Problems need new solutions
Hacker News published a link to an opinion piece by Paul Krugman on blockchain. In it Krugman writes:
A blockchain is a digital ledger associated with an asset, recording the history of transactions in that asset — who bought it from whom and so on. The asset could be a digital token like a Bitcoin, but it could also be a stock or even a physical thing like a shipping container. Ledgers, of course, are nothing new. What’s distinctive about blockchains is that the ledgers are supposed to be decentralized: They aren’t sitting on the computers of a single bank or other company; they’re in the public domain, sustained by protocols that induce many people to maintain records on many servers.
These protocols are, everyone tells me, extremely clever. I’ll take their word for it. The question I’ve never heard or seen satisfactorily answered, however, is, “What’s the point?” Why go to the trouble and expense of maintaining a ledger in many places, and basically carrying that ledger around every time a transaction takes place?
Krugman’s answer and the Hacker News comment consensus is: Nothing. At best, it’s a solution is search of a problem.
I don’t agree. I think it’s a solution in search of a user interface. The first people grokked, if it all, is bitcoin. Because, money. But that’s not all:
- PolicyKit is a peer-to-peer community governance and moderation project.
- ProofMode – ProofMode – Verified Visuals creates a chain of custody around evidence such as photos.
- Starling Labs creates a historical ledger.
- Acorn | Open Source P2P Project Management for Software Teams reimagines project collaboration in a serverless environment.
Can these problems be solved in other ways? Of course. Is blockchain and interesting way to solve these: yes.
In a world where billionaires can disrupt social communications by buying a platform, war and its crimes continue to be perpetrated, and government records are removed from public view, decentralized tools using a ledger can help us maintain the past, understand the present, and collaborate into the future.