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Topics - John-S

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Technical Support / Starting to get "it"
« on: April 23, 2014, 07:24:40 pm »
Without knowing it, we already use digital currencies as proxies for "real money" by way of bank to bank and nation to nation computer based account ledgers. We buy with plastic and think we're spending dollars, but the dollars exists only as a historical artifact of a time where paper certificates proxied for gold and silver.

Part of the disparity in the wealth of nations and individuals, comes from the very centralized control and arbitrary creation of "money". Quantitative easing has shown once again, that governments, not people decide the value and availability of "money", and those closest to those agencies, benefit first.

There is a reason why the magically appearing "dollars" of QE went directly to institutions and were NOT used to fund nation building at home or the employment of the jobless during the recession. To make things even worse, while the bankers were getting rich, the value of the common man's dollar went down.

Our existing currency does not serve the needs of the many, but the needs of the few. When gain the common man experiences is largely an artifact.

I'm not sure who or what is going to create a viable and accepted alternative currency, but I am sure its going to happen.

I see so many parallels to the early days of "micro-computers" with what's happening right now with Bitcoin and the like...

Remember this guy before he became the $1 Trillion dollar man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqURi4ITFTs

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Technical Support / A proven coder who is struggling to "get it"
« on: April 21, 2014, 03:30:15 am »
I discovered bitshares shortly after starting my voyage into Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations".  Both coincided with a new found frustration with my current employer, Intel".   I was co-founder of 4matt and Rebit.com.  I was the lead product engineer behind OnStream and Iomega's Ditto line of products and later, a lead engineer on the Zip drive.

More than monetary reward, I like "fixing" things and I think our systems of commerce to be the next killer application to focus upon.  I got really excited with the notion of an anonymous and decentralized control of corporate entities  However, I read and studied to my feed limit and gave myself the weekend off to think about it, and am still at a loss on the sustainable business model for when all the crypto chains have been calculated.   In fact, I am at a loss to any business model that is not based on the speculative cancer that plagues current unsustainable business models.

I see a vehicle that is perfectly adapt for distributed autonomous ownership of TANGIBLE assets, being flaunted as a hedge against frivolous and arbitrary assumptions on limitations of a Van Neumann style machine.

What I would like to see, before I check in the rest of my code, is a business model where every single hash for a crypto currency, has been calculated and accepted and yet it still "functions" as real trade - and the system that still works.

Everybody playing this game is so focused on their place in the blockchain, that they seem to have forgotten that Susie Q Homemaker at the checkout line at her grocer, by federal law NEVER pays a transaction fee. 

The game of commerce is up to the processors.  All 12 to 17 of them involved with a single swipe of a Visa card.  A game that they are willing to play to lose if they can collect enough data from the consumer (AMEX).

Where is the business model that is detached from the academic exercise of finding the hash that satisfies a target?  Where is the distributed company that can coalesce against a tangible asset? 

Crypto chains are easy, and are going to get easier according to Moore's law.  Every argument against memory in ASICS's is short term.  Where is the business model for an alternative distribution in the ownership of real world assets?

I want to see a case where a Chinese consortium can "buy" up a controlling interest in a city block of Manhattan, unnoticed.    I can't get there from where we are now, nor can I see a compelling reason for Susie Q Homemaker to save 2% on her grocery bill by using a crypto currency that, at best, takes 1 hour to acknowledge.

I'm not being derogatory, just pragmatic.  I don't believe in speculative ponzi schemes, but I do believe the time is right for the right group of coders to offer an alternative.  I am an American who believes we've been coasting on our self minted laurels far longer than what is sustainable. 

Somebody, please demonstrate the business model to me for either a Ho Chi Minh or a Susie Q. Homemaker - after the last crypto-token has been mined that offers a compelling system of trade that eclipses a state sponsored and sanctioned tool for the same.

We can build a better world - I'm just trying to shed my doubts.

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