From 5a30e13b71ce661e3d5fcc8f2c47fea08c9c22f8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 12:13:41 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] posts: 031 --- .../y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.markdown | 3 +- .../y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.markdown | 106 ++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 108 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 posts/y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.markdown diff --git a/posts/y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.markdown b/posts/y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.markdown index b26a80e..93646e2 100644 --- a/posts/y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.markdown +++ b/posts/y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.markdown @@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ Bitcoin-as-infrastructure, I will provide some examples of interesting applications based on the infrastructure provided by Bitcoin before drawing a conclusion to my essay. -**Next**: Examples and conclusion +**Next**: [Examples and conclusion][5] [^7]: Rigorously speaking it is in fact established by the agents, based on the value of other resources. E.g. if the demand for apples is high but the supply @@ -139,3 +139,4 @@ that kill their users' privacy for the sheer purpose of serving better ads. [2]: /posts/y00/022-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-ii.html [3]: /posts/y00/017-the-mechanics-of-socialism.html [4]: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.html +[5]: /posts/y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.html diff --git a/posts/y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.markdown b/posts/y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..046967f --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/031-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iv.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ +--- +postid: 031 +title: Bitcoin as infrastructure [iv] +date: December 26, 2014 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: tech +--- + +Also read: [Part I][1], [Part II][2], [Part III][3]. + +## Part IV: Examples and conclusion + +While I've come to this idea of Bitcoin-as-infrastructure on my very own more +than half a year ago, I very much doubt it's a new one, and I doubt even more +that it was a new concept back then. In fact I had stumbled upon examples +illustrating it some time after finishing [the first part][5] of this series. +This only made me realize further that the possibilities involving Bitcoin are +still largely left to exploration even now, five years after Bitcoin's +inception and the now famous [Bitcoin paper][6]. + +In retrospect I believe I would have been much more inspired to call this +concept "blockchain as infrastructure". That's not to say that Bitcoin itself, +as a financial system, is not interesting; quite the opposite, in fact: while I +personally don't believe that bitcoins and Bitcoin are meant to remove existing +currencies, much like the Internet hasn't removed phones, for example, it is, +to say the least, disruptive and it will change the way we think about money, +payment, banking and so on. As I mentioned at the very beginning, I am not very +familiar with finance, but there are already services for betting[^12], +securities exchange[^13] and gaming[^14]. + +The blockchain, however, can be used for much more than transferring money. As +money are proof of wealth, one could in theory devise a blockchain-based system +for proof of other things, from authenticity of documents (which could in turn +be used for making digital contracts) to "proof of process", such as the idea +employed by [NotaryChains][10]. + +One of the early blockchain-based ideas that I've encountered was [twister][11], +a microblogging service inspired, as you might have already guessed, by +Twitter. Twister is in fact a hybrid system, using a blockchain for user +registration and authentication, and BitTorrent (especially its Distributed +Hash Table) for the distribution of actual messages. I doubt it's gained very +much momentum, but it's being [actively developed][12], which is a good sign, +if nothing else. There are other, more general, blockchain-based communication +protocols, such as [BitMessage][13], but they're even less popular at the +moment. + +A favourite of mine is [DNSChain][14], a naming and public key infrastructure +system that claims too many features to list here; in particular, the security +features are very interesting: Man-In-The-Middle attacks are theoretically +unfeasible[^15] and practically impractical; the hierarchical Public Key +Infrastructure chain of trust is replaced with the blockchain; domain seizures +are limited to network resilience, and so on. I like the idea very much and I'm +very curious if they'll manage to deploy it. + +There are many other such projects, providing either infrastructure (e.g. +[Bitcloud][15], [OpenLibernet][16]) or just a better interface to +blockchains/cryptocurrencies (e.g. [Bitcore][17]). Some are interesting, while +some are trying to achieve too much in my opinion. For example, [Ethereum][18] +looks like a very promising solution for application development, aiming to +create a programming language for this purpose. It might fail, but I'm fairly +sure that it won't be the first attempt, and if not this one, then some other +project will do things the right way. + +At the very end I would like to restate the potential of Bitcoin, or the +blockchain, call it whatever you like, to become another layer in the backbone +of the current computing infrastructure. I prefer to see it as such, and I +strongly believe that it should be seen as such, because the possibilities +behind it are definitely worth exploring, discussing and implementing into +something better than what we have today. Time will eventually tell if I am +right, of course, but then again, that's not what matters. + +[^12]: Such as [BitBet][7] and my personal favourite, [War of Life][8], which +unfortunately went down meanwhile. + +[^13]: If you're involved in some way or another in Bitcoin, you must have +heard of [MPEx][9] by now. + +[^14]: Those seem to be focused mostly on betting games, but using Bitcoin as +an in-game currency has real potential, since from a point of view bitcoins +aren't much different from Linden dollars or InterStellar Kredits, to name only +a few so-called "virtual currencies" + +[^15]: If you run a node, which one wouldn't expect most people to do, I +suppose. The main idea is that if you keep a copy of the blockchain on your +hard drive, you'll never have to go through an external DNS provider, while +network resilience should guarantee that no one messes with everyone's domain +records. + +[1]: /posts/y00/01f-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-i.html +[2]: /posts/y00/022-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-ii.html +[3]: /posts/y01/027-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-iii.html + +[5]: /posts/y00/01f-bitcoin-as-infrastructure-i.html +[6]: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf +[7]: http://bitbet.us/ +[8]: https://btc.waroflife.com/ +[9]: http://mpex.co/ +[10]: https://github.com/NotaryChains/NotaryChainDocs +[11]: http://twister.net.co/ +[12]: https://github.com/miguelfreitas/twister-core +[13]: https://bitmessage.org/wiki/Main_Page +[14]: https://github.com/okTurtles/dnschain +[15]: http://boingboing.net/2014/01/17/bitcloud-bitcoin-like-system.html +[16]: http://openlibernet.org/index.html +[17]: http://bitcore.io/ +[18]: https://www.ethereum.org/ -- 1.7.10.4