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Blockchain

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    Blockchain

    Is anyone working/training or doing anything on blockchain? It is really gaining traction in terms of investment and I would love to eat a slice of that pie.
    Vote Corbyn ! Save this country !

    #2
    One of my permie colleagues is developing a project using blockchain. What he's doing is nothing to do with my day to day work, but I can earwig on his conversations - and I've learned a lot. I can't give details at all, but suffice to say, if you're looking for a new area to work in, I think there's huge potential for exploitation. Get away from the idea of currency, and think in terms of audit trails and privacy.
    Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

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      #3
      Originally posted by NotAllThere View Post
      Get away from the idea of currency, and think in terms of audit trails and privacy.
      ^^^^^ This is you're not a total maths propeller-head.

      The work under the bonnet is heavy-duty cryptographics. IMO that's where the real money is (and I don't mean enough knowledge to fork the Bitcoin source code and make your own alt-coin). The banks will pay very handsomely for people who really understand how it works and what it can be made to do. Although I suspect they'll recruit graduates with 1st class degrees from the top universitys rather than contractors.
      See You Next Tuesday

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        #4
        I have friends that partnered with IBM on this:

        https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/pl...ocean-plastic/

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          #5
          Originally posted by sal View Post
          I have friends that partnered with IBM on this:

          https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/pl...ocean-plastic/
          This and other similar projects...
          Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by sal View Post
            I have friends that partnered with IBM on this:

            https://www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/pl...ocean-plastic/
            I like the use of technology, and the desire to clear up the plastic, but find the method quite disturbing.

            Why would you 'pay' the poor people with a currency that you control where they can spend? Why not give them US dollars (or other local currency, or even real Bitcoins) which they can choose to spend as they like. And do the collectors need to have a mobile phone to use the currency?

            At some stage the providers of the food and water will be getting actual cash so I'm not sure what problem the blockchain is solving here.

            Maybe I'm cynical but it looks like a huge vanity project.
            See You Next Tuesday

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Lance View Post
              ^^^^^ This is you're not a total maths propeller-head.

              The work under the bonnet is heavy-duty cryptographics. IMO that's where the real money is (and I don't mean enough knowledge to fork the Bitcoin source code and make your own alt-coin). The banks will pay very handsomely for people who really understand how it works and what it can be made to do. Although I suspect they'll recruit graduates with 1st class degrees from the top universitys rather than contractors.
              You don't need to understand the maths to exploit what it can do. There are applications way beyond finance and banks.
              Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Lance View Post
                I like the use of technology, and the desire to clear up the plastic, but find the method quite disturbing.

                Why would you 'pay' the poor people with a currency that you control where they can spend? Why not give them US dollars (or other local currency, or even real Bitcoins) which they can choose to spend as they like. And do the collectors need to have a mobile phone to use the currency?

                At some stage the providers of the food and water will be getting actual cash so I'm not sure what problem the blockchain is solving here.

                Maybe I'm cynical but it looks like a huge vanity project.
                I'm not overly familiar with the details of the project, to comment on the details. I would guess that using specific crypto currency mitigates the risk of someone stealing/extorting and hoarding the "cash" from the regular people, like it often happens with monetary and material aid in the 3rd world countries. You would be surprised how many people have access to a smart phone, but no access to real necessities like clean water fro example.

                What I know is that my friends are passionate about it as software developers and the guys that started it at IBM are passionate about making a change and clearing the plastic. But I agree that most likely the big wigs at IBM are looking at it as a vanity/PR project

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by sal View Post
                  I'm not overly familiar with the details of the project, to comment on the details. I would guess that using specific crypto currency mitigates the risk of someone stealing/extorting and hoarding the "cash" from the regular people, like it often happens with monetary and material aid in the 3rd world countries. You would be surprised how many people have access to a smart phone, but no access to real necessities like clean water fro example.

                  What I know is that my friends are passionate about it as software developers and the guys that started it at IBM are passionate about making a change and clearing the plastic. But I agree that most likely the big wigs at IBM are looking at it as a vanity/PR project
                  and to get IBM involved it has to have a technical solution.

                  good luck to them though
                  See You Next Tuesday

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by sal View Post
                    I would guess that using specific crypto currency mitigates the risk of someone stealing/extorting and hoarding the "cash" from the regular people, like it often happens with monetary and material aid in the 3rd world countries. You would be surprised how many people have access to a smart phone, but no access to real necessities like clean water fro example.
                    Yup.

                    There's a TV show called 'Startup' available on Amazon Prime Video (an Amazon original show, so not sure if available via other legit sources) and while it's fiction it does have cryptocurrency as the product they're doing as the startup.

                    Only watched the first episode so far but they do say when talking to VCs to get funding, that the benefit of cryptocurrency is that it's easier to access all over the world (most people have or will soon have a mobile phone) without banks or government controlling the access and supply.

                    The woman that built the solution (GenCoin IIRC) did say it took her 7 years to do the algorithm, so plenty of time yet before we see real world solutions.

                    Maybe everyone is seeing how they did it on the show and copying the idea.
                    Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

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