
The case against blockchain for identity - ko3us
https://blog.tokenize.io/the-case-against-blockchain-identity-d3e0aa3faa3
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ko3us
This is an interesting article because it outlines the flaws in blockchain,
especially the payload.

There are heaps of blockchain companies claiming to use blockchain to store
large amounts of data. However, the ability to scale and store that seems
disproportionate.

Maybe something like IPFS + a blockchain could be used, but the immutability
is lost the moment its stored on a file store. The blockchain just acts as a
pointer.

~~~
lgierth
IPFS _is_ an immutable store. You add something to it, and put the resulting
hash into a transaction.

~~~
davidgerard
This doesn't quite get across what's happening: it's a content-addressable
file system, like basing a file system on BitTorrent magnet: links, with the
same guarantee that anyone will have the content when you go looking for it.

~~~
tristanhoy
Exactly, it's a tamper proof P2P file system.

But it's far from immutable. Torrents die every day because people stop
hosting them. The best thing you can do to keep an important but unpopular
file alive is ongoing upkeep: host it on your own infrastructure, or pay for
an Amazon S3 torrent.

IPFS and filecoins are exactly the same. The availability depends on either
popularity, running your own server and hoping you don't have a fire, or
ongoing payments for redundant storage.

That's not immutable.

Blockchain has a much stronger immutability guarantee, because everyone
involved is economically incentivised to maintain every single transaction
that ever took place, no matter how insignificant.

~~~
diggan
Yeah, the content itself might not always be available, the only guarantee is
that if that content exists, you'll get exactly that. If the content is not
available, you get nothing.

So the links themselves are immutable but the content might not be available.

~~~
tristanhoy
And that's what's so hilarious about putting a content hash on a blockchain,
when you can just give it to someone over HTTPS. The hash is plenty immutable
all on its own.

Strong transaction ordering can give you proof of existence at a certain point
in time, but that's not useful in an identity context.

