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Comment by fzaninotto | Hacker News Reader

I wrote a three-part study on the Blockchain phenomenon a year ago, based on real experience with Ethereum. It's intended for web developers. It ends with an unusual conclusion.

- https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/04/28/blockchain-for-web-deve...

- https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/05/20/blockchain-for-web-deve...

- https://marmelab.com/blog/2016/06/14/blockchain-for-web-deve...

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> you must use an assembly-like language, which isn’t even Turing-complete. Yikes.

And then you go on to talk about how the contracts written in 'Turing Complete' languages are gagged and can't call APIs.

So why "Yikes"? Using turing complete DSLs for contracts is both unnecessary and problematic.

such a good study, thank you for taking the time to write it, do you know any major updates to the writings on things that changed in the last year?

Just read that whole series. I appreciate the time and effort you into writing that up. I feel like most of your complaints were valid and boiled down to, "Etherium is too new" and "as a honest person, I get no benefit to using it".

Block chain is set up to be no trust so unless you're working with people who you can't trust, you shouldn't use it. The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government, which is certainly a smell that you may be a criminal. These benefits aren't for people who are honest.

> The other main reason is that you want to avoid banks and government, which is certainly a smell that you may be a criminal. These benefits aren't for people who are honest.

It is saddening that this argument is used even on HN. That's equivalent to the old "You don't need privacy if you got nothing to hide". Examples as in Cyprus [1] prove that you should always be careful when trusting banks or any centralized system. Your line of argument is very common among representatives of banks, governments or people who are simply uneducated on the subject. Or a combination thereof.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-amid-fears-of-greek-control...

It's not at all like "you don't need privacy if you've got nothing to hide."

It's more like "don't install that library, we can just write a 10 line function." Someone who doesn't want to avoid the law is not going to get any of the benefits of using a cryptocurrency. It's a solution where the main use case is enabling people to make currency transactions outside the jurisdiction of banks.

I think there are some good use cases for it, like if a currency is unreliable due to corrupt government or inflation. However, the people who get the most use out of it is certainly ransom ware coders, people who distribute illicit goods like drugs and child pornography and finally libertarians that want to make themselves sound clever at a party.

Do you own a business? Or..have you? Are you familiar with the advantages for legal and ethical businesses from blockchain?

No I am not familiar with any advantages from using cryptocurrency as a business. I only know that you can avoid PayPal fees by using Bitcoin, but this also means that the customer has no protection of you don't deliver the product.

there are many many benefits to blockchains and cryptocurrencies that aren't covered by things being illegal.

For one, when I try to transfer money between banks it takes like a week. When I transfer ether it takes 15 seconds. If you'd like, I'm happy to provide a longer list of more examples, but illegal activities are far from the only reason to use cryptocurrency.

let's think deeper. trustless processes can be hugely beneficial. ever buy a domain name on aftermarket? you either have to trust the seller or a counterparty/escrow service. ENS is live today and a deed can be sold under smart contract.

also see numerai's pure business model for incentivizing an entire organization.

or defeat tyrannical censorship by proving knowledge/hashing content with a timestamp. no more re-writing history.

HN I am disappoint.

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