
Blockchain Challenge by Bank of England - jimsojim
http://blockchain.bankofenglandearlycareers.co.uk/
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peteretep
It's worth pointing out for non-UK readers that "Bank of England" is not like
"Bank of America", it's like "The Federal Reserve".

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tdkl
The founders of FED just repeated the scam that fueled Bank of England [1].
Andrew Jackson must be fed up with rolling in his grave. [2]

[1] [http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-
of-e...](http://www.darkpolitricks.com/2013/01/who-owns-the-bank-of-england/)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_War)

~~~
btilly
Andrew Jackson is also the guy who thought it fine to ignore the Supreme
Court's ruling that under established treaty the Cherokee owned their land,
sent the US Army in to evict them, and wound up killing a third of their
population.

I'm not exactly a fan of his public policy positions.

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coherentpony
Sure, but it's possible to disagree with someone's opinions or policies on one
topic and laud them on another.

~~~
btilly
That is true. However in that case, you should agree and disagree on the
positions based on the merits of the arguments for the position, and not the
authority of the person.

Therefore I may happen to agree with Andrew Jackson on some things, but
appealing to Andrew Jackson as an argument for those things is still a bad
argument.

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CydeWeys
I love how blockchain has been completely de-branded out of Bitcoin, as if
Bitcoin is some heinous forbidden term that can only be associated with
criminality and must not be mentioned even once. The blockchain, of course, is
the entire raison d'etre of Bitcoin. It's the innovation that makes Bitcoin
work as a decentralized currency. Everything else Bitcoin does -- signature
verification, P2P, cryptographic hashing, public-key cryptography, etc. -- was
on a well-trammeled path. The blockchain is the break-through, and to
disassociate it in this way is misleading and petty.

~~~
retube
The separation of "bitcoin" and "blockchain" is not only correct, but further
more it's a good thing people/media are becoming aware of the distinction
between the blockchain as a protocol and bitcoin as an application (one of
potentially thousands) based on this protocol.

Big finance doesn't give a sh*t about bitcoin. They don't see it as a threat,
it barely registers. What they do see is the enormous applications and
potential cost-savings that blockchains could enable - in areas like
settlements, transaction signing, new products and so on. Hence coverage is
moving from "Bitcoin" to "Blockchain".

~~~
CydeWeys
The blockchain is only useful if you need decentralization across pseudo-
anonymous actors. This doesn't apply to Big Finance. The blockchain is also
only useful with a large mining base, because security is achieved through
having a large aggregate hashing power that cannot be overpowered by a bad
actor. That is why almost all Bitcoin competitors are worthless -- they have
nowhere near the hashing power, and are thus nowhere near as secure. The
network effects here are huge. Having multiple blockchains is like running
multiple competing power distribution networks across the country operating at
different voltages. It makes more sense to standardize and have everything
operate on one good one. And that's what Bitcoin already is.

~~~
seanalltogether
This is like saying AT&T should have no interest in VOIP because they already
have a PSTN protocols. Banking systems are full of very antiquated
technologies hobbled together to allow them to work. They would be dumb not to
investigate the benefits of blockchain type systems. Even if the system is
limited to trusted parties and forgoes the whole mining incentive, there's
still a lot of value there.

~~~
CydeWeys
> Even if the system is limited to trusted parties and forgoes the whole
> mining incentive, there's still a lot of value there.

If you take away proof-of-work, then it's no longer a blockchain. It's just a
unary Merkle tree, an idea which has been around for a long time. You can't
surgically extract out the most fundamental and important part of a given idea
and then call what remains the same thing.

~~~
wmf
I guess it would be too embarrassing for banks to admit that they're just now
getting interested in adopting 1990s technology.

~~~
evgen
They will just point out that PoW incentive systems existed in the 90s along
with Merkle chains; bitcoin marries the two but maybe its rise is simply
revealing to banks how useful distributed consensus protocols could be for
building private exchanges instead of these crypto primites remaining one
among many in the huge collection of esoteric crypto protocols to arise in the
crypto-Cambrian era of the 90s.

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martinald
Guys, it's on their 'early careers' website. I don't think this is them trying
to be YCombinator.

I think it's quite a cool little idea for them to get people from non-
traditional backgrounds into the BoE. Most crypto people would never think of
applying to the BoE for an internship normally I don't think.

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smashed
Give us your best Blockchain based idea _and_ a working proof of concept and
"win" a visit to the bank and a 6 week internship (if you are eligible). Is it
me or that does not sound really great?

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Rugoretto
I guess this is their equivalent of the Federal reserve bank? I could see it
as valuable for someone who might want to make some potentially valuable
connections among regulators. Maybe especially students that might want to
make a future career in policy/govt in that country and combine it with their
love/knowledge of Digital currencies. At least I can see myself being open to
an equivalent offer from the Feds

~~~
vegabook
The Bank of England is one of the very best places you could start to make
contacts and learn about finance, in the world's capital of international
finance.

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kordless
> What could you win? Firstly, your whole team will get an exclusive
> invitation to visit the Bank. You’ll meet some of the key people in our
> Projects, Data and Technology team.

My advice would be to not share your ideas with anyone who would take
ownership of them when the _possible_ "reward" is minimal.

~~~
jchendy
If you keep reading, you'll see:

> You’ll win a six-week paid internship if you’re in your first, second or
> penultimate year of study.

I don't know much about UK culture, but it's possible that this is quite
valuable.

~~~
CydeWeys
I'm already employed full time as a software engineer, as I suspect are most
other readers here. This doesn't appeal to me at all.

Also, if I really had a cool idea that I could execute on that could
potentially change the world of finance, why would I give it up for a measly
six week paid internship? I'd do a start-up, of course.

~~~
dTal
Ideas are cheap. The work to make a successful startup, that's the hard part.
I have more ideas than I could ever possibly spin into companies, even if I
were that sort of person - most of them I'm happy to give away entirely if it
means they actually get implemented instead of forgotten. If _I_ had an idea
that I thought could change the world of finance for the better, then I would
accept that I know bugger-all about finance and push that idea towards the
nearest person who did know something. Not everything is about personal gain.

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brighton36
The bank of england has no capacity to determine what a good blockchain idea
is. And if it did - there's no damn way the winners would want their prize.
This is hilarious

~~~
kitd
Edgy.

I assume you mean "capability"? If so, the BoE has about as much as anyone
else.

And wouldn't it be up to the entrants to decide whether they want the reward?
Sure they might not enjoy it, but it would certainly be educational.

~~~
brighton36
There's maybe 100 people in the world who have a good concept of what a good
blockchain project is, and they are all in very, very high demand - and
principally working on Bitcoin projects.

I don't think the BoE has this capacity, as demonstrated by the design of this
landing page. I'd be willing to bet that the BoE thinks blockchains are for
checksumming.

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Cshelton
I encourage any students reading this:

While this seems like a great opportunity for some, and not so for others, I
urge you to think it over yourself first.

Yes, this could actually be a very good opportunity for the right student to
get an internship/possible job in a market that will be extremely hot. It it's
a good way for BoE to find students that want to get involved in this
industry.

On the other side, please know that this is not the only way. The community in
many growing blockchains is very good. There are many resources that are
available and free for you to explore your idea and create something new that
is actually YOURS.

I'm not saying you should try and do something on your own out of school, it
is perfectly okay to get a regular job, and this might be what you want.
However it is also perfectly okay for you to not participate and expand on
your idea on your own or with partners. There are/will be many opportunities
and positions out there in this industry in the near future, this is not your
only option.

EDIT: Another interesting point is the time frame which this challenge is
allowing. I do not know when it was announced, but I'm assuming based on the
timer that, when it started, the time given is 24 hours. It seems odd to me.
This is a challenge that should be given more time, especially given how many
students are wrapping up their semester and will be heavily involved in
projects/finals right now.

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moondowner
Ah, I love it when people share challenges moments before they close.

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kamilszybalski
Would be interested if they supported something like this -
[https://stampery.com](https://stampery.com)

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johansch
Why are we promoting job ads for banks?

