>A blockchain isn’t a distributed ledger. A blockchain IS a chain of linked documents
You are interpreting "blockchain" to be constrained to a "chain of hashes". That is a valid interpretation.
The parent (Uptrenda) is interpreting "blockchain" as a umbrella label for "distributed ledger". This wider definition is also a valid interpretation and this language phenomenon is called "synecdoche"[1].
To point back to the actual article, the author (Gerald Nash) is using "blockchain" in both meanings. On the one hand, he talks about the wider scope of distributed currency... but on the other hand, his Python example is constrained to a "chain of hashes". Since Mr Nash is mentioning the Satoshi bitcoin whitepaper when talking about "blockchain" (the wider meaning), Uptrenda's criticism is reasonable because the most interesting part of distributed-blockchain is the invention of incentives (mining rewards) and social agreement on acceptable hashes (e.g. how many 0000s are counted, which chain is chosen, etc).
As other distributed projects such as IPFS/Diaspora/Sandstorm/etc show, finding the right combination of incentives to create social buy-in and sustainability is the hard part. The hashes is the easy part.
That argument is not exactly valid, because the concept of a block chain has been described a long time before it was used in "virtual currencies." [1]
"Block chains" in modern times are very helpful in handling transactions in databases by replacing things like CAS-Numbers [2] with hashes. The hash of the previous block effectively becomes the CAS-Number, with the feature of staying persistent and verifiable.
CAS example: IF X_version IS 200 SET X=2
BC example: IF hash(X) IS 200 ADD document Y WITH Y_parent = hash(X)
That is, while the article does in fact also mentions Bitcoin, I don't see a point in discrediting the article, the code or the author in any way. Personally, I find it far more valuable for engineers to understand the underlying, fundamental concepts of things before going all-in. Sure, he could have discussed all these things, but for people who are new to the topic, that would not have been very helpful in understanding the concept of a block chain.
>, because the concept of a block chain has been described a long time before
Citing historical usage and original meanings is not relevant as to why people use synecdoche.
The point is that in today's discourse, the term "blockchain" has already expanded beyond the original literal technically constrained meaning of "chain of hashes". Even if _you_ want to keep the original meaning of "blockchain", you still have to recognize when _others_ are using synecdoche.
To interpret those articles correctly, you have to mentally substitute "blockchain" with "distributed ledger". If you substitute with "chain of hashes", the articles make no sense.
Synecdoche throws original historical usage out the window.
>, but for people who are new to the topic, that would not have been very helpful in understanding the concept of a block chain.
There are many web articles that create a "toy" blockchain by showing _hashes_. The problem is that the abundance of such articles actually hides the real ingenuity of the Satoshi/bitcoin.
Again, the hard part is combining multiple technologies in clever ways that can synchronize the psychology of anonymous people -- aka "decentralized trust". The hashing is the least interesting component of all that. However, since the "hashes" are the most "accessible" part of it (especially to programmers), that's what everybody ends up writing about! This has the unintended side effect if hiding the more groundbreaking ideas (the psychology) of distributed ledgers.
The psychology aspect is a part that's the most impressive. You have incentives -- everybody likes money -- and proof-of-work -- consensus that solves the byzantine generals problem. But if you combine them all to produce a new trustless kind of money then this innovation itself serves like a socially scaleless memetic payload.
It's like what Nick Szabo talks about in his social scalability article. That the design of Bitcoin offers high social scalability, allowing anyone to participate in the system across cultures, languages, customs, and laws. It kind of ties everything together under a single model.
I also agree with you about the "Synecdoche" thing, too. It seems like we're arguing about the same thing. As you say, you can interpret "blockchain" as the chain of blocks that is outputted from the consensus system or as the whole system itself. But I guess in the context of this article it was confusing whether this poster was having a genuine misunderstanding or was just talking about a part of the system.
> That argument is not exactly valid, because the concept of a block chain has been described a long time before it was used in "virtual currencies."
The idea of a "block chain" had a name back then and it still has a name now. No software developer would confuse a hash list with the underpinnings of a virtual currency unless:
A) You're writing a title for an article and want more clicks
B) You're a banking institution that wants to seem "hip"
C) You're working on a centralized database but really need funding so you throw in the word "blockchain"
D) You're a reporter and you have no clue what you're talking about
Show me anyone referring to a "block chain" in a non virtual currency context that doesn't fall into the above categories and I'll reconsider.
I see what you mean. It's amazing how people on Hacker News always know the exact word for a concept no matter how obscure. I learn more from the comments here than I do from the articles.
You are interpreting "blockchain" to be constrained to a "chain of hashes". That is a valid interpretation.
The parent (Uptrenda) is interpreting "blockchain" as a umbrella label for "distributed ledger". This wider definition is also a valid interpretation and this language phenomenon is called "synecdoche"[1].
To point back to the actual article, the author (Gerald Nash) is using "blockchain" in both meanings. On the one hand, he talks about the wider scope of distributed currency... but on the other hand, his Python example is constrained to a "chain of hashes". Since Mr Nash is mentioning the Satoshi bitcoin whitepaper when talking about "blockchain" (the wider meaning), Uptrenda's criticism is reasonable because the most interesting part of distributed-blockchain is the invention of incentives (mining rewards) and social agreement on acceptable hashes (e.g. how many 0000s are counted, which chain is chosen, etc).
As other distributed projects such as IPFS/Diaspora/Sandstorm/etc show, finding the right combination of incentives to create social buy-in and sustainability is the hard part. The hashes is the easy part.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche