LogFAQs > #974984394

CoyoteTheGreat posted...

"Impact the world" is a nice euphemism for "make the world a s***tier place". Anyone dealing in cryptocurrency should be locked up.

The biggest innovation of blockchains is smart contracts. If you understand the value of a smart contract, then you'll recognize it's the next evolution of the internet. This is why this field has persisted for over a decade and why so many major tech companies and banks are actively researching and developing in the field.

Now I'll give you this link on the purpose of smart contracts an Web3 but I'll give my own explanation below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JeRq7Gwj5Y

First and foremost, have you ever been in a deal with someone; where one of you (A) would do X and in return the other (B) would do Y? Have you ever been in a deal where A did X, but B didn't reciprocate in doing the agreed upon Y? This happens quite often as a fact of life. But the world has adopted many systems to limit this from happening; from being able to take someone to court for evading payments (A contractor does X work for B client, but B client doesn't make Y payment), to having some 3rd party facilitate a trade by holding an escrow for A and B participants to give to so the contents of the escrow can be divvied out to whoever on certain conditions.

Seriously, go back and make sure you have a story you can relate to on this because "trust", the reduction of this, is the main driver of this field.

Now for the definition, smartcontracts are purely applications on the blockchain, but what makes them so powerful is that they're immutable (unable to be changed once executed on the chain) and they act accordingly, IF X, then Y. If some X event happens, then Y action happens.

Because of these basic properties, developers are in a mad rush to recreate any and every financial tool, and major website with these properties. Some are in it to make the world a fairer place. Others, admittedly are only in it for EZ profits and have no conscience in achieving it. Celsius Network's Mashinsky and FTX's SBF are clear examples of this and also evidence of why this industry needs to gatekeep more to ensure people who have noble and genuine intentions are supported while those who are clearly in it for their own selfish gain are pushed out.

TheMikh posted...

about to take a nap, will check out the talk later

how does chainlink contend with zero knowledge cross-chain communications protocols

I did hear about later down the road ZK L2 chains being interoperable with other ZK chains, in some Bankless podcast with ZKsync developers. As it stands right now, not to my knowledge.

But Chainlink has a ZK function coming up, DECO, but this is only to allow sensitive data to be used on the blockchain without revealing it. "Is this girl above the age of 18?", a age limiter on some new age dating app. DECO can use a passport or some other piece of data to demonstrate her identity to answer the question but ensure the item used isn't revealed to the chainlink node operator or the network at large. Basically simple Zero Knowledge proof functionality.

But when the ZK chains gain the cross chain communication functionality, they'll definitely be a competitor to Chainlink. I'd imagine Chainlink's dominance at that point will be determined by the strength of the network effect (Chainlink has found itself in everyone's tech stack already and cross chain solutions out presently get ignored as everyone was waiting on Chainlink's cross chain solution) and whether ZK chains will offer more meaningful functionality that can't be replicated and will make it more profitable to transition.

I'm not too familiar with the ZK world, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.