Contents
Key facts:
Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent, considers that sharding is not the only option for scalability.The entrepreneur ensures that the Proof-of-Work resistant to the ASIC it is an impossible dream.The manifesto published by Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, which analyzes what are the major challenges facing the cryptocurrencies and your state’s current technological, was refuted by Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent, pointing out that much of what is stated in the programmer of Russian origin is wrong.Cohen analyzed point-by-point published by Buterin and questioned their opinion on almost all aspects, from the scalability of the cryptocurrencies, timestamping, Proof of Arbitrary Computation, code obfuscation, cryptography, hash-based, until all of the items that grouped together your vision in the area of economics, according to a lengthy thread posted on his Twitter account, @bramcohen.For Buterin challenges that have the cryptocurrencies are divided into three areas: problems in cryptography, problems of the theory of consensus and of the economic sciences, being the scale the main task. To solve it, Buterin introduces sharding, a protocol Ethereum segmentation to ease the congestion of the network. Something that ruled out Cohen in their arguments.”For the ‘scalability blockchain’ (Buterin) talks about scaling in string (on-chain) with fragmentation as the only option. Of course, it is not the only option, networks of channels of payment are much more attractive in many aspects, and are becoming real”, he stressed CohenEl entrepreneur argued that the proposal of the Ethereum requires essentially that the miners have all the shards (nodes), which is not sharding, “only redefines even more the ‘entire node’ to mean less than before.”
Proof-of-Work anti ASIC
Another aspect questioned by Cohen is that of the Proof of Work (PoW) resistant to the miners ASICs. For Buterin the problem has been resolved, as far as possible, and gave as an example the application of the algorithm to Ethash in the blockchain of Ethereum. However, for the creator of BitTorrent, “the Proof of Work resistant to the ASIC is as much an impossible dream as a bad idea”.The theory of Cohen is that it is better to be friendly with the ASIC, because “the resistance ASIC only creates a greater centralisation around the manufacturing when it inevitably fails”.On this aspect Buterin also pointed out that ASIC are, in the best of cases, 2-5 times more potent and cost-effective than the GPU, but that for the future the best option out there on the consensus is Proof of Stake (PoS), a long-term goal in Ethereum.The Test of Involvement is also a bad idea according to Cohen. For the developer this mechanism begins with a model of security is fundamentally weakened and found with a large amount of technical problems deep.In terms of the currencies anchored or stablecoins, Cohen stressed that these are a thing and that on the other hand, there are problems with the legal & financial status of the entities which make up the back.”Stable currencies without backing are not and never will be any thing, for reasons that are too obvious to bother explaining them”, said Cohen to the position of Buterin give you exposure to MakerDAO or DAI, for example.
Compared to Elizabeth Holmes
The messages of Cohen on Twitter were also used for other characters that make life in the ecosystem is to pronounce about it. As was the case for Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, who left two comments, in which he revived an old comparison with Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theranos.Holmes was an entrepreneur who managed to capitalize more than 4,500 million dollars of investors with a purported advancement of biotechnology with which they promised to do studies complex, using a single drop of blood. The alleged invention was a false and Holmes, he lost all his money.”It is like looking at Elizabeth Holmes by the state of biotechnology, what did you expect?”, said Back with a tone of sarcasm. And he added: “of course, that the test equipment of Theranos worked. Worked a little unreliable, and were not able to do as many tests as they said. It sounds remarkably similar.”The point Back would be to question Ethereum beyond what is announced as progress for the ecosystem of the cryptocurrencies, but that show really that a development will be of benefit to the project.