• @simplymath
    link
    211 hours ago

    Right, but isn’t the “main chain” of Ethereum based on a similar principle wherein it’s the main chain because it’s the one the devs use?

    What about BTC vs BTC lightning.

    I’m genuinely failing to see a distinction here, and, again, the wiki article says that blockchains are special cases of Merkle trees.

    • I Cast Fist
      link
      fedilink
      210 hours ago

      Right, but isn’t the “main chain” of Ethereum based on a similar principle wherein it’s the main chain because it’s the one the devs use?

      No clue, I don’t keep an eye on that, I’m partially aware that there are several similar forks (and eth classic was a result of scammy shenanigans) but, afaict, none try to pretend they’re the “real” ethereum.

      I’m genuinely failing to see a distinction here

      A distinction between trust and trustless? Because my initial point was that git isn’t trustless, because it works just like any other online system that requires a login, where a central server/database checks if the user sending inputs was properly identified by some mean (password, cryptographic key, something else). Implementing a Merkle or any other hash tree doesn’t make something trustless

      • @simplymath
        link
        110 hours ago

        does git require authentication with a central server? I know that’s common practice and true of github, but my recollection was that it was meant to fix the problem of distributed kernel development via an email listserv in the early 2000s. This stack exchange post discusses how it’s not really centralized

        • I Cast Fist
          link
          fedilink
          110 hours ago

          Not being centralized has nothing to do with being trustless. The fediverse is also decentralized, yet you, me and everyone else has to log in to a specific server. If I try to login via lemmy.world, it’ll fail. I have to login via programming.dev. Does that make lemmy and the fediverse trustless? No.

          Even the top answer on that SO question explains that the use case of hash trees for git is different from that of blockchain

          • @simplymath
            link
            110 hours ago

            yeah, but this SO post has many up voted comments supporting my points as well.

            • I Cast Fist
              link
              fedilink
              19 hours ago

              You’re completely ignoring the point that being decentralized and/or implementing hash trees does not make a system trustless

              • @simplymath
                link
                19 hours ago

                no, no. I’m conceding that-- not ignoring that.

            • @simplymath
              link
              110 hours ago

              183 votes for your “similar but not the same” and 103 votes for “they are the same”. At the very least, I’d say this is far from settled fact