Why Blockchain is Hard

Jimmy Song Bitcoin Educator, Developer and Entrepreneur/PGP Fingerprint: C1D7 97BE 7D10 5291 228C D70C

https://medium.com/@jimmysong/why-blockchain-is-hard-60416ea4c5c

What is a blockchain?

The main thing distinguishing a blockchain from a normal database is that there are specific rules about how to put data into the database. That is, it cannot conflict with some other data that’s already in the database (consistent), it’s append-only (immutable), and the data itself is locked to an owner (ownable), it’s replicable and available. Finally, everyone agrees on what the state of the things in the database are (canonical) without a central party (decentralized).

It is this last point that really is the holy grail of blockchain. Decentralization is very attractive because it implies there is no single point of failure.

The Cost of Blockchains

• Development is stricter and slower
• Incentive structures are difficult to design
• Maintenance is very costly
• Users are sovereign
• All upgrades are voluntary
• Scaling is really hard

Centralization is a lot easier

Like it or not, the word “blockchain” has taken on a life of its own. Very few people actually understand what it is, but want to appear hip so use these words as a way to sound more intelligent. Just like “cloud” means someone else’s computer and “AI” means a tweaked algorithm, “blockchain” in this context means a slow, expensive database.“blockchain” is really just a way to get rid of the heavy apparatus of government regulation. This is overselling what blockchain can do. Blockchain doesn’t magically take away human conflict.

So what is blockchain good for?

Most industries require new features or upgrades and the freedom to change and expand as necessary. Given that blockchains are hard to upgrade, hard to change and hard to scale, most industries don’t have much use for a blockchain. a lot of companies looking to use the blockchain are not really wanting a blockchain at all, but rather IT upgrades to their particular industry. This is all well and good, but using the word “blockchain” to get there is dishonest and overselling its capability.

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more on blockchain in this IMS blgo
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blockchain