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Censorship; Lockdown; Oracles

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@edicted
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So it looks like my repost on Stabilizing SBD got censored on the Steem blockchain. Hasn't been the first time, won't be the last. I still don't understand why one would use the Steemit API on their own frontend to load posts and create article feeds. So lazy.

Upon further review of this issue, it appears that my post will show in the feed's of those that follow me, but it doesn't show up in my own profile. I'm guessing it also wouldn't show up in Trending or Hot or on Steemit whatsoever. Whatever doesn't really matter.

It's just funny because the idea details a technology that would be just as good for Steem as that of the real network. If Steem actually created that tech before we did it would make them look really good and us look really bad, yet they censor the post blindly because it mentions a certain blockchain? Oops.

I've been meaning to write about this little number for a while now. My girlfriend showed it to me weeks ago. She was able to cross off all but like 5 of the boxes, going for that blackout I guess.

I wasn't able to cross off a single box.

Although I did get attitude from my cat (but that doesn't count because that happens every day).

This lockdown just does not affect me like it does everyone else.
I'm thriving in this environment while everyone else is losing their shit.
I look around and think:

Wow, you guys think this is bad?

Because I'm ready for things to get like 10 times worse.

  • Bank runs
  • Riots
  • Martial law
  • Famine
  • War

I think I would do pretty well during a famine. I've got a low metabolism and I'm not a picky eater. I eat food cold out of the fridge just because I'm too lazy to reheat it. Are you ready to eat a can of dog food to stay alive Mad Max style? Now I got you thinking about it. This is the correct head-space given the situation.

While everyone bitches and moans about a return to normal I suppress my merciless maniacal laughter. It's like watching children say they're going to be an astronaut one day. No, I doubt it. I wonder when they'll wake up to the actual reality of this fucked up world.

I think that's enough gloom and doom for one post.

Seriously though, with oil futures trading in the negatives, how could we NOT start a war?

Oracles

Often times a blockchain will need information from outside the blockchain to enforce a smart-contract. This centralized attack vector is often times a huge threat. Who are you going to trust to relay that information? In the case of MakerDAO oracles are needed to provide the price feed to USD which is directly used to determine if liquidations are necessary or not.

Luckily for Hive, we already have oracles. They are the witnesses. As an aspiring blockchain game developer, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that the witnesses are fucking up big time.

To be fair the witnesses are doing just fine, I just find myself completely flabbergasted that a price feed is the only information they are providing at the moment.

What else would they provide?

There are a lot of examples, but one is so glaring that I can't even think about the rest.

A feed for Bitcoin block hashes.

Bitcoin is the most secure network in the world that "wastes" the most energy. Therefore, the hashes that Bitcoin is pumping out are the most unhackable random numbers in the world.

This implies that we are wasting an incredible opportunity to use these random numbers for whatever. My idea has always been a basic lottery (@lottoshi) that uses Bitcoin hashes to determine the winner. Not utilizing the worlds most secure random numbers is a hugely wasted opportunity.

Of course I can't really blame the witnesses or the core developers... it's really people like myself who are to blame. I don't need a witness to tell me what the Bitcoin hash was of a certain block. There are plenty of nodes out there that provide that information.

Tenants of decentralization

There are so many golden opportunities out there ripe for the taking. We could offer interest-free loans (as described in my latest posts). We could offer rake-free lotteries and gambling services.

Once again it all comes down to greed and the race to the bottom. These services aren't being created because devs are more concerned about what's in it for themselves. I maintain the fact that if you have stake in the platform, these services will not only pay for themselves when developed, but actually bring an equal amount of wealth to every other stake-holder on the platform.

Altruism is no longer for suckers.

Baby steps.