The Magic DNS feature is super cool as well. I'm not sure exactly what the mainstream killer app would be. But I feel like Tailscale is poised to execute if/when it arises.
Perhaps the AI age makes everyone more data privacy conscious.
I've also long thought that eventually every household will eventually have a mini server for home automation and storing personal information. The rise of the cloud kinda slowed this down, but I don't think cloud and home server are mutually exclusive.
Agree that they are on to something. I gave a tech talk about them a while ago at work and said that I think they are on the cusp of providing a consumer VPN product that appeals to mainstream consumers. The Apple of VPNs, everything "just works" and is easy to understand.
I've always been a big fan of KDL in principle, haven't used it in anger. After that HCL, then YAML, with JSON and others being my least favourite to use.
Of course the hard part is gaining enough critical mass to make a significant switch. JSON had AJAX. YAML had Rails. What could make JSON5 or KDL break out?
This looks really, really good. Super fast as well. There's definitely space for a version of LinkedIn that's simpler to use and puts the resume front and center.
Agreed, I think what a lot of people misunderstand is that bitcoin is a terribly inefficient way of achieving consensus. No one is going to build mining farms just to protect digital rights.
Bitcoin has a chance at becoming a currency because in the past it has been hard to reach a global consensus on value.
It may be possible to use a bitcoin based timestamping solution like https://github.com/goblin/chronobit to record the rights, but I can't see where the incentive is for everybody to support a distributed database of such rights.
Libertarians are annoying, anyone who thinks technology will solve complex social problems will be dissapointed by bitcoin eventually.
The deflationary nature of bitcoin is it's hardest aspect to defend because there really hasn't been anything like it in history before. A finite asset that is easy to transfer over long distances without central interferance really is unprecedented.
I think you have bought in to the bitcoin fantasy that it will be the only currency in use. I don't think that will ever happen for a variety of reasons. If gold and fiat can coexist why not bitcoin too?.
Loaning bitcoins seems to be a crazy proposition, so I suspect inflationary currencies will stick around just for that reason. Not to mention bitcoin by itself is fairly terrible for in person transactions, if you add a service on top what is the difference for the customer between that and a credit card company?. Fiat is useful and solves problems that bitcoin doesn't.
Regarding mining, I have my own concerns, bitcoin proponents love to describe mining as “securing the network” and equate it with vaults and security guards used in banks. This comparison is at least partly flawed, mining prevents double spends and nothing else. It's certainly true that a centralized ledger could prevent double spends for tiny fraction of the cost of mining, but globally who can be trusted by all parties to adminster it?. The comparison isn't one sided however, it is much cheaper to securely store (and move) bitcoins than gold for example.
Energy use is tricky, preserving the environment should be a top a priority, but should we aspire to use less energy?. One question I have often asked but never got a good answer to, how much of the worlds energy needs to be devoted to mining to prevent a 51% attack?. If it is north of 30% of the worlds energy output then right now that would seem a huge waste. But if we had access to cheaper, cleaner renewable energy, would it still be a problem?.
Malware?, it's just a symptom of larger problem, computer security is terrible. No one is really sure who to plame, users, applications, operating systems and hardware makers all come into the firing line. If bitcoin pushes forward computer security surely that can only be a good thing?.
I'm unconvinced about whether greshams law applies to mining due to the performance disparity between ASICs and CPU/GPUs, but surely if computer security improves this problem diminishes?.
Feel like I am replying to a obvious troll, but one thing that annoys me is when people blame the press for the leak.
Either the leak is justified or it's not. Either way the press is not responsible.
If the leak is not justified then the blame lies with the leaker and the organisation that the info was leaked from. If private companies poorly secure customer info they often get fined, but there seems to be no comeback when the leak involves a government.
I think the danger of the public nature of the blockchain is way overstated. It's fairly trivial to introduce reasonable doubt into your transaction history, blockchain analysis is nowhere near as useful to law enforcement as some people think.
The situation I worry about more is when someone is operating outside of the law, for example if you legitimately but unknowingly end up with some coins that were previously stolen, and then some guys with baseball bats turn up at your house.
The definition and use of the word fiat is interesting, in Latin it means "let it be done".
You could say that the creator of Bitcoin decreed that it had value (I'm not sure I would agree), but it's still different from government backed money because nobody is forced to use Bitcoin (to pay taxes for example).
It certainly seems that within the Bitcoin community the word fiat now means government backed money, I suspect if Bitcoin becomes more successful it may end up redefining the word.
In my experience overuse of meta programming is usually a sign that the architecture of the system is bad and the software should be split up into separate libraries or web services.
I'm British and mildly pro European, I think for all the stuff that gets written about the EU, for the jokes the countries tell about each other, we have many more things that unite us than divide.
What I can't argue with though, is that there is definitely a perceived democratic deficit in the EU. I won't argue about whether it is real or not, it doesn't matter, what does is a lot of Europeans (not just the British) don't like EU bureaucracy.