Programmers humour

Legit question, what the fuck even is blockchain?

What's an events log

@lxmcf a literal chain of blocks of data. Typically a singly-linked list, with each block pointing to a hash of the previous block in its header. For application examples, look at git's commit tree or cryptocurrencies

@endor wait, that's ALL??

A computer science first year ADT got to be such a buzzword?? 'scuse me, im gonna invent CrownLink based on tree adt just so i can fancy myself in the shower while others demand programmers to have an expertise in it and integrate it inside of each piece of software

@KennyTheBard techniacally yes. The buzzword is important because it implys some other buzzwords. A block chain is "an immutable decentralized singly-linked list." The most important thing to note is that each block contains a hash of the previous block. So changing any block, changes it's hash, which changes the next blocks hash, which changes... Cascading. So it's supposed to be immutable.

@KennyTheBard pretty much, yeah. As @deadPix3l points out, there are a few other concepts (such as decentralization) associated/implied with it, hence all the hype.

A blockchain by itself is nothing special - but its application in cryptocurrencies (in a network of equal, untrusted peers who validate public data, miners who write new blocks, with cryptography and economy sprinkled on top) was quite novel when Bitcoin first came out.

Bitcoin's rise to fame definitely helped pushing these buzzwords into the mainstream talk.

@endor is that it?

How the hell is that a trigger word now, sounds kinda useless tbh

@lxmcf well when it first showed up in Bitcoin, it did something really neat: it was immutable, but in a new way. It didn't rely on OS level access controls, or signing using private keys, or other conventional techniques which have problems. You could change it. All you have to do is change the block, then recalculate that blocks hash. And change every block after it. Also the hashes have restrictions so you have to work hard to find one. Also you have to convince 51% of the network that your changes are valid. (Which is a serious issue that's discussed in Bitcoin, but it's still very secure).

It's all about decentralizing, but not allowing anyone to lie.

It's pretty neat but block chain is definitely over used. It has a few niche uses, but people put it in everything just to say they did.

@deadPix3l to me blockchain just seems like an overly complicated fingerprinting alternative...

@lxmcf as far as public, shared databases that can be written to by anyone, but must respect certain rules and must be tamper-proof go, it is quite a brilliant solution. Of course, 99% of applications do not need this specific combination of properties - but if you do, it's a very good system.
Mind you: the idea is simple, but the devil is in the implementation. Making costly mistakes is very easy

@lxmcf you're not wrong. It is overly complicated and not very useful for most things. And most people who say "includes blockchains" really mean " we use 'blockchain' in our back end. On our centralized servers. But without the hashing and proof of work. So yea it's really just a linked list!"

But under extremely special circumstances (like bitcoin, the reason it was created) it can be really special.