AWS and Blockchain (tbray.org)

Article summary

The article discusses the author's experience at AWS in 2016, where they were tasked with investigating the potential of blockchain technology. After researching and meeting with various stakeholders, the author and their team concluded that blockchain was not a strategic investment for AWS. The article also mentions the cancellation of the Australian Stock Exchange's blockchain-based trading system and the author's skepticism towards the technology. The author believes that blockchain is often a solution looking for a problem and that its potential uses are limited.

Main themes

• blockchain technology
• AWS and blockchain
• critique of blockchain
• potential use cases
• institutional trust
• database vs blockchain
• hype and reality check
• property rights and contract disputes

What commenters say

• Blockchain technology has been overhyped and has not delivered on its promises.
• The use of blockchain in certain industries, such as finance, may be more about marketing and less about actual utility.
• Some commenters believe that blockchain has the potential to provide a technological framework for building new institutions, but others argue that this is not a realistic goal.
• The use of blockchain for property rights and contract disputes may not be effective without buy-in from governments and institutions.
• Blockchain is essentially a database and does not have any inherent properties that make it useful for solving real-world problems.
• The potential benefits of blockchain, such as distributed consensus and zero-trust transactions, may be outweighed by its limitations and drawbacks.
• Some industries, such as darknet markets, may be using blockchain technology in innovative ways, but these use cases are not necessarily applicable to mainstream industries.
• The dust has settled on the blockchain hype, and it is now clear that the technology has not lived up to its promises.