The Ethereum developers sold a vision of smart contracts, where the code is the contract. However, their hubris lead to them attempting to implement a complex language, instead of starting the endeavor with a small, simple, verifiable language. Similarly, their belief in their own infallibility lead them to write code that is not tested, and to create capabilities that are literally untestable.
This was bound to result in multiple massive failures. The dao was one. This is another. There will be more, because it's an overly complex implementation.
It doesn't matter, though. Only dumb-fuck crypto futurist suckers have ether exposure, so it won't matter that they get zero'd out once a competent team enters the space. That said, the space attracts incompetence like lights attract moths, so it'll take a while to find a team that is technically competent and also has the marketing chops to get traction.
There's essentially no legitimate use case for crypto-currency. Cypherpunks have been at it for decades and all they have to show for it is drugs, ponzis, assassination markets, and conspiracy theories.
It would be nice to see some sort of casual hawala-type federated micropayments system based on real national currency, with instant settlement, low fees, and no fake money value store. But, that would be a pre-9/11 idea. Nowadays that's basically illegal and useless.
Paypal is more or less good enough, and hopefully regulators and market forces will control the fees and abuses.
Sorry, but have you looked on the democracy and justice-culture index maps worldwide? The democratic, end-of-history, justice-seperatly-delivered state is currently in full retreat.
I agree, the futurists got it the wrong way around, assuming something cyper-punk-currency enough would blow the state away and allow for crypto-anarchy to rule. Instead, we got states that on slight economic decline implode on themselves (a whole thinker caste in denial about human nature hunting scape goats) and suddenly the crypto-currency nonsense doesent look idiotic, because it can work on, even as the state becomes hostile.
Thats the vision- a somalia like decline, but society moves on, with schools back uped to youtube, with contracts backed up to the block chain, with the currency back uped to bitcoin. I find the ideals of crypto-anarchy laughable (those guys would be gunned down on the first corner, in a real anarchic world), and yet, i can agree to the path we taken. Cellphones and facebook, to have a culture of shame, that fights wild mobs and public hysteria, because the internet does not forget your lowest point. Anyone in power in fear of getting caught in public, for the world to see as just another corrupt, well fed monkey?
When my work introduced me to the guy that explains to us how the retirement fund works, I asked him if the Euro is safe (this was 2011-12), and what the safest investment is. He said "the safest investment is to buy a farm and grow your own food, because you can't eat money or gold.".
And in this Somalia 2.0 future of yours, how will the computers and networks be powered?
you don't think 200m ico's counts as marketing traction?
This space doesn't atract incompetence, it atracts everyone. When you have tech thats so transparent and accessible, degrees and diplomas don't get to decide who can or cannot work on it. Plus, the world most experience blockchain developer has at most, 9 years of experience. That's not a lot of time to work out the kinks.
Predictable, but not necessarily inexcusable. What is gained and learned in attempting more complex smart contracts sooner rather than later when all the building blocks for absolutely secure smart contracts are built can certainly justify the approach.
I like your point about language complexity. Can you point to a language that would fit the simple and verified criteria? I don't really follow the subject, so it would be interesting reading.
You could take inspiration from a system like Dafny or F-* and write your contracts with the assistance of a type system and compiler that generated proofs that your contracts satisfied some postcondition given a precondition. People have already written moderately complicated applications like operating systems in these languages, so there's some evidence they could be applied to contracts on the blockchain.
The Ethereum developers sold a vision of smart contracts, where the code is the contract. However, their hubris lead to them attempting to implement a complex language, instead of starting the endeavor with a small, simple, verifiable language. Similarly, their belief in their own infallibility lead them to write code that is not tested, and to create capabilities that are literally untestable.
This was bound to result in multiple massive failures. The dao was one. This is another. There will be more, because it's an overly complex implementation.
It doesn't matter, though. Only dumb-fuck crypto futurist suckers have ether exposure, so it won't matter that they get zero'd out once a competent team enters the space. That said, the space attracts incompetence like lights attract moths, so it'll take a while to find a team that is technically competent and also has the marketing chops to get traction.