• southerntofu
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    3 years ago

    Ostensibly, git stores commits in a blockchain

    Not exactly. Yes the data structure is similar (directed acyclic graph), yet Bitcoin deals with the issue of building a centralized/global consensus, which git couldn’t care less about. git is actually decentralized and you can reference multiple sources of truth (remotes) which Bitcoin can’t handle and that’s why so much resources are burnt building consensus.

    Cryptocurrencies just combine these technologies to make a currency.

    I don’t think we need a blockchain to make a cryptocurrency. GNU/Taler seems like the best and most innovative approach to cryptocurrency i’ve seen so far (and certainly one of the very few that doesn’t look like a scam) and is not based on blockchain but rather doesn’t try to build a global consensus at all (unless i’ve misunderstood it).

    • overflow
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      3 years ago

      I don’t think we need a blockchain to make a cryptocurrency. GNU/Taler seems like the best and most innovative approach to cryptocurrency i’ve seen so far (and certainly one of the very few that doesn’t look like a scam) and is not based on blockchain but rather doesn’t try to build a global consensus at all (unless i’ve misunderstood it).

      GNU/Taler is NOT a currency it’s just a way to use existing currencies whether fiat/cryptocurrency to make payments anonymously. Cryptocurrency refers to any digital currency that uses a blockchain/other distributed ledger technology to record transactions and issue new units, and that uses cryptography to prevent invalid transactions

      • pinknoise
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        3 years ago

        it’s just a way to use existing currencies whether fiat/cryptocurrency to make payments anonymously.

        Thats not true either, you don’t have to bind talers to another currency. They are just tokens that can represent whatever value you want. You can issue some at random and let the users figure out the value, just like with your cryptocurrencies.

      • southerntofu
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        3 years ago

        I agree with your interpretation, but from my perspective GNU/Taler is all i expect from a cryptocurrency: enable me to make low-cost/high-privacy digital payments. A promise which BTC/ETH/others are 100% incapable to hold (at least so far, and in the foreseeable future).

        • overflow
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          3 years ago

          none of those are intended for private transactions.Monero is a coin that exists for the purpose you want

    • Thann
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      3 years ago

      Yeah, git is more of a block tree, but the commits have a commitment to the previous commit, so there is still an underlying chain!

      It’s true there is no consensus feature, though, I would argue that it’s a component of a cryptocurrency, instead of a Blockchain, but it’s all semantics. I could even argue that signing commits, can create a global consensus.

      “Bitcoin cash” and the other Bitcoin-derivative-forks are basically “remote heads” for Bitcoin.

      Idk exactly about GNU/Taler, but I concede that Blockchains are not essential for cryptocurrencies, or even decentralization, but it’s just that they’re common features