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Comment by dsco | Hacker News Reader

I think you're doing blockchain and human ingenuity a disservice by framing the question that way. Many corporations haven't revolved around "solving a problem", but instead making existing solutions more efficient.

There were people letting out apartments before AirBnb, and there were taxi cars before Uber - yet we feel that these companies are making our lives easier.

Also your question is very much centered around your own world view. What about the Venezuelans who are mining bitcoin becauause theyir own currency is at an all time high inflation rate? Isn't that example enough to at least partially answer your question about how blockchain addresses societal problems?

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/04/03/...

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Sure. Bitcoin in Venezuela is solving the problem of their existing currency imploding.

Anything that performs a function inefficiently can be a problem waiting to be solved.

What I’m asking for is a concrete example of a societal problem (something inefficient, costly, painful, or impossible) that blockchain addresses.

Any industry or operations where intermediaries are needed becauses of a lack of trust between first parties can be desintermediated by a distributed trust network:

- Art transactions: registry of origin and property transfers for any object (with authenticated certificate), currently done by lawyers & auction houses (costly, inefficient, painful, near-impossible in some cases)

- International shipping: INCOTERMS, currently handled through various specialized intermediaries (costly, inefficient, painful)

- Registry of operations over the life of a company (creation/address change/acquisitions/foreclosure), currently done by national commerce courts & accredited local newspapers (costly, inefficient, painful)

- Wills: self-authentication of one's will preventing repudiation attempts by third parties, currently done by lawyers and witnesses (costly, inefficient, painful)

- Escrow accounts for service providers (ex freelancers) through multisig wallets (inefficient)

Art transactions: Just the other day there was a long discussion on here about a guy who managed to convince a blockchain that he owned the Mona Lisa.

Interesting, do you have a link?

To me blockchain in Art is less useful as a way to prove some ex-nihilo ownership than as an unalterable chain of ownership transfers. Of course that works as long as noone gets their hands on Musée du Louvre's private keys.

Here's the HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17292476

Venezuelans mining bitcoin isn't a good way to solve their inflation issues, because bitcoin has lost its value much faster than the the Venezuelan Bolivar has lost value, at least the bolivar is significantly less volatile than bitcoin. That doesn't mean bitcoin can't be stable though.

Genuine question: how is bitcoin a better inflation hedge than gold, especially in (somewhat) poor countries where making online transactions (and mining bitcoin) is not as easy/affordable as in the most developed countries?

because gold is heavy. it isn't easy to move, or transact with.

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