Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing - The Correspondent
Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing Economics correspondent at De Correspondent Jesse Frederik <https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-...> Blockchain technology is going to change everything: the shipping industry, the financial system, government … in fact, what won’t it change? But enthusiasm for it mainly stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding. The blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. Sjoerd Knibbeler made this image for The Correspondent; the rest of the images in this piece are from his series 'Current Studies' (2013-2016), which you can read more about at the end of the article. In front of a sea of coders sitting on folding chairs, their laptops on folding tables, a man appears on a purpley-blue lit stage. “Seven hundred blockchaingers,” the man shouts at his audience. He points at each programmer in the room. “Machine-to-machine learning … ” And then, at the top of his voice: “Energy transition! Health! Public safety and security! Future of pensions!” We are at the Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 in Groningen, the Netherlands. And something really, really big is happening here, according to the speakers. Earlier on, a film trailer voice asked those present if they could imagine that right here, right now, in this room, they were about to find solutions that would change “a billion lives”. A planet spontaneously combusted in the accompanying video. And then the Dutch state secretary for the Interior, Raymond Knops arrived, decked out in tech couture: a black hoodie. He’s here as a “super accelerator” (whatever that means). “Everyone senses that blockchain is going to change government drastically,” the state secretary said. I’ve been hearing a lot about blockchain in the last few years. I mean, who hasn’t? It’s everywhere. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought: but what is it then, for God’s sake, this whole blockchain thing? And what’s so terribly revolutionary about it? What problem does it solve? That’s why I wrote this article. I can tell you upfront, it’s a bizarre journey to nowhere. I’ve never seen so much incomprehensible jargon to describe so little. I’ve never seen so much bloated bombast fall so flat on closer inspection. And I’ve never seen so many people searching so hard for a problem to go with their solution. ‘Agents of change’ in a small Dutch town They knew nothing about the blockchain yet in Zuidhorn, a town with just under 8,000 people in the north-east of the Netherlands. “What we did know is that it’s coming for us and that it’s disruptive,” a civil servant from the town told a Dutch weekly news magazine. “We could sit back and wait, or choose to move forwards.” In Zuidhorn they decided to move forwards. A municipal poverty aid package for children would “be put on the blockchain”. Maarten Veldhuijs, a student and blockchain enthusiast, was given an internship with the municipality. His first job was to explain what blockchain is. When I asked him, he said it is “a kind of system that can’t be stopped”, that it’s “actually a force of nature”, or rather, “a decentralised consensus algorithm”. OK, it’s hard to explain, he conceded eventually. “I said to Zuidhorn: ‘I’ll just build you an app, then you’ll understand’.” So he did. His first job was to explain what blockchain is ... OK, it’s hard to explain, he conceded eventually The children’s aid package gives families living in poverty the right to a bicycle, trips to the theatre and the cinema, and so on. In the past, that was a nightmare of bureaucracy, receipts and documentation. But thanks to Velthuijs’s app it became simple: you scan your code in the shop, you get your bike, and the shopkeeper gets their money. Suddenly, the tiny town was proclaimed “one of the international forerunners in blockchain technology”. There was national media attention and even awards: they won a prize for pioneers in municipal work and received nominations for an IT project award and a civil service award. Local administrators became more and more enthusiastic. Velthuijs and his team of “students” were the ones who shaped this new world. But that term didn’t show enough respect. In Zuidhorn some people already preferred to call them “agents of change”. [...]
Ormai l'unica cosa che tiene in piedi la blockchain è il timore dei manager e degli sviluppatori coinvolti di perdere la faccia e il lavoro (quando non la libertà).
The fact that no one is in charge and nothing can be modified also means that mistakes cannot be corrected. A bank can reverse a payment request. This is impossible for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Questo comunque non è mai stato vero. Nel 2016, dopo The Dao, Ethereum ha dimostrato a tutti che la blockchain può essere modificata ogni volta che i miner rischiano di perdere il proprio investimento. E questo avrà interessanti implicazioni durante il collasso ormai prossimo.
OK, so with bitcoin, banks can’t just remove money from your account at their own discretion. But does this really happen?
ROTFL! :-D Su Ethereum è successo. E sulle "permissioned blockchain" può succedere by design.
There’s a market for magic, and that market is big
In altri termini: la blockchain identifica alcune categorie di truffe che abusano l'ignoranza informatica diffusa (aka credulità popolare). Diffidate di chi vende, propone o sviluppa software basato sulla blockchain: se sa di cosa parla, sta cercando di ingannarvi, in un modo o nell'altro. (ma segnatevi i nomi... perché stanno gia togliendo la blockchain dai CV) Giacomo
Alberto Cammozzo via nexa <nexa@server-nexa.polito.it> writes:
Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing Economics correspondent at De Correspondent Jesse Frederik
<https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-...>
Grazie! Ooooh come m'è piaciuto questo articolo! Non è "solo" di blockchain che si parla; in particolare mi incornicio questo: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- [...] He spends half his time yelling at his screen in frustration, while he programmes strips of duct tape to repair creaky PHP script from years and years ago. [...] Councillors and managers think that problems – however large and fundamental they are – evaporate instantaneously thanks to technology they’ve heard about in a fancy PowerPoint presentation. How will it work? Who cares! Don’t try to understand it, just reap the benefits! [...] This is the market for magic, and that market is big. Whether it’s about blockchain, big data, cloud computing, AI or other buzzwords. [...] The smartest thing about blockchain, Matt Levine wrote, is that the rest of the world was forced to “pay attention to those back-office technology upgrades, and to think that they might be revolutionary”. --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Per far funzionare i sistemi digitali ci vuole certo competenza ma anche tanta pazienza, tanto lavoro, una discreta passione e un briciolo di spirito di sacrificio… per quello che un mio amico chiama «il lavoro sporco di chi pulisce le fognature digitali» :-) Un pensiero di solidarietà a tutti coloro che - nel retro degli uffici - spendono buona parte del loro tempo lavorativo a "sbattere la testa" per scovare e sistemare l'ennesimo bug del software o capire perché quel sottosistema IT ha misteriosamente smesso di colpo di funzionare. Scienziati e tecnici, non stregoni :-D Happy hacking! Giovanni [...] -- Giovanni Biscuolo
Vendere cose inutili è il cuore del consumismo e la missione del marketing: "stregone" è il markettaro più del tecnico. Un distributed ledger è un tipo di database, e come tale immagino possa servire in certi casi, o forse meno: abbiamo libri pieni di algoritmi che non si usano o si usano solo in casi particolari. Chi usa ancora database reticolari? Quanto al lavoro di manutenzione, condivido in pieno. La mitologia dell'"homo faber siliconensis" ci nasconde che il nostro fragile mondo digitale sta in piedi soprattutto per via di una maggioranza di colleghi che sono decisamente più simili ad un "animal laborans", per dirla con la Arendt. <https://xkcd.com/2347/> Ciao, Alberto On 25/08/2020 16:32, Giovanni Biscuolo wrote:
Alberto Cammozzo via nexa <nexa@server-nexa.polito.it> writes:
Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing Economics correspondent at De Correspondent Jesse Frederik
<https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-...> Grazie! Ooooh come m'è piaciuto questo articolo!
Non è "solo" di blockchain che si parla; in particolare mi incornicio questo:
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
[...] He spends half his time yelling at his screen in frustration, while he programmes strips of duct tape to repair creaky PHP script from years and years ago.
[...] Councillors and managers think that problems – however large and fundamental they are – evaporate instantaneously thanks to technology they’ve heard about in a fancy PowerPoint presentation. How will it work? Who cares! Don’t try to understand it, just reap the benefits!
[...] This is the market for magic, and that market is big. Whether it’s about blockchain, big data, cloud computing, AI or other buzzwords.
[...] The smartest thing about blockchain, Matt Levine wrote, is that the rest of the world was forced to “pay attention to those back-office technology upgrades, and to think that they might be revolutionary”.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
Per far funzionare i sistemi digitali ci vuole certo competenza ma anche tanta pazienza, tanto lavoro, una discreta passione e un briciolo di spirito di sacrificio… per quello che un mio amico chiama «il lavoro sporco di chi pulisce le fognature digitali» :-)
Un pensiero di solidarietà a tutti coloro che - nel retro degli uffici - spendono buona parte del loro tempo lavorativo a "sbattere la testa" per scovare e sistemare l'ennesimo bug del software o capire perché quel sottosistema IT ha misteriosamente smesso di colpo di funzionare.
Scienziati e tecnici, non stregoni :-D
Happy hacking! Giovanni
[...]
_______________________________________________ nexa mailing list nexa@server-nexa.polito.it https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa
Quel che più mi disturba quando sento parlare di Blockchain è il vizietto che tanti hanno di attribuirle proprietà e capacità che non ha. Uno di questi è il tema della "certificazione della filiera" che sarebbe (secondo alcuni) abilitata dalla blockchain, cosa che purtroppo fa presa sulla popolazione, ma che è esclusivamente fuffa cosmica. In passato ho scritto questo proprio per fare chiarezza: https://www.techeconomy2030.it/2020/01/08/blockchain-per-controllo-filiera-a... Un saluto a tutti Max Il 24/08/20 09:51, Alberto Cammozzo via nexa ha scritto:
Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing Economics correspondent at De Correspondent Jesse Frederik
<https://thecorrespondent.com/655/blockchain-the-amazing-solution-for-almost-...>
Blockchain technology is going to change everything: the shipping industry, the financial system, government … in fact, what won’t it change? But enthusiasm for it mainly stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding. The blockchain is a solution in search of a problem.
Sjoerd Knibbeler made this image for The Correspondent; the rest of the images in this piece are from his series 'Current Studies' (2013-2016), which you can read more about at the end of the article.
In front of a sea of coders sitting on folding chairs, their laptops on folding tables, a man appears on a purpley-blue lit stage.
“Seven hundred blockchaingers,” the man shouts at his audience. He points at each programmer in the room. “Machine-to-machine learning … ” And then, at the top of his voice: “Energy transition! Health! Public safety and security! Future of pensions!”
We are at the Blockchaingers Hackathon 2018 in Groningen, the Netherlands. And something really, really big is happening here, according to the speakers. Earlier on, a film trailer voice asked those present if they could imagine that right here, right now, in this room, they were about to find solutions that would change “a billion lives”. A planet spontaneously combusted in the accompanying video.
And then the Dutch state secretary for the Interior, Raymond Knops arrived, decked out in tech couture: a black hoodie. He’s here as a “super accelerator” (whatever that means). “Everyone senses that blockchain is going to change government drastically,” the state secretary said.
I’ve been hearing a lot about blockchain in the last few years. I mean, who hasn’t? It’s everywhere.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought: but what is it then, for God’s sake, this whole blockchain thing? And what’s so terribly revolutionary about it? What problem does it solve?
That’s why I wrote this article. I can tell you upfront, it’s a bizarre journey to nowhere. I’ve never seen so much incomprehensible jargon to describe so little. I’ve never seen so much bloated bombast fall so flat on closer inspection. And I’ve never seen so many people searching so hard for a problem to go with their solution. ‘Agents of change’ in a small Dutch town
They knew nothing about the blockchain yet in Zuidhorn, a town with just under 8,000 people in the north-east of the Netherlands.
“What we did know is that it’s coming for us and that it’s disruptive,” a civil servant from the town told a Dutch weekly news magazine.
“We could sit back and wait, or choose to move forwards.”
In Zuidhorn they decided to move forwards. A municipal poverty aid package for children would “be put on the blockchain”. Maarten Veldhuijs, a student and blockchain enthusiast, was given an internship with the municipality.
His first job was to explain what blockchain is. When I asked him, he said it is “a kind of system that can’t be stopped”, that it’s “actually a force of nature”, or rather, “a decentralised consensus algorithm”. OK, it’s hard to explain, he conceded eventually. “I said to Zuidhorn: ‘I’ll just build you an app, then you’ll understand’.”
So he did.
His first job was to explain what blockchain is ... OK, it’s hard to explain, he conceded eventually
The children’s aid package gives families living in poverty the right to a bicycle, trips to the theatre and the cinema, and so on. In the past, that was a nightmare of bureaucracy, receipts and documentation. But thanks to Velthuijs’s app it became simple: you scan your code in the shop, you get your bike, and the shopkeeper gets their money.
Suddenly, the tiny town was proclaimed “one of the international forerunners in blockchain technology”. There was national media attention and even awards: they won a prize for pioneers in municipal work and received nominations for an IT project award and a civil service award.
Local administrators became more and more enthusiastic. Velthuijs and his team of “students” were the ones who shaped this new world. But that term didn’t show enough respect. In Zuidhorn some people already preferred to call them “agents of change”. [...] _______________________________________________ nexa mailing list nexa@server-nexa.polito.it https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa
Gentile Massimo, Massimo Canducci <massimo@canducci.eu> writes:
Quel che più mi disturba quando sento parlare di Blockchain è il vizietto che tanti hanno di attribuirle proprietà e capacità che non ha.
Uno di questi è il tema della "certificazione della filiera" che sarebbe (secondo alcuni) abilitata dalla blockchain, cosa che purtroppo fa presa sulla popolazione, ma che è esclusivamente fuffa cosmica.
In passato ho scritto questo proprio per fare chiarezza: https://www.techeconomy2030.it/2020/01/08/blockchain-per-controllo-filiera-a...
Grazie per aver condiviso l'articolo che fa senza dubbio chiarezza ulteriore sui limiti dei "distributed ledger". Da quello che ho capito fino a ieri, però, l'elemento discriminante tra un DL e una blockchain è l'utilizzo di una "proof of work": cosa ne pensa? Lo chiedo per due motivi: 1. alcuni tecnologi lo sostengono, nonostante il Merriam Webster non citi nemmeno la proof of work [1] 2. non vorrei si dimenticasse, in un eventuale "boom" di utilizzo di DL, che le "proof of work"… rischiano di assorbire l'energia di due pianeta Terra :-) Detto in altre parole: la "proof of work" per scrivere nei distributed ledger è da abolire. [...] Saluti, Giovanni. [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blockchain -- Giovanni Biscuolo
Caro Giovanni, capisco che ci siano molti punti di vista, ma per evitare inutili controversie mi sono limitato a citare il documento ISO/DIS 23257 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Reference architecture (ancora non pubblico). Nel Technical Committee : ISO/TC 307 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies ci sono state molte discussioni su questo punto, alla fine si è arrivati alla sintesi che ho indicato e che secondo me è la più giusta. Il tipo di proof secondo me non è una discriminante, invece lo è la forma del DLT, se è implementato come catena di blocchi è giusto chiamarlo blockchain. La POW ha senso soltanto in alcuni casi, per esempio in alcune criptovalute, per utilizzi industriali si può ragionare su algoritmi differenti. Un saluto Massimo Canducci Il 31/08/20 18:02, Giovanni Biscuolo ha scritto:
Gentile Massimo,
Massimo Canducci <massimo@canducci.eu> writes:
Quel che più mi disturba quando sento parlare di Blockchain è il vizietto che tanti hanno di attribuirle proprietà e capacità che non ha.
Uno di questi è il tema della "certificazione della filiera" che sarebbe (secondo alcuni) abilitata dalla blockchain, cosa che purtroppo fa presa sulla popolazione, ma che è esclusivamente fuffa cosmica.
In passato ho scritto questo proprio per fare chiarezza: https://www.techeconomy2030.it/2020/01/08/blockchain-per-controllo-filiera-a... Grazie per aver condiviso l'articolo che fa senza dubbio chiarezza ulteriore sui limiti dei "distributed ledger".
Da quello che ho capito fino a ieri, però, l'elemento discriminante tra un DL e una blockchain è l'utilizzo di una "proof of work": cosa ne pensa?
Lo chiedo per due motivi:
1. alcuni tecnologi lo sostengono, nonostante il Merriam Webster non citi nemmeno la proof of work [1]
2. non vorrei si dimenticasse, in un eventuale "boom" di utilizzo di DL, che le "proof of work"… rischiano di assorbire l'energia di due pianeta Terra :-)
Detto in altre parole: la "proof of work" per scrivere nei distributed ledger è da abolire.
[...]
Saluti, Giovanni.
Massimo Canducci <massimo@canducci.eu> writes:
capisco che ci siano molti punti di vista, ma per evitare inutili controversie mi sono limitato a citare il documento ISO/DIS 23257 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies — Reference architecture (ancora non pubblico).
Ho visto grazie, attualmente è in status 40.00 (Enquiry) https://www.iso.org/standard/75093.html ci vorrà ancora un po' per arrivare alla pubblicazione [1]
Nel Technical Committee : ISO/TC 307 Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies ci sono state molte discussioni su questo punto,
Com'è normale che sia, considerando che quello sulla POW è il punto che oserei definire qualificante e più controverso delle "blockchain ala Bitcoin".
alla fine si è arrivati alla sintesi che ho indicato e che secondo me è la più giusta.
Tutto chiaro, grazie mille per l'integrazione! [...] Saluti, Giovanni. [1] https://www.iso.org/stage-codes.html#40_00 -- Giovanni Biscuolo
participants (4)
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Alberto Cammozzo -
Giacomo Tesio -
Giovanni Biscuolo -
Massimo Canducci