• boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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    12 hours ago

    Blockchain is good if you want everyone to know who you send your money to.

    Which sounds stupid, but if we used it more for things that aren’t stupid money, perhaps we could find something where transparency and permanent immutable logs are a good thing. For currency those may even be bad things because privacy. Which Monero solves and that’s actually another useful thing - ability to make untraceable payments remotely. Used to have to use cash for that.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      12 hours ago

      permanent immutable logs

      My understanding of current blockchain technology is that it’s only permanent so long as someone is online maintaining the block integrity. If enough machines go down, or if enough machines come up that refute it, then anyone can push an alternate history.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        9 hours ago

        A Bitcoin heist where you install a false ledger using a botnet.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        False.

        How do you modify a transaction that occurred 100 blocks ago? You’d have to also modify the 99 other blocks since that modification. But for those new blocks to be valid you need to find the new magic number that brings the hash below a certain threshold, 99 times. But there aren’t enough machines.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        12 hours ago

        It assumes that the stakes are high enough for there to be a significant network online, yes. You could of course still compare your local history to the online one but by then the technology has failed its purpose.

        • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 hours ago

          The stakes may not be high for me but if it has value to someone, all I have to do is build my bot net and then hold their ledger ransom.

    • Chakravanti@monero.town
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      8 hours ago

      Bitcoin would be fantastic to force businesses to be taxed under a clear ledger.

      Snap, Atomic, whatever…