Ask HN: What use cases motivated you to work in crypto?

3 points·cloudking··6 comments

Are there any good real world use cases for crypto? Lately it appears to be clouded by speculative schemes, and I would like to understand what the use cases are that motivated you to work in the crypto space.

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My work started in 2013 coming up with an instantly verifiable memory hard proof of work after realizing how another proposal failed to achieve that [1].

Much later I helped architect a blockchain that aims for maximum simplicity and a pure linear emission. The use case is decentralized currency without the unnecessary complexity, bloat, grifting and speculation.

[1] https://github.com/tromp/cuckoo

Most of what passes for crypto isn't. The hard problem is not providing an encrypted channel, it's doing the rest, particularly key exchange. When you can construct an encrypted channel, then you need to look at maintaining the end points secure and ensuring the local data is appropriately secured and encrypted. Then, .... Crypto provides a few tools, but secure systems require careful design, analysis, and knowledge and a fascile command of some arcane mathematics.

Separation of money and state.

I'd rather have my money controlled by math than popularity and power.

"good real world use cases?" Srsly?

¶ I believe Applied Cryptography can be accessed for free if you can't afford it.

I love cutting edge stuff. Potential is its own use case.

Lately?

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