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InspiredIdiot

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InspiredIdiot
·5 年前·discuss
Yes, and also contrary to Wikipedia it provides a solid use case for private blockchain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain#Disadvantages_of_pr...

I think it is instructive to ask "why doesn't this mention guarantee downvotes?" because I don't think it's just cargo-culting. I doubt that many of those objecting to blockchain are objecting to byzantine fault tolerance, DHT, etc. Very high resource usage in the cost function, the ledger being public and permanent (long term privacy risk), negative externalities related to its use in a currency... These are commonly the objections I have and hear. And they are inapplicable.

Extending what the Wikipedia article says, it's basically glorified database replication. But it also replicates and verifies the calculation to get to that data so it provides far greater fault tolerance. But since it is private you get to throw out the adversarial model (mostly the cost function) and assume failures are accidental, not malicious. It makes the problem simpler and lowers the stakes versus using blockchain for a global trustless digital currency so I don't think we should be surprised that it engenders less controversy.
InspiredIdiot
·5 年前·discuss
The whole point of that case begins with the admission "yes of course Google copied." They copied the API. The argument was that copying an API to enable interoperability was fair use. It went to the Supreme Court because no law explicitly said that was fair use and no previous case had settled the point definitively. And the reason Google could be confident they copied only the API is because they made sure the humans who did it understood both the difference and the importance of the difference between API and implementation. I don't think there is a credible argument that any AI existing today can make such a distinction.