Why are blockchains valuable?

geekgirl (72) · 7 years ago (edited)

In my opinion blockchains are valuable because they offer an alternative. Bitcoin itself was born after/during global financial crisis of 2008 as an alternative to modern financial systems. Once there is an alternative then it is up to the people to choose if they want to give any value to the alternative, in this case bitcoin and blockchains in general.

Every human interaction, every choice in essence creates or at the very least assigns value. Most common choice is how to spend time: create something, go to work, watch tv, hang out with friends, spend time with family, engage in sports, travel, spend time on social media, learn new things, various hobbies, etc. One way or the other we try to give different value to different things at various times. I think it is all about options available and choices made.

For example, here on Steem value is not just created by posting blogs and exchanging upvotes, I think real values comes with people choosing to spend their valuable times in various communities, networking, building new things. Everything done on Steem can be done elsewhere, but Steem is providing alternative. Is it a better alternative that can go mainstream? Depends who you ask. Nobody knows. It will be determined by choices people make.

Blockchains have a great potential to empower ordinary people, yet these potentials aren't without risks. Best technologies are always the ones that are easy to utilize. I think, making them simple to understand and easy to use is where blockchains might be failing at the moment.

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4 votes

dhimmel (65) · 7 years ago

A blockchain is a chain of blocks. For most database applications, it makes sense to add transactions to the database immediately rather than wait to group them into blocks. Why then is the sacrifice of blocking transactions (from the perspective of a database user), a good design decision for the overall system?

Blocks are necessitated by mining, whereby an entity is awarded the ability to add a block and determine which transactions it contains (as long as all transactions are valid according to the protocol). The benefit of mining is that it enables distributed consensus and immutability. Proof of work and proof of stake are two different methods for determining who will mine blocks, but both strive to create decentralization and immutability.

Thus for what applications do decentralization and immutability matter? They are important for applications where there may be censorship or failure of centralized entities. In addition, decentralization can help with system reliability and robustness. Hence, money is a great application for blockchains. Arguably, social media is also a good applications as we've lately seen more censorship of social media.

Finally, public blockchains are open & permissionless. They have the advantage of allowing anyone to innovate. Whereas you need Facebook's permission to build an application on top of it, anyone can build a Steem application (like Steem Bounty and many others). Thus the pace of development is much more rapid for systems built on a blockchain, despite the underlying inefficiency of the data structure.

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4 votes

knircky (73) · 7 years ago

Tbh this does not fully explain its value to me. You have explains technical advantages, but danced around the core question of value.

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master-set (64) · 7 years ago

Decentralized consensus i.e. trust is highly valuable. Blockchain is the mechanism of decentralized consensus. If it technically able + have a net effect it's truly valuable. Otherways it's potentially valuable and so can be speculated.

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thedarkhorse (67) · 7 years ago

To me there are a few factors that create value. First off and maybe the most important to me is a transaction that can't be reversed which is nearly instant.

Picture this, a vendor is at a trade show. Customer comes up and purchases an item with a credit card. That customer (in the US) has 30 days from the date the statement is issued to dispute the charges for just about any reason. The second there is a dispute the vendor has the money taken from their current pending payout or taken from their checking account if there are no pending transfers. Until the dispute is resolved these funds are tied up and without very strong proof the credit card company will side with their customer, the buyer.

Same vendor sells an item for Steem and has an nearly instant transaction that is irreversible. Payment is done and is as good as cash.

Now this transaction really leads to my second point which is trust. The value of trusting that each transaction that is broadcast on the blockchain is there and can't be changed adds so much value to those who use it. When you can adapt micro payments for data pulls or license usages or so many other things and know that the payment is instant and final that trust gives so much value to the blockchain that can't be achieved in current billing/payment methods.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but as a vendor who has taken crypto payments, credit cards, paypal, and so many other forms of payment I can say Cash is and always will be King to me, but a payment processed instantly on a blockchain is right up there.

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thedarkhorse (67) · 7 years ago

Thank you @knircky, entire amount from the bounty was powered up. Slowly, but surely I'm building up.

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brettcalloway (57) · 7 years ago

In my opinion I don't think blockchains are valuable without decentralization. From what I understand, blockchains are really slow and expensive data bases that should never be used if cost and speed are your main priorities. Without decentralization, blockchains are a waste. Now, I understand that true decentralization is very hard to achieve and there's arguments that no coins are actually decentralized, but blockchains are a marketing term buzz word to sell highly centralized company stock. So, what makes blockchains special is decentralization. Other than that, it's all hype with no substance. That's my understanding. :-)

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askanything (53) · 7 years ago (edited)

Blockchain allows to create decentralized currencies, we don't need central banks anymore, it is the biggest revolution of the last century. Blockchain is a new tool, a tool does not create value by itself, the new products created with this new tools have value. @daan007 gave you examples of new products created with the blockchain which each have different value.

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crypto-econom1st (57) · 7 years ago

I think blockchain can be valuable because of the decentralized character. Which means that there is not 1 person or entity that controls the blockchain. And everything that goes into the blockchain will remain there and can't be changed. So you can always find the truth and nothing but the truth!

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago (edited)

So decentralizion creates value by truth? I dont see how this creates value?

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crypto-econom1st (57) · 7 years ago

Poeh
I'm curious to see who can tell you what the advantages are.

Do you believe in it yourself?

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

I have a very strong conviction why they are valuable.

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crypto-econom1st (57) · 7 years ago

And did anyone already give a good or great answer? Or should I do a second attempt as bounty hunter?

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theaustrianguy (72) · 7 years ago

I think it comes down to dezentralization and transparency. In a world of misstrust and negative feelings towards governments and institutions like banks or big companies it is something people love. The blockchain can help to reinstall the trust many people seek.

As a bonus an indirect effect, the new technology also applies pressure on those.

Look at germany f.E. - A few months after the big crypto boom, the banks suddenly install a system where near-instant transactions become available. If there would be no other options like cryptos, I doubt that mice would have been done that „fast“ as well.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

U mention governments. But how is value created?

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theaustrianguy (72) · 7 years ago

Trust is value

If you have a tool (the BC) that helps you to be trusted by people, this is really valuable itsself imo.

A company trusted by people will sell more.
A service being trusted will be used more.
A government being trusted will be voted more.

So I would say all of those rise in value due to increased trust. Blockchain creates trust. Trust creates value.

Data is value
Additionally, data and content is value. If people store theirs on your Blockchain, its’ value rises. Some of the biggest companies in the world are that big because of the data they have stored.

So I would say the Blockchain can be a useful tool for companies, applications and goverments to create value, which makes it a valuable tool itself.

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rjoshicool (65) · 7 years ago

I would like to give this a try as well, though many others have tried and seems like the right answer is still not there.

I feel Blockchains are valuable majorly because of the data and how you use the blockchain for that data. It is the way the data is stored and the amount of data that is being stored.

The way the data is stored make it valuable because everyone's data is on publically (there could be private as well though) accessible platforms, yet the integrity of the data is maintained. After several calculations and proofing logics, the data is put into the blockchain. There is a lot of effort being done in ensuring right data goes in right manner.

The humongous amounts of data it can store and the excessively large number of transactions that can happen in parallel make it valuable.

Finally it is important how we use blockchain for data. You can use it to build a chain of items but when you use it to implement a chain that is smart (smart as in smart contracts) and logical, it adds value to all data that is there and what it can deliver out of that data.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago (edited)

I think that public data set is a nice feature. But i do not believe it is the main driver of value.

Ie looking at steem, is the difference really the public data? Could that same value not be realized with a centralized sql type approach?

How does that make the platform more useful to its users then centralized platforms?

To me it seems there is something bigger at play here that generates value

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rjoshicool (65) · 7 years ago

With centralized systems, ownership is with the person managing the system, hence he is the sole owner of content and he only has the value from it ultimately. Just like Facebook having all our data and sharing it with others for benefits in return.

With a decentralized approach, everyone has access to data and no single person claims the ownership. Hence, everyone earns the value in return from it.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

Yes I see that. But how does that translate into value or productivity?

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rjoshicool (65) · 7 years ago

They deliver value or productivity in the sense that the data gets written after consensus of other system in the chain and not just a single authority. This verification reduces error rates.
Also, in traditional centralized systems/databases, there is possibility of delete and edit but blockchains don't allow that. They only allow read/write. Thus, all data remains there in the form it was throughout its lifecycle.

With the above 2 approaches they add value to the data that goes into the system and can increase productivity in future.

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crypticat (70) · 7 years ago (edited)

Blockchains are valuable for a number of reasons, what really makes them special is the decentralized aspect of them. A decentralized and widely distributed blockchain is a very powerful tool for democracy, freedom of expression and information.

Blockchains are valuable because we assign them value just like anything else. They maintain their value because they are cryptographically secure and immutable. You cannot simple print more Bitcoin and must acquire it from someone else or mine it (Proof of Work) some other blockchains require Proof of Stake such as Stellar Lumens and other require proof of care or some hybrid. The worst blockchains have been premined and are for sale to the highest bidder. These favor the wealthy and the creators. They may have assigned economic value but they have little value to society as a whole as the aren't really decentralized and are consolidated in the hands of the few.
Many blockchains are clones, these should be avoided too because they will likely never be as valuable as the original. For example Litecoin will never be worth more than Bitcoin because it is a copy and isn't revolutionary. Ethereum is revolutionary because it is a smart contract, not just a representation of value like Bitcoin. EOS is similar to Ethereum in that it is also a smart contract but will probably never be worth as much because of first mover advantage Ethereum has. The childchains give Ethereum value and the decentralized applications which are powered by Ethereum because they create demand for it, improve it and make it more functional. EOS may never catch up to this as it is a couple years late as not as widely spread. NEO might become more valuable because of political reasons. I can go on and on about various coins, if you want a valuable one, go with XLM, mainly because it's extremely fast, as cheap as possible, backed by industry titans and it's being widely distributed for free. Ultimately adoption and acceptance will make a blockchain valuable.

As for the power of blockchains; having the ability to share and store information which cannot be edited by a third party is extremely valuable. We can use this to digitalize democracy, make accounting and taxes more transparent, make society require less trust and faith in big government, legal systems, banks, and other holders of information. This is revolutionary and blockchain could change society as much as written language. It's a form of communication that cannot be destroyed or altered.

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melvadg (54) · 7 years ago

What I like most about blockchain is the decentralization, the way of development depends on each one of us, it is different from the systems we always manage traditionally, particularly I like the transparency of all actions, that generates confidence and when you feel confident, the comfort makes you feel at home, the blockchain changed my life, it has made me change my vision and get more friends, it's great, I'm sorry my English use translator

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daan007 (41) · 7 years ago

Blockchain technology is valuable in every aspect and is useful for everyone. The major use case advantages are mentioned below.

For Supply chain management - Ensures traceability and cost-effectiveness.
For Quality Assurance - Can detect irregularities in supply chain thus helps execute prompt corrective actions.
For Accounting - Guaranteed accuracy of records and highly traceable audit trail.
For Smart Contracts - Eliminates need of mediators saving time and money.
For Voting - Removes electoral fraud.
For Stock Exchanges - Can cut down intermediaries, (Clearing Houses) speed up process, saves considerable time and Money.
For Energy Supply - Can accurately track usage and can help track clean energy.
For Peer to Peer Global transactions - Enables fast, secure and cost-effective fund transfers across the world.
Transparent Economies - All these processes will result in minimizing corruption, Forced & Improved utilization of allocated funds across every sector/ organization including Governments, resulting Increased per capita income and overall global growth.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

These are all use cases, not an explanation of how value is created

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daan007 (41) · 7 years ago

The main value comes by limiting the human involvement in transactions/processes which takes considerable time whereas with blockchain technology big transactional volumes can be validated automatically.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

That makes a lot of sense. However all use cases you described are run by it systems as well, so how do blockchains actually create these efficiencies since they are arguably less efficient than centralized systems.

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daan007 (41) · 7 years ago

Right now, Blockchains are most efficient technology available as it automates the transactions and processes. Blockchains creates Trust, accuracy and consistency most efficiently. Spreading wrong perception of inefficiency will not work for long. Because most of the categories in every segment is already covered in different countries. The only area where government is directly involved is taking more time since you need specialized brains and governments willingness/preparedness to cover, example; Nasa, security, Voting, Military and others.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

again u are selling features instead of explaining the value creation

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daan007 (41) · 7 years ago

Blockchains create efficiencies by lowering the cost, improving the record keeping and by enabling complete transactional traceability.

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glenalbrethsen (68) · 7 years ago

Well, value, to answer the first question can be very subjective. Decentralization, the core principle and action of blockchains, if the elements of the blockchain are built and deployed correctly, can provide higher security, greater redundancy, more transparency, greater accountability and make it harder to change data without it being discovered. If those items are actually met, are they valuable? I would say yes.

Having blocks being witnessed and signed by servers potentially all over the world make it more difficult to hack, to corrupt, to lose, and to change data, while making it impossible to sensor. Once transactions are deemed valid, they are on the blockchain for as long as the blockchain exists.

Now, I suppose the technology in of itself, it could be said, is only as valuable as what goes on it. If nothing goes on it, or if it's filled up with things no one wants or cares about, does the blockchain still have value? Maybe, but there might need to be a change in what's stored there in the future in order for anyone to recognize it.

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celinavisaez (62) · 7 years ago

Tomado textualmente del discurso.
Segun, Patrick T. Harker
Presidente, Reserva Federal de Filadelfia. (realizó un discurso para la Universidad de Pensilvania )

Blockchain tiene un tremendo potencial y los bancos pueden utilizarlo para administrar aún más el riesgo. Desde mi perspectiva, sin embargo, su valor real está en la autenticación, no en la distribución de una moneda virtual. Y las implicaciones de tener un libro distribuido que ofrece almacenamiento de datos prácticamente a prueba de fallos son enormes al lado de la gestión de riesgos para cualquier negocio.
los hace especiales y poderoso el almacenamiento a prueba de errores
un fuerte y cariñoso abrazo amigo @knircky

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sujonxr (50) · 7 years ago

Blockchain is growing in importance. Increasingly organisations have to explore what this revolutionary technology will mean for their business. Marc Andreessen from the well-known VC firm Andreessen Horowitz calls it as big an invention as the internet. Last year, in my Big Data Trends prediction for 2016, I already foresaw that 2016 would become the year of the Blockchain and now also Gartner has included in their Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.

Many organisations are already exploring the possibilities of the Blockchain, although primarily still in the Financial Services industry.

So Blockchain is changing how we do business and will probably also affect our lives. But what is Blockchain and why is it so important? Since I am incorporating the Blockchain in my research for my PhD at UTS, I thought it was a good exercise to try to explain it to you, with the help of a great infographic I came across.

Thanks for quesstion sir @knircky.

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antonioprado (5) · 7 years ago

Pero actualmente, el blockchain está sobrevalorado y sobrevalorado. Muchos casos de uso aún se hacen mejor con bases de datos privadas cerradas,Finalmente, las cadenas de bloques públicas están abiertas y sin permiso. Tienen la ventaja de permitir que cualquiera innove.

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cryptotax (59) · 7 years ago

You can have a medium of value that is ruled by the users, not governments/banks and the rules of the game cannot be changed on you without consensus of the community as a majority (i.e. Fork). Even in crypto currency's that have inflation you can delegate who is the beneficiary of that inflation for the productive value they are adding to the society (Steem/EOS systems). So for the first time we can buy in to currencies that function by design that we agree with.

You can trade in your Fiat currency that is centrally controlled in the governments can just print the money in the beneficiaries of the inflation are the governments and the big banks .

The delta between the utility of those two types of currencies is value which has been reflected in price discovery in the past 10 years.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

right but how is value created! If there is a feature u think is value u must explain how it generates value

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jonsnow1983 (67) · 7 years ago

Even though I'm still ignorant in such matters, I can really said categorically that Blockchain has changed my life, specially the Steemit Blockchain. Living in a country such as Venezuela is a plus because our earnings are far bigger than having a regular job. Blockchain has certainly helped Third world countries and nations were inflation has eaten all the value of our income. I'm still learning and I personally believe that blockchain is the future and will be a life savior for those who are in need. Cheers!

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musicayfarandula (54) · 7 years ago

The blockchain are important and in the present represents the economy of many countries as for example in my country Venezuela, as you know we have a government that regulates and controls everything, the minimum salary of each Venezuelan is 0.98 USD and as an example a liter of milk is 0.55, that is, half of the salary. Many of us have focused our work on the blockchain since it is decentralized and is not controlled by any government, the blockchain has been a blessing for us. I have a year with the cryptocurrency and I can say that It has gone to me not well but better than many so LIVE THE BLOCKCHAIN. I send you a big hug from Venezuela.

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sky.max (43) · 7 years ago

They are so valuable and powerful because for to decrypt, open , edit and recrypt a single block of the chain you need a impressive power of 51% of the net. This gives them a high level of security.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

Ok but how does this create value?

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sky.max (43) · 7 years ago

Well, the value is gived by investors that trust and use the blockchain tecnology on their projects. Also the versability of blockchain attract more of them to invest on many sectors.
So the relaction id directly proportional => high trust/security/versability = high request/know-how interest = high value.
If tomorrow anyone find the way for to hack the blockchain or find any bugs on it, the value collapse down for the leaving of investors.
Also the unicity of tech at world level give it value.
I'm sorry about my english if the concept explained isn't so clear.

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momekato (50) · 7 years ago

Same Currency everywhere on Earth.
Decentralized so the Blockchain is influcened by all, who use the currency.
More Security than on Banks.
Central Bank got no direct influence to increase/decrease the value of the currency on the Blockchain.
Informations are not saved on 1 system it is on every system which uses it.
Thinks cant be deleted so easily.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

How does one currency, security etc create value?

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momekato (50) · 7 years ago

Well its a marktplace value in $, if you mean that.
On the other side the intrinsic of currency which are created on the blockchain are =0.
Security creates value on that part, if there is something you want to protect or keep away from other and there is a think which cost money you can buy it. so you pay for security. In conclusion the securtiy has a money value if you can pay for it.

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tsnaks (63) · 7 years ago

I don't know !
But my guess would be that around blockchains have gathered a big community.
and on blockchain there are instant trades. (I think)

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brammdal (49) · 7 years ago

I think the value of a blockchain is created through it's immutable character. Data saved in a blockchain can not be changed without changing the hash of the block. In combination with the decentralisation a blockchain improves the data integrity compared to regular databases. The data integrity is part of the blockchain itself and there is no need to control through an extern source. So the real value of a blockchain is the reduced cost and work to secure the integrity of information. Companies can save money by using a blockchain. And through checking the hash a computer sytem can check the integrity by itself. This will be a huge step for automatisation of a lot of processes. This will be really valuable when core tasks like company taxes will be done completly online and need a secure and immutable way to store information. At the moment it's still required to keep paper records for tax declaration because computer systems are not secure enough against manipulation.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

K, you say the value comes from immutability. Then you describe immutability technically. What you need to explain instead is how ummutability creates value.

You go into that by explaining that aufit trails are automated. Is that the main way u think blockchains create value?

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brammdal (49) · 7 years ago

How would you define value ?

Audit trails are part of the value created by blockchains.
It's quite hard to describe the actual value of blockchains because a lot of existing. blockchains are missing a value

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

Ok, so u are saying u dont know?

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mazasuarez (37) · 7 years ago

En mi opinión, las cadenas de bloques son valiosas porque ofrecen una alternativa. Bitcoin en sí nació después durante la crisis financiera mundial de 2008 como una alternativa a los sistemas financieros modernos. Una vez que hay una alternativa, depende de las personas elegir si desean dar algún valor a la alternativa, en este caso bitcoin y blockchains en general.

Creo que blockchain puede ser valioso debido al carácter descentralizado. Lo que significa que no hay 1 persona o entidad que controle la cadena de bloques. Y todo lo que entra en el blockchain permanecerá allí y no se puede cambiar. ¡Así que siempre puedes encontrar la verdad y nada más que la verdad, Saludos.

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derangedvisions (73) · 7 years ago

Blockchains and the blockchain technology are valuable because it is a secure ledger for transactions across the chain. It could revolutionize the banking industry if they were to begin adopting it.

Right now banks use a centralized system that have to deal with hacking attempts frequently.

As people transact in a Blockchain ecosystem, a public record of all transactions is automatically created. Computers verify each transaction with sophisticated algorithms to confirm the transfer of value and create a historical ledger of all activity. The computers that form the network that are processing the transactions are located throughout the world and importantly are not owned or controlled by any single entity. The process is real-time, and much more secure than relying on a central authority to verify a transaction.

For the blockchain to be hacked and the ledger disrupted, every computer around the world that is verifying transactions will have to be hacked at the exacted same time with the exact same information.

The blockchain is a lot more of secure way to process transactions and to keep records.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

How does that create value?

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anderson09 (41) · 7 years ago

Creo que se trata de dezentralization y transparencia.Un blockchain es una cadena de bloques. Para la mayoría de las aplicaciones de bases de datos, tiene sentido agregar transacciones a la base de datos de forma inmediata en lugar de esperar para agruparlas en bloques. ¿Por qué entonces es el sacrificio de las transacciones de bloqueo (desde la perspectiva de un usuario de base de datos) una buena decisión de diseño para el sistema en general?

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khaled02 (50) · 7 years ago

The Blockchain lets you use the Internet to securely transact with anyone without any middleman. Like the Internet, no one is in charge and it is nearly impossible to shut down. It will disrupt all the intermediaries we currently use to exchange value and serve as trusted parties, including banks, financial markets, and governments.

Blockchain technology refers to various schemes that use cryptography and consensus algorithms to allow multiple parties to share a database where no central party is in control. This allows multiple untrusted parties to transact and keep records in transparent and fully auditable manner.

Sometimes blockchain technology is used to describe non-financial uses of the Bitcoin blockchain such as securing medical records or issuing a digital asset that represents a vehicle.

Overall, blockchain technology is over-hyped, underestimated, and generally misunderstood. The phrase has become so misused that it's meaning is nebulous.

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raisha1 (45) · 7 years ago

A blockchain is a way to ensure that accounting rules are followed without have any central authority enforce them. It does this by requiring that anyone trying to forge a transaction that breaks the rules has to compete in a very hard computational puzzle solving competition with all the participants trying to obey the rules. Unless the cheat can control more than half the available computer power on the network, they will almost certainly lose.

The key idea behind this is a hash function. A hash function is a function that summarizes a much longer piece of information, producing a number that is quite short, but extremely difficult to compute if you don't have the original information. Every ten minutes, the "mining" nodes of the blockchain network collect together a bunch of transactions that obey the rules, and try to create a new block. The block consists of the hash of the previous block (hence block chain), the new transactions, a special number, and its own hash.

The special number is the clever part. It has to be chosen such that the hash of the block has some special property. In the case of Bitcoin, the hash has to have a certain number of leading zeros. This is very hard to do - there is no way to solve the problem except to try numbers at random and see which ones work. The difficulty of choosing the special number is tuned such that it will take the entire power of all the machines cooperating to enforce the rules approximately ten minutes to do.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

This is an expalanation of how it works not why it is valuable.

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raisha1 (45) · 7 years ago

Sorry for mistake. I think, blockchain derives its unique value from the fact that despite its lack of official backing or wide acceptance, it has generated an ecosystem in which many people are willing to trade and accept it. In fact, some perceive blockchain to be more valuable, or more useful, than other currencies in that it is a better option for certain purposes, such as seamless digital transfers and use across borders. Also, because there is a cap set on the total number of blockchains that will ever exist, the currency cannot be devalued through inflation as others can. Finally, a key benefit of bitcoin is known as “censorship resistance,” its ability to be used for transactions that could normally be censored by other payment networks.
For that blockchian has a value for world economics

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rentmoney (68) · 7 years ago

For the same reasons anything else has value.... Because us the consumers give it value. There is an old saying, " something is worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. ". And that applies to the blockchain as well. The demand for it creates its value.
Plus people tend to dislike governments / the big bad banks and that helps with it success as well.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

This is all nice and sweet but does not explain how the value is being created. the fact that people pay for it is obvious due to its price.

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rentmoney (68) · 7 years ago (edited)

I am not sure how that equals to nice and sweet but people pay for it because of demand not because of price. Price is based on how much demand there is for a certain product or item. And we the consumers decided the demand. So the value comes from us the consumer.

If price was the reason we bought things then very few would have bought bitcoin when it was $20,000 + each.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

This is all nice and sweet but does not explain how the value is being created. the fact that people pay for it is obvious due to its price.

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gduran (70) · 7 years ago

I guess it will force people to lie less.

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

and how does this create value?

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orlndojose (37) · 7 years ago (edited)

Cada interacción humana, cada elección en esencia crea o al menos asigna valor. La opción más común es cómo pasar el tiempo: crear algo, ir a trabajar, mirar televisión, salir con amigos, pasar tiempo con la familia, participar en deportes, viajar, pasar el tiempo en las redes sociales, aprender cosas nuevas, pasatiempos variados, etc. De una forma u otra tratamos de darle un valor diferente a diferentes cosas en diferentes momentos. Creo que se trata de opciones disponibles y elecciones hechas.Por ejemplo, aquí, en Steem, el valor no solo se crea publicando blogs e intercambiando votos al alza, creo que los valores reales vienen cuando la gente elige pasar sus valiosos tiempos en varias comunidades, creando redes, construyendo cosas nuevas. Todo lo que se hace en Steem se puede hacer en otros lugares, pero Steem ofrece una alternativa. ¿Es una mejor alternativa que puede ser dominante? Depende de a quién le preguntes Nadie lo sabe. Estará determinado por las elecciones que las personas hagan.

Blockchains tiene un gran potencial para empoderar a la gente común, sin embargo, estos potenciales no están exentos de riesgos. Las mejores tecnologías son siempre las que son fáciles de utilizar. Creo que, haciéndolos simples de entender y fáciles de usar, es donde las blockchains podrían estar fallando en este momento. Saludos amigo @knircky

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goose20 (50) · 7 years ago (edited)

Yes blockchains have value - open distributed ledgers is the 1st implementation solving the double-spend problem. This in itself is a major breakthrough and has already led to many changes in how we do things.

But currently blockchain is over-hyped and over-valued. Many use cases are still better done by closed private databases. A lot of the answers above sound good in theory but will not/would not last in practice due to inefficiencies and scaling problems, and simply there is no need for some blockchains to be open and distributed - i.e. Burger King has one, why? Who cares who owns Burger King tokens and how those coins are utilised.

Just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should, or by doing it, value is created. Just hype.

Cheers

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dgboptm (25) · 7 years ago

Secure and fast transaction . With Blockchain technology they can keep data more securely.

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rosmilage (50) · 7 years ago

Hello, I think one of the main things that makes it special is that it allows the community in general to participate, that is, provided that you have the necessary technological capabilities you will have possibilities to belong to this in blockchain world.

is the closest thing to the phrase "in the union is the strength"

because basically power is a distribution, I like that there is the possibility of knowing the guide of a transaction of some form of transparency and that gives security.

and as it depends on many involved, it is more difficult to attack it, of course, there are 51% attacks, but this is
question of luck.

in general terms, I like all this Blockchain, I think it is ideal to acquire the best of each place, the option of a global distribution, it is positive to be known throughout the world, although this is beginning.

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kosaxd (44) · 7 years ago

I think blockchains are valuable because of lack of censorship,
manipulation of government policy, and the only rules are the rules which community set. The other value is that it's impossible to fraud money, everything is transparent so everyone can check whether some transacion had place or not.

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nahela (79) · 7 years ago

In the Bitcoin network there is no bank or anyone with the authority to adjust the extracts. There is no central authority. The actual states of the accounts are determined by the consensus of the computational work of the miners. The power of computational processing is creating the blockchain, from there provi.

When a transaction is made and that transaction is retransmitted to the entire network, the existence and veracity of that transaction is not yet confirmed. With the decentralized structure of Bitcoin, the existence of this transaction is confirmed when it is included in the blockchain and new blocks are created on top of the block in which the transaction we have made is confirmed.

At any moment there could be two or more blocks at the same level competing to process the same transaction and become the next block in the blockchain. Some of the blocks will end up being "orphans" and only one will be the "real" one when they grow with more blocks.

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shai-hulud (55) · 7 years ago

Blockchains are simply technological tools and like every tool, its only value is in its application, clearly, since I'm posting this here and have crypto holdings they are a tool I'm prepared to use to my advantage for exactly as long as it remains advantageous.

However just like with beauty value is in the eyes of the beholder, all these cryptos are no different from any fiat in that they only have value because people have agreed they do. Scarcity is not enough to make the value in and of itself if human feces became scarce tomorrow it would not stop it from being shit.

So in that argument, the blockchain doesn't create anything new as we could already exchange time and resources for "tokens" others are willing to exchange for good or services.

Does the blockchain create transparency? At transaction level yeah sure, but fall again to the beholder some might argue the question of what good is transparency without accountability which is what you have in the environment of anonymity while the other camp would never support a blockchain with real life id verification.
But blockchain is valuable because it's superfast the super fastest right? some are some aren't.
Blockchain technology will help us beat the evil megacorp banks that own the government! No no, it won't there are all building their own, tax on crypto is becoming a real thing to quote.
But... but Steemit and busy and all the others: What if I told you there was no reason for Steemit to run on top of a decentralized blockchain that a profit-sharing tokenized content reward system could just as easily run on a centralized system that provides the benefits of governance and the ability to punish bad actors, you know like removing rewards from plagiarists removing active malicious users discovered as threats to your wallet.

I repeat a blockchain only has value in its application some of these applications could change a lot of how we do business, could change voter turnout by allowing your private key to vote from home, play a major role in the internet of things.

Alternatively, what value would you find in a massive world government security blockchain there your implant carries your private key and your location is recorded indelibly by every electronic device you pass... oops mobiles

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knircky (73) · 7 years ago

So are you arguing that blockchains aren't that valuable?

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