Bitcoin: Fundamental Questions
Bitcoin Week is the third theme of Software Engineering Daily.
“Bitcoin” is the naive marketing envoy, the minimum viable decentralized application, the introductory transaction vehicle for distributed, decentralized databases.
The revolutionary technology is blockchain. This revolution is rooted in our global culture’s dissatisfaction with centralized, exploitative institutions and software.
From August 10-16, interviews with experts on blockchain, Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and payments will be featured.
Fundamental questions:
- What technological breakthroughs does Bitcoin make?
- What is a blockchain and how do you generalize its functionality away from Bitcoin to other applications?
- Can the Double Spending Problem and the Byzantine General’s Problem be generalized to represent all the important problems within a distributed value system?
- How does Ripple compare to Bitcoin?
- What are the near-term consequences of Bitcoin and blockchain?
- What are the far-term consequences of Bitcoin and blockchain?
- What is Ethereum?
- What is the difference between proof-of-work and proof-of-stake?
- What is the difference between private chains and public chains?
