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RE: Steem Basics: Why Steem is an Application-Specific Blockchain

in #steem6 years ago (edited)

Prime real estate, the top of @steemitblog posts, eh? Anywho, the article on PoS vs. PoW was interesting, but do you know of any written about DPoS vs. PoW? STEEM is not exactly an old-school PoS system, so isn't much of what's discussed irrelevant? Especially the part about what would occur in the event of a total network outage with chains potentially splintering, which could be rectified by witnesses coming to consensus. Even if a consensus was not possible to reach or the outages were so severe that the chains split irreconcilably, it wouldn't be a total cataclysm because applications could be built to effortlessly exchange coins on one chain for coins on the other.

The most enlightening thing about that piece was the tendency of humans to underestimate the likelihood of "edge cases" as you call them: interesting psychology, that. Also, the longer I'm in crypto the more I warm up to the idea that faster, more convenient, easier is not "better" in terms of valuation. Rather, it's the more clunky systems that require more physical energy, higher fees, and longer amounts of time that are likely to remain better stores of value. At least, that is one angle of prediction: a rather materialistic outlook, though perhaps accurate.

I find it exceedingly hilarious that every engineer, programmer, and developer seems to know all the ins and outs of cryptocurrency's future. They point out all the reasons certain systems are "likely to fail" in their view and others are "destined to succeed." Humans, though, have a powerful streak of irrationality, and this extends to the most brilliant thinkers. The brain likes to come to conclusions based on subconscious emotional and intuitive impulses that then become justified with subtle and eloquent-sounding logic.

Especially when it comes to future technological developments like the extremely well-functioning global blockchains we will eventually have, all bets are off. We all hedge our bets where we think the chips will fall, but to say beyond a shadow of a doubt that PoW is superior to PoS, or that PoS is inherently flawed, is an untenable conclusion based on anything I've been presented with thus far.

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The way I look at it Bitcoin will be the dominant Store of Value for a very long time and there is no need to change the POW. You can read https://hackernoon.com/asic-resistance-is-nothing-but-a-blockchain-buzzword-b91d3d770366 for a great reasoning.

POS based blockchains will derive their value out of the problems that they solve and not as SOV.

DPOS based chains will empower the web applications right away without waiting for POW based and POS based blockchains to address their performance issues. Current examples are Steem and EOS.

So I think each of them have their place. We just need to make sure that the spams in each of this category are called out thats all ;)

Here we go - when confronted with an unpopular post, its "who the hell are you" in spades.

I don't need to qualify myself to you - or anyone, for that matter.

I'll let the market decide, and going by the current Steem price its a rather dismal future indeed.

That is, until the next "oopsie" where the entire chain shuts down. The actual gall of you people to accept this as a failure mode is beyond insane.

You accept that Proof-of-(mis)Stake requires trust in other nodes, which means the developers have to bend over backwards twister-style to make things work.

It introduces needless complexity and further cases where something can go wrong -- but don't worry guys, we'll just add another token and some other watchmen to watch the other watchmen (somehow) to make it all better.

PoS is DOA, you guys just don't know it yet.

I'm not asking to you to qualify yourself, but rather your argument, which seems to hinge on "blind machine logic is superior to the conjunction of machine and human validation." If I'm wrong, I'm open to learning from your point of view.

going by the current Steem price its a rather dismal future indeed.

Would you feel the same way with a 20x price in the bull market, or just now, near the trough of valuation? My guess is yes, since your issue with PoS seems ideological (though also logical.) The funny thing is, it's the opposite with many other people, who see PoW as antiquated and inefficient. I don't know enough to conclude either way yet.

What do you mean by needless complexity?

If you're right and I lose all my money in STEEM, I'll save up more and buy DASH or Monero next time. ;-) Or hell, maybe even clunky ol' BTC.

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