Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Vast Potential for Blockchain in Libraries

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

There is no such potential, writes Eric Hellman. " All the good attributes ascribed to magical 'blockchain technology' are available in 'git', a program used by software developers for distributed version control," he explains. "The folks at GitHub realized that many problems would benefit from some workflow tools layered on top of the git, and they're now being acquired for several billion dollars by Microsoft, which is run by folks who know a lot about that digital crypto stuff." The details are complex, but yes, he's right, to a point: "if you have a problem where you need to reach consensus (or disagreement) about information by the usual (imperfect) ways of humans, git repos are possibly the Merkle trees you need."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 08:16 a.m.

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