Out of the box Disadvantage of blockchain technology
The proponents of blockchain are excited about its application. It remove the need for a trusted third party and allows all the participants to monitor the transactions and be assured that they are reliable. 

This platform uses the concept of duplicating the database in many servers (called nodes) and comparing the results. If any of the database is hacked, the other database will be able to overrule that database using a voting and consensus system.

I find this method to be inefficient and costly. I also have my doubts about the need to ensure integrity of the database in this convoluted method.

I am not enthusiastic about the use of blockchain and the independence from a trusted third party. 

However, I am aware that I belong to the minority. Many people are enthusiastic about this new technology. They see it being a "big opportunity" and are investing a lot of time to learn it. 

For a certain period, many of the enthusiasts have used the platform to introduce new coin offerings to compete with bitcoin. Most of these efforts have been abandoned after a lot of time, money and energy have been spent on it.

Even the government agencies are excited about it. They invest a lot of money to promote the platform. They look at the potential to use the platform for the operation of "smart contracts".

I am skeptical. I like to share my views.

a) I can understand the value of transparency, and the need to protect the integrity of the data and ensure that they are not altered fraudulently. However, I do not accept that the blockchain is the best way to achieve this goal.

b) I can see the risk that a third party that is appointed to manage the database could abuse its authority and take advantage of its access to the database. I prefer to deal with this problem using a separate approach, rather than to implement the blockchain technology.

I discussed this issue with a blockchain practitioner. He agreed with me. He said that the blockchain algorithm has changed to address my concerns. They are now talking about blockchain 2.0.

I consider this to be just another excuse to keep blockchain alive, and protect the investments that have been made in this concept.

I do have an alternative approach to achieve the above goals, rather than rely on blockchain technology, which I consider to be inherently inefficient and convoluted. I will talk about my alternative approach in a separate post.

For this post, I like to point out that the blockchain technology is perhaps a hype and a waste of time. 

Tan Kin Lian

Vote - do you share the same skepticism that I have regarding blockchain? If you don't understand it, you should be skeptical. Do not follow the hype.

 

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