Hello,

I have been researching about blockchains and stuff and it all seems like a big scam. It’s not sustainable and can be replaced by a simple database.

is there any legitimate use cases of blockchains or it is all just a big scam?

  • tty5@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Anything that requires a public, immutable database. Land registry would be one example. Notary public for electronic documents would be another.

    You can leverage the majority consensus to create a trusted software build system. Each block would be a package build

    • turmacar@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      If you have to have someone enforce the land registry or the documents, what is the benefit of the database being zero trust?

    • garth@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      land registry

      Yes! No more need for title insurance if ownership records are clear and public.

      • tty5@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They already are in most countries. E.g. in Poland land registry is maintained by court system and any changes are made only as a result of court order or a filing made by a notary public, who has a real incentive to check all the documents, because they are on the hook financially for any false filings.

          • tty5@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            Updates lag 4-6 months after filing, so not 100% solved.

            also you can only guarantee the records have not been tampered with if you maintain a full copy of the records to compare. Even if you do have that full copy you will have a problem proving your copy is the correct one. A full crypto-verified ledger solves that.

            If you empower e.g. every change filer (court, notary public) to run a node fudging records becomes effectively impossible.

            • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              21 hours ago

              Usually, lag like that is due to an ancient codebase, database, and process setup. If you were to solve that, you still wouldn’t need blockchain. The software and process engineering does need careful consideration–almost all the stuff like this has had at least one major attempt to replace it over the decades, and it obviously failed–but again, nothing you would be able to solve just because blockchain.

      • moody@lemmings.world
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        1 day ago

        But them the government can’t unilaterally take your property from you for a pittance under eminent domain. Who wants a system like that?

        • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 day ago

          Yes they could? Just append a block with the government stating they now own the land.

          I guess you could fork the blockchain and don’t accept this change but this would be useless. Even if no one accepted the claim, the government can just do whatever they want with that land.

        • tty5@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          You can only guarantee the records have not been tampered with if you maintain a full copy of the records to compare. Even if you do have that full copy you will have a problem proving your copy is the correct one. A full crypto-verified ledger solves that.

          If you empower e.g. every change filer (court, notary public) to run a node fudging records becomes effectively impossible.