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dystopiabreaker

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The Stake of the Art: On the Environmental Cost of Modern Blockchains

mirror.xyz
1 points·by dystopiabreaker·vor 5 Jahren·0 comments

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dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
crypto was not co-opted. FAANGies just got stuck on a WebPKI side quest.

leading research in the field is being done by blockchain companies. you don't have to believe me, try reading ePrint. cryptocurrency people lead the research in zk proof systems and more. the idea that the crypto space doesn't use cryptography is absolutely laughable
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
yeah, it links to a standard JSON format for my article. mirror's data is portable. the json also contains my signature which authenticates the post to my self-sovereign identity (the keypair associated with my ENS name).
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
all of that functionality is mediated by on-chain evm bytecode
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
ENS is an example of a project that is extant, working, and has a decent amount of funding (controlled democratically through a delegated token voting system). Here's my ENS record:

https://app.ens.domains/name/suzuha.eth/details

also, my post is on arweave, one of the cryptoeconomic data availability layers mentioned on the post:

https://3m44zon3blpnpjs3neglffbhqaibvuaeofkln2rd645dvky7cblq...
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
I'm pretty sure that you can pop down to the search bar and type "TLS too inefficient" and see that, in fact, they did. there was a large period of time where TLS was not widely deployed and where it was viewed as not likely to be deployed, due to marginal performance reasons
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
i have worked on both TLS and blockchain tech for years.

my point is that the purpose of the security architecture proposed in the article is to authenticate data from the chain. this is a protocol-level detail: like TLS secures transport between a client and a server, light clients authenticate data between a validator set and a user. whether a particular person or group decides to use such a protocol, or if they decide to censor data, is a separate concern.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
>And those who respond with indifference and denial of that reality, much like a person in your position, will have no say or power within the new system.

that wasn't my point. my point is that this technology shows no sign of slowing down, so by just angrily and reflexively dismissing it critics are throwing away an opportunity to make real, constructive criticism like Moxie did here at a time when it could make the most impact.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
(and, many bitcoin wallets already do this)
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
there is no reason why apple or google would need to do this. Rainbow or similar apps just need to change their code in their already deployed wallet software on these platforms to do light client verification.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
people said the same thing about TLS
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
this is like saying that TLS won't work because of moderation
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
for proof of stake, the cost is roughly:

- download a hash-sized state root every block

- download the set of validator signatures over that hash and verify each signature against the hash. if using aggregation-friendly curve, download the aggregate signature and verify it against the root.

- for each state fragment, download the merkle uncles and compute the root hash and verify that it is the same as that signed off by the validator set.

so yes, easily within resource limits for having them running all the time with near zero impact. Find My has comparable impact.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
yeah because then it wouldn't actually be doing anything
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
You're doing the thing I wrote about in the first few paragraphs of the article.

By the way, the largest academic cryptography group, IACR, was founded by people who were working on cryptocurrency before they founded it.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
using a blockchain costs no energy
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
We should not be building our infrastructure to rely on the incidental beneficence of the oligarchy. We should build tools for decentralized permissionless economic coordination. Quadratic funding as used in Gitcoin and others is promising.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
No normal users are ever going to edit a configuration file, complete with its own specific syntax, in order to install apps.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
actually, it's going to make Bitcoin go to the Moon because Tether is shorting Evergrande paper!

Both the above and your statement have the same level of evidence behind them. We don't know what Tether's balance sheet is, and we don't know how that affects Bitcoin.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
Sure you can. Write some code that gives students the ability to turn off the surveillance. Distribute it.

Not only does this stop the surveillance, it also brings to light the issue and those who may be abusing it.
dystopiabreaker
·vor 5 Jahren·discuss
ah yes, guy who predicts the euro will fail every 2 years, and who predicted that the internet would be a fad, right again