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Blockchain, perfect for ballot count and integrity thereof.

Yea, it’s useful for when you don’t trust someone to not edit history. These days I’ve seen it as a vaccination record.

I can achieve “don’t edit history” with a Merkel Tree; It’s what powers Git. Git also doesn’t consume the power requirements of a large developing nation.

Git also allows you to push --force if so you wish, something that would require a 51% attack if you were to do it in a blockchain-based ledger.

I really don't think blockchains are a panacea and in many cases they're a solution looking for a problem, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily useless.

EDIT: Also as a sibling parent said, it's just proof of work what gets the bad rap about power consumption, and there's nothing inherently costly in blockchains themselves.

sibling comment*

I grumble at the time limit on edits for HN comments sometimes, even if I do understand why it's there.

Blockchain does not consume a lot of power, it’s just blocks that contain the hash of the previous block.

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