
For Etherium contracts to be useful they need to interface with the outside word. That means you need to trust someone to insert that data (e.g. a stock price) into the contract, and they might cheat and put bad data in.
However, if they do it is publicly visible and they are shamed and not trusted.
If they do stay honest, everything else about the contract will execute as expected and they can be no shenanigans (modulo bugs in the contract).
This isn't perfect but it is arguably better than company takes your money, hopefully they give you back what they owe.
Spoiler: nothing, “blockchain” is one piece of what makes Bitcoin interesting.
Compare this:
"Let's all meet on avenue A at noon to protest the panopticon."
to this:
"If some function applied to block 1234 reduces to zero, let's meet at avenue A at noon, or else let's meet at avenue B at noon."
By using a blockchain you just increased the number of barricades that must be constructed from 1 to 2.
An example is Bitcoin. It is in your best interest not to spend too much. Spend exactly the amount required, not more, and you are done.