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Comment by waoush | Hacker News Reader

(note: I didn't downvote, but have been working with blockchain and thought I would answer since you haven't gotten any yet)

https://www.hyperledger.org/learn/case-studies

Hyperledger is a set of open-source distributed ledger related technologies, the most well-known being Fabric, which is a framework for creating blockchain networks.

The most interesting cases are S&P Global and Walmart, who use it to keep track of data for various auditing purposes. The idea is that since data on a blockchain can't be modified on a whim without that change being observed, it protects the integrity of the data being stored. Basically it is being treated as a sort of database.

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I've seen those and I wouldn't describe them as "blockchains" in the same sense that cryptocurrencies use it. The word seems to only be used for marketing purposes. Those are just an ordinary ledger with some sharding/mirroring.

Blockchain itself just refers to a linked list (the chain) of cryptographically hashed items such as a timestamp and the data it is time-stamping (the block), which is based on previous elements in the chain. This is also how how it is also described in the original Bitcoin paper.

Blockchain doesn't rely on crypto, crypto was implemented using blockchain. Blockchain was invented long before crypto in the early 90s at Bellcore. Crypto may emphasize transactions and combating double-spending (due to nodes being on a public network), but no one is held to crypto's use of blockchain to be blockchain. The Bitcoin paper cites both the original Bellcore paper and its follow-up discussing the use of Merkle Trees, and the Bellcore paper cites patent documents as a potential use-case. So I think what S&P Global and Walmart are doing are valid use of the technology.

Now whether or not cryptocurrency itself or the networks they run on have value is a different story. For what it's worth, one of the use-cases for Corda that I found basically advertised itself as "we are better than transacting with paper" lol.

> The idea is that since data on a blockchain can't be modified on a whim without that change being observed, it protects the integrity of the data being stored.

Audit logs are not a new thing. Immutable data stores are not a new thing. This can be done in any number ways, each of them more efficient.

Moreover, it doesn't help with data entry. Yes, data cannot be modified. And still someone orders bananas and ends up with mouldy tomatoes.

> S&P Global and Walmart, who use it

I very much doubt they use it. All these "use cases" fall apart within a year or two after initial starry-eyed announcements

> Basically it is being treated as a sort of database.

Indeed. Treated like a database. When people treat Kafka as a database, those people are derided and there are entire articles on why you shouldn't treat a read-only append-only log as a database. But sure. Once it's blockchain, it's amazing and the bee's knees.

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