
Ask HN: Convince me of a blockchain's utility - meri_dian
It seems to me that blockchains have no real value, and all of the potential applications of blockchain tech seem like they could be accomplished more easily and efficiently with a traditional database.<p>Part of my problem with blockchains is the premise - taken for granted by blockchain enthusiasts - that &#x27;centralized data&#x27; is bad, and the salvation wrought by blockchains through &#x27;decentralized data&#x27; is a major source of their utility.<p>First, data being controlled by a single entity is not a problem. In fact it promotes the curation and management of that data, which is a good thing.<p>Second, the concept of data decentralization, forgetting for a moment that it addresses a problem that doesn&#x27;t exist, doesn&#x27;t really make economic sense.<p>A data oriented business provides value by gathering and managing data that was not previously available. Ownership of that data and the associated promise of profit is the incentive necessary to motivate the work of gathering and presenting data in a workable format. No one who wants to build a data oriented business will ever want to &#x27;decentralize&#x27; their data, because then they&#x27;re basically giving up ownership.<p>Is my appraisal of the data (de)centralization issue correct? Why?<p>Where does a blockchain add real value? What does it enable that was not previously possible? How does it improve over existing solutions?
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PaulHoule
I think the value may be more clear in the case of permissioned blockchains.

Imagine 5 big banks or 15 traders who meet around a buttonwood tree. In that
case, having 5 or 15 copies of your database adds a lot of durability and
tamper resistance.

1500 copies of the database, however, doesn't add 100 times the value of
having 15. That's the trouble with blockchains. Before Bitcoin you would get
laughed out of any distributed systems conference if you built a system that
did not add workload capacity when you add more nodes. Right now you can do an
ICO and score a cool $20 million.

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sharemywin
simple DMCA a bitcoin memo.

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meri_dian
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