pjkundert · HackerTrans

hace 5 añosdiscuss

Raising funds for an interesting project, from free agents willing to fund the project, is never ethical?

Are you certain of this?

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

I usually agree with you, regarding top posts on HN.

Usually I wonder how it is that uninteresting first-order effects dominate.

This is a chance for us all to consider something perhaps more profound.

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

You know how ICOs are used to fund non-Ethereum projects, right?

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

The project was funded through an ICO a couple years ago; these will be exchangeable for the in-system HoloFuel cryptocurrency, when the project goes live.

Of course, the project isn’t associated with Ethereum in any way.

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

Well, if "excited" and "shilling" are synonyms, then maybe! ;)

But seriously, I spent significant effort over 25 years trying to solve some of the cooperation and communications problems in distributed systems. I'd deployed a cryptocurrency before Bitcoin came out in 2009; foolishly, I downloaded the system and found it hadn't solved these problems, so didn't run it (:/)

So, when I ran into Holochain a few years back, and began to understand what they had accomplished (in theory, at the time), I dropped everything I was doing and went full time on the project. Built the first 2 prototypes of HoloFuel.

Building planetary-scale (or even inter-planetary) distributed systems that can maintain consistency in the face of partitioning or massive latency while maintaining aggregate transaction rates almost linear with node count is now possible.

So, ya -- I think these insights and their successful implementation is "profound". Like, never been done before, and everyone thought it was impossible "profound".

You may have a much higher level of expectation. To me, that would be a lot like watching Free Solo while sucking on a soda, and saying "ya, that's not that impressive".

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

A cryptocurrency that will continue to work reliably and without a bound on aggregate transaction rate in the face of network Partitioning is … a “shitcoin”?

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

And, most people are fine with it, and those that aren't are completely free to leave and pursue their lives somewhere with "better" rules.

I think we're agreeing; perhaps I'm mistaken?

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

Larceny (small- or industrial-scale) can only exist if counterparties are kept ignorant of previous larceny on the part of the bad actor.

It takes centralized systems to keep people ignorant.

In good, decentralized systems which demand long-term public track records of agent behaviour, with decentralized memory of these records, malevolent behaviour by an agent would rapidly make that agent incapable of future larceny.

Much of the disappointment with government and their three-letter agencies, is the growing belief (and mounting evidence) of long-term, wide-spread larceny, mischief and even evil on the part of government agents -- with the knowledge, support and protection of the government.

It is critical to use systems that make bad behaviour impossible to hide.

This requires centralized RULES (ie. widely agreed-upon standards of behaviour), but decentralized KNOWLEDGE (large numbers of random actors, confirming that behaviours meet the standards).

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

I would argue that pretty much the opposite is true: I don't know how we can be productive without breaking consensus.

All innovation comes from individuals or small groups going against the accepted dogma, and risking their own resources and reputation to do something almost everyone else thinks is stupid.

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

This seems like a bizarre definition. As someone who would accept a label of "conservative", and growing up and living in a world of mostly "conservative" people, I struggle to think of a single such person who wouldn't be appalled to find out they they were living under a single such law, let alone many such laws.

Could you be so kind as to identify even a single instance of such a law?

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

Nope, Holo / Holochain has nothing to do with Ethereum; HOT is just the place-holder token (issued during the ICO used to fund the project, initially, a couple of years ago).

When the project goes live, it will be exchangeable for the initial HoloFuel cryptocurrency.

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

One key observation leading to Holochain, is that the systematic breaking of the assumptions of a "Smart Contract" (the shared DNA code, in Holochain terms) is a valid form of agreement.

If some group wants to lie and pick each-others pockets: well, OK, carry on. Just let me know about it, and not take part in it. It's not the end of the world.

pjkundert

hace 5 añosdiscuss

This article is profoundly insightful.

I have been searching for patterns and insights in this field for 25 years. What apenwarr concludes is true:

    All we need is to build distributed systems that work. That means decentralized bulk activity, hierarchical regulation.

The problem is, everyone wants distributed systems that require everyone else to agree (global consensus), which is literally impossible (see: CAP theory, and what happens when Partition occurs). There's another word for "require everyone else to agree": Tyranny.

Fortunately, the entire universe and everything in it works without global consensus, just fine (for various definitions of "fine").

There is also methods for building computational distributed systems that work "fine" in the face of CAP failure:

https://holo.host

This is a serious breakthrough. And we really, really need this, NOW.

Just to whet your appetite, here's some high-level observations on how these breakthroughs may affect our lives, in the area of Money: https://perry.kundert.ca/range/finance/holochain-consistency...

pjkundert

hace 7 añosdiscuss

I'd take an outdoorsy farmer kid who can weld and blow shit up, over a "well educated" city kid who stares at their iPad, any day. I can work with that. I can't work with useless...

pjkundert

hace 8 añosdiscuss

Conflating culture with race is ... racist.

Not all cultures are great. If you are claiming “all cultures are great”, then perhaps “great” has lost any useful meaning.

Discrimination, as the ability to discriminate features to identify useful pattens, is not *-ist; it’s a critical skill that is being sullied by some neo-intellectual BS that passes for “equality” or something.

The ability to identify patterns of behaviour prevalent to a class of suppliers and avoid them, rewarding other supplies — even from the same area of the world — who are better; even “great” perhaps, is a valuable skill...

But perhaps I’m wrong. They’re all great. Carry on.

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