Blockchains from the ground up: Part 1

http://johnmathews.eu/blockchain-introduction.html

by mthwsjc_ • 9 years ago

301 28 9 years ago

dostovskk• 9 years ago

The Minimum Viable Blockchain (https://www.igvita.com/2014/05/05/minimum-viable-block-chain...) is by far the best introduction to blockchain I have read.

jcfrei• 9 years ago

I always find this introduction (including a "live demonstration") by Anders Brownworth very illustrative: https://anders.com/blockchain/

AngelloPozo• 9 years ago

I keep forgetting this exists. The video is damn good at explaining how blockchain overall. I think the strongest bit, is showing how data manipulation is easily detectable.

jfaucett• 9 years ago

This is a great video/site. After watching this, it made me think how amazing the blockchain would be if our accounting and trading systems were built on top of it. As a programmer outside the financial services sector, it seems to me something like this has to be the future. But it would be really interesting to see what quants and others in the field think.

fergazen6• 9 years ago

Back in 2008 I invented an algorithm for tree structures where the definition of the hash of any node, was "the hash of hashes of all its immediate children". I had invented a way to do 'tree node comparisons' where any time two tree nodes on a tree had the same 'hash' i knew the content (recursively deep into the tree) of those nodes was identical. I never went forward on that algorithm, because i knew it meant each time a tree node was modified, the hash of all it's parents (i.e. path to root), had to be recalculate. But I had explained it to several developers who were all amazed by it. It now realize I had invented blockchain. I am pretty sure i'm not the first one to realize hashing actual hashes (in a recursive or chained way) is a powerful concept. I may add this to my current project SubNode (sbnode.com), and I could pivot that app into a blockchain technology!

fergazen6• 9 years ago

wow. That Anders video is definitely the best description/explanation of blockchain I've ever seen.

bernardlunn• 9 years ago

I found this very clear and accessible

rorykoehler• 9 years ago

This is fantastic. Great explainer for both tech and non-tech alike. Thanks for sharing.

jkbbwr• 9 years ago

One thing that bothers me about all blockchain demos or tutorials is that they work on the concept of tracking outputs of transactions rather than just maintaining state.

avenoir• 9 years ago

Here is a really great video [1] which really made blockchains click for me. I believe this was posted on HN a while back.

[1] https://anders.com/blockchain/

webwanderings2• 9 years ago

Is there a Blockchain email system? Wouldn't that be a solid evolution forward, in terms of human communication?

TylerE• 9 years ago

What point would serve other than increasing latency, and vastly increasing storage and network requirements?

PretzelPirate• 9 years ago

There is: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/68tyhn/lemonmail_...

It uses IPFS to store encrypted mail messages. Right now its free, but eventually, you will have to pay for the storage of emails.

runeks• 9 years ago

Wouldn't that be a solid evolution forward, in terms of human communication?

How so?

webwanderings2• 9 years ago

No spam, no solicitation, you know whose line (email) you're picking up, and whom you're dialing (sending).

Niksko• 9 years ago

I've found this a really clear and helpful explanation of blockchain concepts in the past: http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-a...

benchaney2• 9 years ago

This article has a few issues.

First, you spend the first half of the article explaining a signature scheme that isn't based on cryptography. It isn't really clear what that part of the article is actually about.

"Signed by John" <- John encrypts this line using his private key

This isn't how message signing works. It has all the problems you described in the first part, before you introduced asymmetric encryption.

mthwsjc_• 9 years ago

Thanks, I corrected the post.

Blockchains from the ground up: Part 1

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