rohamg

i posted below about big pharma using blockchain to share private data as an example, as another: most of the gamers / digital art enthusiasts are newcomers to the "blockchain field" and only in it bc of the value they derive from the scarcity / durability and therefore tradability of these items

i would argue what blockchain has given us today with permissionless open finance, decentralized organizations / voting, NFTs / digital art, etc. is plenty of early indications of value. also the fact that the token business model exists is precisely the reason there's less of a traditional "ARR" mindset in the tools and apps.

the criticism isn't entirely invalid: the blockchain space has a lot of proving to do – there's a lot more work ahead than behind

That said there are many examples of blockchain being useful in smaller settings, e.g.:

> "Last June, 10 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies – including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline – announced they would pool data for an AI-based search for new antibiotics, which are urgently needed as antibiotic-resistant bacteria have proliferated across the world, threatening the growth of untreatable disease. > That historic agreement was made possible by the development of a secure, blockchain-based system that allows an algorithm to search rival companies’ data with full traceability – but without revealing commercial secrets to competitors. The advantage of using blockchain is that companies can trust the code rather than their partners." [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/02/corona...

Asking "what is blockchain good for other than cryptocurrencies" is like asking "what is internet good for other than websites" pre-broadband

Blockchain TODAY is the backbone for a $200B financial system that lets you store or transfer billions of dollars worth of value within minutes for cents in transaction fees, completely peer-to-peer with no middle men

Scalable blockchains will generalize this same benefit to let developers add crypto into any kind of application (just like we had web-apps, we'll have crypto-apps):

– Instant global p2p payments

– Completely transparent, efficient marketplaces / clearinghouses with no switching costs

– Ability for users to own their own data and assets, removing liability for platform operators but also eliminating lock-in

– Open source, open state, serverless code that runs directly on-chain and thus can be built on with no platform risk (google "blockchain composability")

– Software that can be governed / controlled by the users that have stake in it

Hey Hackernews! We are excited to show you Flow Playground, the first time anyone can write smart contracts in Cadence, our new programming language

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Smart contracts are uniquely suited to managing ownership of valuable assets, but most programming languages – even those designed specifically for smart contracts – don’t have any native abstractions for managing ownership, until Resources.

Resources have 3 rules:

1. Each Resource exists in exactly one place: no duplication, double-spend, or accidental deletion

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3. Access to methods on a Resource is limited to the owner

Check it out and let us know what you think

however you feel about the flamethrowers, you have to give the guy credit: when he started banging the drums of a predominantly electric future for cars he was cast as clueless, now it is all but inevitable

i've worked with Tyler and Entrepid across multiple of our portfolio companies at Axiom Zen and been super impressed every time

ZenHub wouldnt be where it is today without Tyler (we have dozens of Fortune 500 companies as customers)

Tyler is a close friend so at this point i am biased, but Entrepid has built a team of humble, holistic thinkers with deep expertise in sales and high-touch growth strategy

Axiom Zen | Vancouver, B.C. Canada & US Remote | Relocation available

Axiom Zen is a venture studio specialized in applying emerging technologies (AI, blockchain, and some AR) to unsolved business problems.

We are looking for new team members across a variety of verticals, but especially strong developers and technical PMs with a demonstrated aptitude for understanding the underpinnings and impact of decentralized tech.

If that's you, shoot me an email and I'll connect you with the right folks: r@axiomzen.co

Axiom Zen is the team behind CryptoKitties, the first game on the blockchain; ZenHub, the leading collaboration solution for technical teams; and Toby, the top-rated tab management solution picked as top Chrome Extension of the Year by Google and Product Hunt. Products developed by Axiom Zen have touched 200+ million consumers and are used by the world’s leading companies. We have a team of ~80 creatives including published authors, over a dozen former founders, diversity from 33 national origins, and experience at both startups and Fortune 500s.

Hard drives are famously prone to failure: I understand that filecoin and storj pay 'miners' to store files, but what happens in case of failure? It doesn't seem that there are any penalties for losing files (other than losing out on the expected income) – this does not seem very resilient.

This article is out of date.. Regardless, I love reading business press writing about the blockchain: the key takeaway for me is that the tech has a ways to go before many of these concepts are ready to be implemented at scale.

Making identity and personal information "self-sovereign" is necessary and a big area of focus for us. Would love to collaborate with others looking into this on the blockchain.

this. do not complicate your cap table early with so little capital raised, think long-term. raise the 150K from value-add angels, emphasize "making the pie bigger" to existing investors. Startups and startup investing is unusually binary in outcome: you should focus on increasing your odds of success rather than maximizing value in case of success.

Not until it was almost too late.

Consumption taxes are regressive and disproportionately hit the poor (who spend all their money) much more than the rich (who save most of it).

I think the commenter's point is that with technology, routes can easily be shared, even commented/collaborated on. Think of it as a more flexible form of public transit rather than Lyft Line / Uber Pool.

Take a look at ZenHub [1] - it lets you stay inside GitHub, but adds much more full-featured project management capabilities including multi-repo boards and advanced reporting features like estimates, issue hierarchy (epics), personal to-dos, burndown and velocity charts, etc.

[1] https://www.zenhub.com

this. indeed from my understanding the USPTO has wizened up and is no longer issuing software patents as freely as before.

We would love your thoughts on ZenHub.io [1] - fully integrated issue tracking, +1, estimates, burndown charts, kanban boards, even a personal todo list - a lot of the features asked for here, right within the GitHub interface and presented a lot more cleanly than competing products.

Disclosure: I work on ZenHub :)

[1] https://www.zenhub.io

I only use a few:

- ZenHub (https://zenhub.io) – personal productivity and team collaboration / PM tool built into GitHub. Disclosure: my company is the major investor in ZenHub;

- Pocket (https://getpocket.com) - bookmarking tool;

- Bugherd (https://bugherd.com) - because I was helping point out issues on a friend's website yesterday;

- Terrorists to Coward (https://www.producthunt.com/tech/terrorists-to-cowards) - quick hackathon project two of my team members did;

- Google Docs/Sheets/Slides and Docs offline;

- Wandertab (http://www.hitlistapp.com/wandertab/) - shows you a flight deal every time you open a new tab!

And ZenHub: https://zenhub.io/ :D

I agree with you, but is this specific to only home automation? Shouldn't the same paranoia / concern (depending on who you're talking to) apply to critical company data (documents, source code, etc.) as well as personal health information (biometrics, etc.)?

> Your [sic] shocked to find out that the pay is literally half in Vancouver.

I think this is changing. There are great new companies to work for in Vancouver who depend on access to top-tier talent and are willing to pay for it.

We [1] have hired several folks from SF and most of our alums tend to head straight to the Valley, so it's clear that we're competing on the global stage for talent. This by nature means average compensation that must be competitive. Others must be seeing this too.

[1] Axiom Zen: https://axiomzen.co

The thought process with export controls is that bad actors may be able to discover vulnerabilities more easily by having unrestricted access to defensive technologies.

Or open-source teams can promote the use of ZenHub [1] and adopt the +1 feature just like thousands of non-open source devs have done within their own companies every day.

[1] https://www.zenhub.io

Disclosure: I work with the team that built ZenHub, please forgive my shameless plug :) figured the discussion went off on a tangent anyway, might as well resolve the side issue so we can return to the matter at hand!

Wow. Thank you so much for the positive outpour of support, we are near the point of tears of joy with today's launch!

I'd like to take a minute and get back to all your questions and comments:

* Bugs and glitches: please keep the feedback coming! This is a version 1.0 product, so we're standing ready to fix issues ASAP as they come up.

* Technology choice: the iOS app is entirely native, written in Swift. The API is written in GO, and the web app is Angular.JS. Very shiny new tech all-around!

* Native vs. Web: We have a native iOS app on the AppStore right now, all other platforms can access full functionality via our web app http://m.timeline.com

* Maps and geographical exploration: Can't say much except "coming soon". If you have an interest, experience, or actual technology in this area we'd love to work with you.

* Contributing: We'd love to hear from you, and we'd love your help. Shoot us an email: beta@timeline.com

There are lots of tiny companies (2-20 people) that can "wing it", but it's difficult to make decentralized or distributed decision-making work at scale.

We're a slightly larger team (almost 50 peeps) at Axiom Zen (https://axiomzen.co). Our entire raison d'etre is predicated on coming up with interesting, high-risk ideas and carrying them through the various stages of market validation, prototyping, iteration, and growth. Because of this, we are working really hard to become and remain the best place for brilliant people to build awesome things.

We try to clearly define our values (just like Valve/GitHub), build them into our products, and use them as a heavy filter for hiring. We also go out of our way to ensure total transparency in the team, using GitHub for everything from sales to hiring so that everyone can see the stage everything is at, decisions leading up to a particular status quo, etc. Also everyone has an equal voice in jumping in to suggest / push forward changes.

For a bit on our workflow, take a look at this blog post: https://www.zenhub.io/blog/beyond-code-use-github-zenhub-for...

We'll eventually polish up and publish our company handbook which dives into the `how` and `why` much more thoroughly than I ever could here.

What are your reasons?

You're 100% correct. Blossom/trello/jira etc all suffer from the same data replication problem, though blossom is a pretty product. It was among the products we tried to use before deciding to build ZenHub in the first place! Huboard and Waffle assuage this somewhat, but they still require your team to jump around between different tools, causing workflow fragmentation. ZenHub is the only product that avoids both flaws.

Keep in mind that almost everything in ZenHub is built directly on core GitHub features which are not going anywhere (Issues, Pull Requests, etc) - the files are hosted on S3.

That said, Trello sync is an interesting idea. Taking a look at Trello integration is somewhere on our list, mostly to set up a Trello-to-ZenHub importer but sync would be a nice side-effect. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks very much for the note. I see where you're coming from, but keep in mind our pricing drops to $3.75/user at higher volumes - quite affordable compared to the products we replace.

Please do take ZenHub.io for a spin and, if you love it, shoot me an email: r[at]ze.nr - we can talk about your team's needs and find a win/win.