2013-11-21: New Scientist: Bitcoin moves beyond mere money

[Mike Hearn]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24620-bitcoin-moves-beyond-mere-money.html#.Uo3bWLWJDAR

A short intro piece to on coloured coins, contracts etc.

Bitcoin is money – people can use it to buy anything from pizza to plastic surgery. The meteoric rise of the online currency has caused everyone from financial regulators to law enforcement to the US Senate to stand up and take notice. But a growing group of computer scientists think this is just the beginning. They are convinced that Bitcoin's real value is not in providing the world with a currency free from government intervention, but in the technology which underpins it, a secure system of verifying transactions that they believe has the potential to vastly disrupt the way we exchange goods and services around the world.

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[Shermo]

It's all great in theory, but not until more work is done to reduce the size of the blockchain growing. Adding all these extra things in will only serve to bloat the chain faster.

[Bitsinmyhead]

Meh, we used to do this stuff with tulip bulbs back in the day, no value in this technology  

[grondilu]

It's all great in theory, but not until more work is done to reduce the size of the blockchain growing. Adding all these extra things in will only serve to bloat the chain faster.

You don't need to add extra things.  Rather use the same tech to transfer other assets (like stocks, bonds and what not).

[TraderTimm]

It's all great in theory, but not until more work is done to reduce the size of the blockchain growing. Adding all these extra things in will only serve to bloat the chain faster.

Yeah, I know - but since everyone is hell-bent on giving the blockchain a good rogering instead of carefully monitoring its expansion, I doubt that attitude will change unless we have some disruptive forking. It boggles the mind. Everyone encourages blockchain abuse, because it would "happen eventually".

I've always considered that to be a bankrupt argument, but nobody can see past their profit-blinders to admit it. There's such a thing as growing a system mindful of the limitations versus a pell-mell rush to fork the client every chance we get to fix something.

Its "Tragedy of the Commons" being played out every day, and nobody seems to care.