bitcoin

[nancey5334]

How is the Blockchain Different from Banking Ledgers?

[Guest]

Wouldnt you be better off asking this question in a bitcoin forum, not a computer forum? 

[Canada EH]

https://www.bitcoin.com/info/how-is-the-bitcoin-blockchain-different-from-banking-ledgers

 

Banks for many years have also used ledgers to track and manage financial transactions, however, bank ledgers are historically private and closed. The general public cannot view them, doesn’t have access to them, and they are centrally managed by the financial institutions; essentially they are permissioned ledgers where banks oversee them with impunity.

 

Bitcoin Core blockchain is completely decentralized and open source. This means that people do not have to rely on or trust the central bank to keep track of the transactions. The peer-to-peer blockchain technology can keep track of all the transactions without the fear of having them erased, lost or even seized. The blockchain is permission-less, anyone can participate around the world.

[asus killer]

the difference as i see it, and the selling point for crypto currencies, is it's decentralization, no one owns the information. In a traditional bank your bank owns your information. 

[Hip]

When your banks owns your informations, your government has them too.

[mr moose]

Blockchains can also work with centralized (private) networks.  They are not as secure as a decentralized blockchain, so long as the decentralized chain is big enough to avoid the 51% control issue (where one person with 51% control of the network can change a block and each subsequent block).  Many companies run private (permissioned) chains as a PoC. Santander, RBC, JP Morgan, Citibank, BNY Mellon, American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and Goldman Sachs are all trialling private chains instead of conventional ledger systems.

 

https://blockchainatberkeley.blog/a-snapshot-of-blockchain-in-enterprise-d140a511e5fd

[asus killer]

3 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Blockchains can also work with centralized (private) networks.  They are not as secure as a decentralized blockchain, so long as the decentralized chain is big enough to avoid the 51% control issue (where one person with 51% control of the network can change a block and each subsequent block).  Many companies run private (permissioned) chains as a PoC. Santander, RBC, JP Morgan, Citibank, BNY Mellon, American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and Goldman Sachs are all trialling private chains instead of conventional ledger systems.

 

https://blockchainatberkeley.blog/a-snapshot-of-blockchain-in-enterprise-d140a511e5fd

that helps them (companies) but it changes nothing for the customer, you still don't own your own information, you still can't do anything without them, you can't send money to someone without asking them to do it. I guess that's the all point.

It's like P2P, Microsoft uses it so they don't have to invest in servers, but for the users its really "who cares if it's server or P2P". The main use of P2P is you being able to transfer files without the "middle man".

[mr moose]

10 hours ago, asus killer said:

that helps them (companies) but it changes nothing for the customer, you still don't own your own information, you still can't do anything without them, you can't send money to someone without asking them to do it. I guess that's the all point.

It's like P2P, Microsoft uses it so they don't have to invest in servers, but for the users its really "who cares if it's server or P2P". The main use of P2P is you being able to transfer files without the "middle man".

Even when it comes to bitcoin you still won't own your information.   Because who holds information is not really something that blockchain will change.   Economies are mostly productivity driven with cultural and governmental influences (I.E communist, dictatorship or democratic).  Even if bitcoin where to become mainstream and remain completely decentralized (as a currency as well as a network) you would still require banks, tax office information and some sort of public entity.  Therefore in order for the economy to remain stable and the country to run effectively you will still have your information spread out among multiple institutions.

 

 

I fear when it comes to the economy side of bitcoin discussion people don't fully appreciate what decentralization means.    Because decentralized computing (which is what blockchain is) does not automatically make bitcoin a decentralized currency (it is in it's current form).    With this confusion many people think that crypto currencies can be integrated into a countries financial system without change.  Which is why we get a lot comments from people who think the acceptance or even complete swap over to bitcoin will change inflation, government control, reserve bank control etc.   It won't because the economy works in the opposite direction, currencies are designed to serve the economy, their value changes in response to economic changes. Once you stop altering the value of currency in response to economic changes you have a runaway of growth or recession.  both are bad.

 

 

[asus killer]

46 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

 

agree. i still think that crypto only makes sense to small payments or transactions, a real link to the real economic will kill them in that they will be so close to the way fiats work they will be useless.

If they could at least separate us from the banks that would be a nice improvement, i mean me sending you money with no middle man. But i'm skeptic 

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, asus killer said:

agree. i still think that crypto only makes sense to small payments or transactions, a real link to the real economic will kill them in that they will be so close to the way fiats work they will be useless.

If they could at least separate us from the banks that would be a nice improvement, i mean me sending you money with no middle man. But i'm skeptic 

I think in order to do that it would have to be treated just like a foreign currency.  Which introduces issues with being able to spend it locally.  In my mind introducing bitcoin into an economy as either a mainstream or alternative would be almost exactly like the introduction of the eurodollar.

 

Not a bad article that explains some issue that are still occurring in 2017 with the EU dollar.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/050515/why-these-european-countries-dont-use-euro.asp

[ItsBlck]

You can buy some sweet sweet drugs of the black market with bitcoin, like I always do on a Friday night ?