from Hacker News

Ask HN: What would be an alternative to blockchain and crypto?

by lildata on 5/10/20, 12:37 PM with 4 comments

I feel both very enthusiastic & skeptical about blockchain. In the last decade it has been designated by many as the way forward, some form of transactional, Internet of value & next step in business integration. What scares me the most is no big alternative seems to have emerged in this area to compete with blockchain? I hope I am missing something, any idea?
  • by fastneutron on 5/10/20, 1:58 PM

    You might be interested in raking a look at Holochain:

    https://holochain.org/

    I'm by no means an expert in the technology, but it's one attempt at a blockchain alternative that I'm aware of, albeit with different philosophies regarding global consensus.

  • by s1t5 on 5/10/20, 4:50 PM

    Isn't each of the hundreds of cryptocurrencies an alternative? Many of them have wildly varying implementations - different designs, levels of security, speed of transaction, transaction number limits, no blockchain at all, proof-of-stake vs proof of work etc.
  • by gregjor on 5/10/20, 4:45 PM

    Blockchain solutions are touted as improvements and replacements for solutions that already exist. It's not that blockchain solves problems previously not solvable.

    Read Attack of the 50-Foot Blockchain for some perspective.

  • by el_programmador on 5/10/20, 1:22 PM

    One alternative I could think of are chunks or clusters of centralized systems which are then inter-connected among themselves to form a decentralized whole (kinda how the internet works!).