As a great believer in blockchain technology I really got a lot of value out of this article. The debate generated in the comments is perhaps more illuminating than the article itself. In the face of criticism we are forced to examine our own beliefs and we come out the other end of this process with a better understanding of the reasons we have for holding those beliefs.
Or as great philospher J.S. Mill once put it (far more succinctly and eloquently that I ever could) “We may gain a better appreciation for why our own view is correct by seeing its collision with error.”
Kai’s opinions on the total worthlessness of blockchain really excel in this area, allowing me to see my own views collide with plausible-sounding yet ultimately misguided error again and again, which is fantastic as it forces me to justify my own ideas.
Without such strong and vocal critics as Kai we may end up living in a dangerous self-reinforcing bubble of one-sided views. Bravo Kai, keep the “collisions with error” coming!
By Rachel Rose O’Leary
Vitalik Buterin is coming out against a proposal that would find the blockchain he created changing its software to limit the performance of mining hardware designed to yield a greater cut of the network’s rewards.
Issued in a biweekly developer meeting Friday, Buterin’s comments come in response to the launch of a new product by mining hardware supplier Bitmain earlier this week. Announced Tuesday, the Antminer E3 has already emerged as a topic of some controversy, with many ethereum developers coming out in favor of a fork that would effectively disable the hardware.
Speaking in the meeting, core developer Piper Merriam went so far as to detail a technical proposal for how this would be achieved so as to keep GPU cards as the primary mining mechanism.
Still, Buterin suggested the issue may not be worth the coordination required to make the change, stating:
“Getting everybody to upgrade is likely to be fairly chaotic and detract from more important things. So, at this point I personally lean quite significantly towards no action.”
Merriam, who has led the effort to propose code that would mitigate ASIC effectiveness, emphasized that the current proposal is a short-term solution that would not provide protection against the ASICs indefinitely. Rather, the current proposal functions simply “to break existing hardware,” Merriam said.
In response, Buterin argued that any such efforts may not be necessary, and could redirect resources away from a scheduled change that would eliminate hardware-based mining entirely.
Elsewhere in that meeting, there were signs that ethereum’s shift away from mining is getting closer to reality. Community manager Hudson Jameson said that from May, the code will undergo a formal verification process that is expected to last five months.
However, Jameson said if the ethereum community still felt strongly in favor of a fork, it can continue efforts in that direction irrespective of the core developers.
“If the community truly wants this to happen and has a good enough reason we can definitely do that, but for right now it sounds like consensus of the core devs to not do anything at this time,” he said.
In the meeting, Buterin also broached the topic of his recent proposal to introduce a cap on ether issuance. Pending approval from the community, this could be introduced into the next network upgrade, or alongside Casper, the developer said.
Vitalik Buterin image via CoinDesk archives
Source:
这段时间，我们的粉丝留言中，提到比原链BTM的频率比较高：
我们估计这里面有两方面的原因，一来这个项目是长铗发起的，而长铗是巴比特论坛的创始人，也是一名科幻作家。
巴比特论坛是中国活跃度比较高的区块链论坛，给大家搬运了不少国外最新的资讯回来。
另一个热度上升的原因，应该是跟BTM的主网即将上线有关：
段新星是BTM联合创始人，巴比特总裁
最近，我们团队也在研究这个项目。
不过不是评测，比原链不需要评测。这是一个实实在在的项目，创始人是这个圈子的资深参与者 — — 长铗2011年创建了巴比特，开始买比特币，他们公司发工资都是发比特币的。而段新星，是OKcoin的前副总裁。
同时，项目也是稳步在推进。无论是品牌运营（创始人出席各种活动露脸），还是社群建设（各种线下MEET UP见面会、线上活动），还是代码更新，都是按部就班地在进行。
所以，我们希望从更高的维度，来聊一聊比原链：定位和技术。
翻开BTM的白皮书，你首先会被这一句话所绕晕：
“异构的比特资产”，“原子资产”这些词语读起来，让人非常迷惑。不过详细读下来，你最终会明白，它想说的是：
比原链能够实现“现实世界的各种资产（例如债券）”在区块链上流通的问题。
单看这个定位，是比较吸引人的。我们之前说过，目前区块链发展的瓶颈，在于跟现实对接的脱轨 — — 仅仅是最大化实现了线上“账本”、“合约”的功能，而未能实现线上线下的统一发展。
所以我们第一次看到比原链的定位是很好奇的：它怎么跟“原子资产”交互？
白皮书也说了，它将会解决以下问题：
尤其是上面红框的的后两个问题，我们极其有兴趣了解他们的解决方案。
不过很遗憾，在去年中发布的这份白皮书中，对这些问题语焉不详，更加多的笔墨放在了“链上资产交换”的问题上。
这点原本就没有难度啊（除开侧链交互的设想，这个我们以后再说）。
所以，在现在的情况下，我们没法去评价比原链：你也不能说他吹牛，毕竟主网和算法马上就公布了。
或许，等到它主网上线后，我们能够更加客观地去审视比原链，以及长铗和他的团队。
先谢谢大家的耐心等待。
