Re: <nettime> Josh Hall: Blockchain could reshape our world – and the far right is one step ahead (Guardian)

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Yes, I completely agree with Carsten.

And as I cannot repeat often enough that I am a mere 'text filterer', 
which is the primary purpose of nettime (see at bottom) I will repeat 
again that I do not necessarily agree with other people's text I post, 
but do so only because I find them interesting, usually reflecting a 
(slightly?) more mainstream take on issues being discussed on this list 
(pro memoria: social media critique and the 'told you so' faktap).

Worse still I am part of the minority (of more than one, fortunately, 
but less so of hackers, unfortunately) who thought from day one that the 
blockchain was a 'gas plant', as the French say (une usine a gaz). Since 
anything a blockchain can be put to use to can be done more easily, more 
efficiently, more securely, and usually also at a lower _final_ cost by 
humans, I have come to suspect, nay be convinced, that blockchain and 
other pieces of tech solutionism are mainly intended, and deliberately 
so, to take human beings out of as many loops as possible, possibly with 
the perspective of getting rid of them altogether when transitioning 
into the bliss of post-human algocratic singularity for the sole benefit 
of an ueberfintech elite, indubitably gifted with eternal (because 
machinistic) life to boot.

The blockchain definitely belongs to the long list of things that better 
had not been invented and represent in the end a huge waste of time, 
talent, and resources.

Cheers from snowy Tuscany, where we still shift stamped paper
p+2D!



On 2018-02-23 13:38, Carsten Agger wrote:
> On 23-02-2018 13:11, Patrice Riemens wrote:
> > Original to:
> > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/23/blockchain-reshape-world-far-right-ahead-crypto-technology 
> > Blockchain could reshape our world – and the far right is one step 
> > ahead
> > Crypto technology is coming to a crossroads. Those who want to use it 
> > to radically redistribute wealth must take urgent action
> > [...]
> >
> > Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain reads the title of a 2017 book. From 
> > currency speculation through to verifying the provenance of food, 
> > blockchain technology is eking out space in a vast range of fields.
> It's ironic, amusing more likely, that the conclusion of the book
> "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain" is that the "Blockchain revolution"
> will likely not amount to much of anything. The main reason is this:
> Who needs a global, public and distributed ledger? What's it good for?
>
> As a matter of fact, all proposed use cases I've seen founder on the
> problem of reliability: Yes, if your crate of organic bananas has a
> bar code, and that bar code was entered on the block chain along with
> a statement that the crate was shipped from a fair trade/fair pay
> organic cooperative in Costa Rica, nobody can know if that means that
> the physical crate was actually there only that someone says that it
> was. You might improve on that situation with tamperproof, sealed
> cryptographic tokens, but you still don't know if the bananas were in
> the crate at the time. An ordinary inspections regime would probably
> work better. I.e., all use cases for blockchains which require
> real-world interaction requires some sort of verification that the
> data entered is correct, which the blockchain itself can't certify -
> anything beyond the simple fact that the information was entered. And
> that sort of tracking could ordinarily best be achieved by that
> high-end bleeding edge innovation called a "database"; along with an
> external verification process, the advantages of using a blockchain
> over a database are exactly zip.
>
> Now, if the data had to do with the blockchain itself and were
> entirely digital ... then it's another matter. That's why blockchains
> make sense for cryptocurrencies. But cryptocurrencies are not really
> useful, and in their current incarnation are riddled by scams to an
> extent where the best advice anyone could give is to stay the f...
> away.
>
> Distributed ledger systems do exist, though - one is called "Git". And
> it's very useful for tracking source code changes. And as opposed to
> blockchain, transactions can be reversed and history can be rewritten,
> which is actually a necessary feature (e.g., with the GDPR coming up
> here in the EU).
>
> So, fortunately or unfortunately, it's not likely that Blockchain is
> going to reshape anything, except for possibly the wallets of some
> quick movers and scam artists.
>
> Best
> Carsten
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