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Breeding digital cats might help you figure out Ethereum
[By MIT Technology Review]
Bitcoin’s younger cousin has its own programming language that people can use to write so-called smart contracts, applications that run on processing power provided by computers on the network.
Confused?
A new game that lets you use Ethereum smart contracts to breed digital cats might help.
Conclusion
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Filed under: Information Technology, Investing | Tagged: Bitcoin, Ethereum Smart Contracts |
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The reason Ethereum exists
In the beginning, there was Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has for many become synonymous with the idea of digital money, rising to a market capitalization of nearly $100 billion. But the second most valuable currency, Ether, may be far more interesting than its headline-grabbing older sibling. To understand why it’s so popular, it helps to understand why the software that runs it, called Ethereum, exists in the first place.
On Halloween in 2008, someone or some group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper describing a system that would rely on a “decentralized” network of computers to facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of value (bitcoins). Those computers would verify and record every transaction in a shared, encrypted accounting ledger. Nakamoto called this ledger a “blockchain,” because it’s composed of groups of transactions called “blocks,” each one cryptographically linked to the one preceding it.
Bitcoin eventually took off, and soon people latched onto the idea that its blockchain could be used to do other things, from tracking medical data to executing complex financial transactions. But its design, intended specifically for a currency, limited the range of applications it could support, and Bitcoin aficionados started brainstorming new approaches. It was from this primordial soup that Ethereum emerged.
In a 2013 whitepaper, then 19-year old Vitalik Buterin laid out his plan for a blockchain system that could also facilitate all sorts of “decentralized applications.” Buterin achieved this in large part by baking a programming language into Ethereum so that people can customize it to their purposes. The basis of these new apps are so-called smart contracts—computer programs that execute transactions, usually involving the transfer of currency, according to stipulations agreed upon by the individuals transacting.
Imagine, for example, that you want to send your friend some cryptocurrency automatically, at a specific time. There’s a smart contract for that. More complex smart contracts even allow for the creation of entirely new cryptocurrencies. That feature is at the heart of most initial coin offerings.
The processing power needed to run the smart contracts comes from the computers in an open, distributed network. Those computers also verify and record transactions in the blockchain. Ether tokens, which are currently worth about $300 a piece, are the reward for these contributions.
And so, whereas Bitcoin is the first shared global accounting ledger, Ethereum is supposed to be the first shared global computer. The technology is nascent, and there are plenty of kinks to iron out, but that’s what all the fuss is about.
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=bf2e0377b5-chain_letter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-bf2e0377b5-154253973
Ann Miller RN MHA via MIT Technology News
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Bitcoin
Smart contracts are great. Finally we can build truly trustless apps.
Lawlez
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Vitalik’s vision
Ethereum developers from around the world descended on Cancun last week for Devcon, the flagship annual conference for Bitcoin’s younger cousin.
The goal of Ethereum’s creator, 23-year-old Vitalik Buterin, is to create a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency that also functions as shared global computer. Ethereum faces similar challenges to Bitcoin, however, particularly with respect to how it will adjust to handle fast-growing transaction volumes. But Buterin has a plan.
At Devcon, Buterin offered a potential solution to the scaling issue, which he called “probably problem number one.” The approach, called “sharding,” is inspired by traditional databases, and it amounts to partitioning the network’s data and having its individual members each store only a chunk of it. Buterin said this would allow innovation to occur faster because different “shards” of the network could be used to test new concepts without disrupting the whole network.
Makes sense. Problem is, it’s not clear yet how to pull it off.
Caspar
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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Says
Crypto Growth Nears “Ceiling”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/crypto-growth-nears-ceiling-ethereum-co-founder-buterin-says/ar-BBN1SHZ?li=BBnbfcN
Victor
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More On Ethereum
Ethereum is delaying a crucial upgrade to its monetary system. After finding bugs in the code they were testing, Ethereum’s core developers have decided to postpone the network’s scheduled hard fork, which was supposed to happen next month, until 2019. The delay of the software upgrade, called Constantinople, will give the group more time to stew over the most controversial aspects of the changes.
The contentious proposal is related to something called the “difficulty bomb,” a piece of Ethereum’s code that steadily increases the difficulty of mining new blocks. The bomb was originally conceived as part of a larger plan to transition the Ethereum network from the energy intensive process it uses to agree on its ledger, called proof-of-work, to a more energy-efficient one called proof-of-stake. It’s supposed to deter miners from continuing to mine the old chain once the network switches.
But developing a proof-of-stake system is taking longer than expected, so the difficulty bomb must be delayed. And since that will make mining easier, Ethereum’s core developers have decided they must reduce the reward to counterbalance this effect. How to do this is a matter of some dispute. Unlike Bitcoin, which has a capped supply, Ethereum’s currency is uncapped and has no formal monetary policy. There are a range of opinions in the community about how to best adjust the issuance rate to account for delaying the bomb. Ultimately, the core developers had landed on changing the block reward from three ether to two, but now the upgrade is delayed until at least January. Decentralized decision-making is hard.
MIT Technology Review
via Ann Miller RN MHA
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De-Centralization is Difficult
Ethereum was meant to get a major revamp this week.
The software upgrade, which was scheduled to begin on January 16 and take a few days to complete, was supposed to introduce five new features designed to improve the blockchain network’s performanceand set the stage for additional future upgrades.
But, after third-party researchers realized one of the changes would make the network more vulnerable to hackers, the so-called “hard fork” had to be postponed at the last minute.
The decision to postpone by Ethereum’s developers was not just merely an inconvenience for those who want it to evolve and eventually become a blockchain-based alternative to the web. It once again highlighted how Ethereum may need to sacrifice some of itsbeloved “decentralization” if it is ever to achieve its ambitious mission.
Andy
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