[Chapter-delegates] Blockchain and Food Tracability

[Marcel Waldvogel]

Richard, Johan, all,
there are "permissioned blockchains", which is typically what companies
mean when they say "Blockchain". They are not based on the Bitcoin et
al. "proof of work" concept, but instead build the hash chain on a
simple consensus base among members bound by contracts. Waste of
electricity is replaced by real-world contracts. Effectively, this
boils down to some form of trust. Johan's explanation essentially shows
that if there is no trust, there is an enormous amount of complexity
involved.
If the goal is to save money by not only dealing with trustworthy
companies, then is the (direct and indirect) cost of all those
complexities not higher than just being more careful with whom you do
business?
Some pre-Blockchain "hash chain" technologies which can often be used
as a replacements for Blockchains include * PGP Digital Timestamping
service (est. 1995) http://www.itconsult.co.uk/stamper.htm
 * git (est. 2005) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git


On Mon, 2018-10-01 at 10:07 +0200, Richard Hill wrote:
> Please see below.
> Thanks and best,Richard
> -----Original Message-----From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:
> chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of John
> LevineSent: lundi, 1. octobre 2018 01:19To: 
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.orgSubject: Re: [Chapter-delegates]
> Blockchain and Food Tracability
> In article <
> CAEMuFPT6gOf-HyHBNmhYBuLwaiTn8JCyxrQrPcMF7-Bh8HrbaA at mail.gmail.com>
> you write:-=-=-=-=-=-
> SNIP Since blockchains are not cheap, 
> Good point. As I understand it, the computations required for a
> blockchainare significant, and there is a non-negligible cost (e.g.
> electricity). ForBitcoin and other e-currencies, the folks who do the
> computations arerewarded by getting Bitcoins (or other e-
> currencies).  So they arecompensated financially for the cost of the
> computations. But if theblockchain is not used for a currency, how do
> you compensate the people thatperform the computations? That is, who
> pays for all the computing and allthe electricity?
> 
> SNIP
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-- 
-Marcel
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