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Crypto & Blockchain

The most popular blog posts about crypto & blockchain on Hacker News. 850 posts.

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512

Bitcoin is Worse is Better

2011 essay on how Bitcoin’s long gestation and early opposition indicates it is an example of the ‘Worse is Better’ paradigm in which an ugly complex design with few attractive theoretical properties compared to purer competitors nevertheless successfully takes over a niche, survives, and becomes gradually refined.

514

Are blockchains decentralized?

A new Trail of Bits research report examines unintended centralities in distributed ledgers Blockchains can help push the boundaries of current technology in useful ways. However, to make good risk decisions involving exciting and innovative technologies, people need demonstrable facts that are arrived at through…

525

Helium

A major reason that cryptocurrencies have become such a problem is that mainstream journalists normally just regurgitate the hype they are f...

530

The China ICO Ban

Regulators in China imposed a blanket ban on ICOs over the long weekend. A number of people have reached out to me via email and Twitter asking me what I think about this. I think regulation of ICOs is inevitable and a good thing if done right (ie lightly). The SEC’s comments on ICOs back […]

535

Bitcoin as a Battery

One of my favorite things about crypto is that, every so often, your conception of what it is changes. Bitcoin at first was “weird internet money” and then it was “a protocol” and then it was “digital gold”. Ethereum is “ICOs”, or maybe “DeFi”, or maybe “Web3”, or maybe all three, or maybe something...

537

I Am Parting with My Crypto Library

The time has come for me to find a new home for my (paper) cryptography library. It’s about 150 linear feet of books, conference proceedings, journals, and monographs—mostly from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. My preference is that it goes to an educational institution, but will consider a corporate or personal home if…

540

MakerDAO gets stress tested as ETH price plummets

In the midst of extreme market-wide turmoil, MakerDAO is facing one of its biggest challenges to date. The main form of collateral in the system, Ether, has dropped over 30% in a 24-hour timeframe marking one of the worst days in its short history. This has triggered an unprecedented wave of liquidations as loans…