If you’re ever stranded on a deserted island, knowing how to run the process of decentralized consensus — or in other words, operate a very simple blockchain by hand — can prove to be very useful. All you need is some fellow survivors, this post, a pen and a few pieces of paper.
If you’re not certain this skill is useful for your survival, be sure to read my last post on how blockchain can vastly improve island life.
Let’s go back to that original story and go through the process with our fearless heroes, who just crashed on a deserted island somewhere in the South Pacific — Hugo, Sawyer, Kate and Jack.
A short recap: the gang is trying to implement IslandCoin, a revolutionary new currency that will bring an end to the island’s crippled barter economy. The gang has agreed it’s fair if each of them starts with 100 coins. Since they don’t have metal to mint actual coins, they’ll have to make do with a few pieces of paper. Riddled with trust issues, the gang hasn’t been able to agree on one person to keep track of balances. Their only option is to maintain the balances together.
We’ll start with what is probably the simplest blockchain implementation for our island use case. In future posts we can explore other implementations and tie them to concepts like Proof of Work and Proof of Stake — this will help us see their benefits and drawbacks. But for now, let’s start as simple as it gets.
What are we trying to achieve? It’s very simple actually — all we’re trying to do is maintain a simple table of balances on a piece of paper. This table will show how many coins each of our heroes has. The trick is, because we can’t have one piece of paper that holds the only source of truth — we’re going to have to keep things equal and let each of the gang maintain their own version — this is the decentralized part. And naturally, we’re also going to hope that all 4 pieces of paper eventually show the same thing — this is the consensus part.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 19 2018, @02:37PM (1 child)
How long will it take for the pirates on the island to murder each other for the grog and ALL the coins?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:46PM
Pirates would just take whatever real money they had in their pockets. A fantasycoin wouldn't get them a lay in Port Royal.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday May 19 2018, @03:01PM
You want to run it very carefully. And don't get your blockpaper rained on.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 19 2018, @03:40PM (5 children)
So, if i'm Hugo, Sawyer or Jack, I guess Kate gets all my money, for her honey.
(Hmmm.... i'd be one quarter Hugo, one quarter Sawyer and one quarter Jack.
Math is hard.)
It's not like money grows on trees.
Waaaait..... shit, my mom and dad were wrong!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)
Careful, Kate can catch wild boars with bare hands [medium.com].
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:52PM
I like a woman who's good with her hands!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @06:40PM (2 children)
It's not like money grows on trees.
"Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt the leaf as legal tender, we have, of course, all become immensely rich."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 19 2018, @10:37PM (1 child)
Heh. Green currency?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday May 20 2018, @12:50AM
Gets MY vote!
;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:03PM (8 children)
Rather than focus on trying to develop a monetary system on an island with 4 people living on it trying to survive, Hugo, Sawyer, Kate, and Jack could sit down and negotiate and plan and otherwise work things out like a group of adults trying to manage a difficult situation. All this effort to establish a decentralized consensus makes no sense when (A) each of the 4 people involved have the power to basically ignore the "money" whenever they like, and (B) the 4 people in question are perfectly capable of organizing around a centralized consensus established by a meeting of the 4 people each representing their own interests.
The economic system that tends to develop in situations like this isn't barter, but what's called "primitive communism", where each individual works for and takes from a collective pool of resources. Because the group is small enough that everybody knows more-or-less what the others are up to, no numbers or currency are required to assess who's a great contributor and who's a freeloader. The incentive to contribute is created by the need to survive, and the threat of a freeloader being forced out of the group.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:19PM (4 children)
I think you are missing the point. The point of the article was to explain blockchain via a simple, if silly, scenario.
At least, I hope that was the point...
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 19 2018, @04:21PM (3 children)
Actually, I went and read his previous article about island blockchain, and I am not so sure he isn't serious...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by choose another one on Saturday May 19 2018, @06:14PM (2 children)
> Actually, I went and read his previous article about island blockchain, and I am not so sure he isn't serious...
And the beauty is that it should be easy enough to test, nice little double reality show, try Bear Grylls the Island *2 - one island of normal people trying to survive, one island of crypto-geeks trying to set up a paper blockchain economy. See which lot lasts longer...
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:15PM (1 child)
The producers ensure the pretty people on the non-geek island get extra food.
The geeks all die when war breaks out after someone mentions a preference for emacs.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by qzm on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:41PM
Or alternately the 'Geeks' actually end up working together to solve problems, because they find that more interesting,
while the 'normal people' (read: want-to-be actors) spend the whole time playing popularity games.
but yes, the behind the scenes manipulation is the whole story in reality tv.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 19 2018, @06:12PM
Agreed, 4 agents is not yet "critical mass" requiring decentralized consensus, or even currency. Currency starts to make sense when the size of a community passes "personal familiarity," about 200 individuals by some estimates. And decentralized consensus would seem to need at least that large a group before it brings any real value.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:59PM (1 child)
The problem is trust: if people could sit around and talk like adults, there'd be peace on Earth.
Unfortunately, there are few adults in the world and less trust.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday May 20 2018, @10:02AM
If you are on a lonely island with three other people, I guess you learn pretty fast whom you can trust and whom you can't.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday May 19 2018, @06:22PM
Something that people have consistently missed about Bitcoin is that the true value is a transparent, universally available and verifiable historical record. Silk road got all tangled up in the premise that it was "too complicated" for anybody to be traced through, and we see where that landed Dread Pirate Roberts in rather short order. In a micro-environment, if we're going to agree to agree that this record of currency has value, I would suggest that nobody "controls" the record, it is simply posted in a public place, with copies held by all. Transactions are witnessed by all (or, at least a 3/4 majority), recorded by all at their next opportunity, and we're done. If 3/4 get together and decide to screw over the fourth, they can always do that - no currency system required.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday May 19 2018, @09:51PM
This is really intended for folks who aren't coders: Blockchains explained in plain English [soggywizards.com].
I need to complete the section on hashing.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @06:42AM
Looks pretty much like the wallet demo from http://ball.askemos.org [askemos.org] right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @12:55PM
On day three, Hugo should have objected to the ledger proposed by Kate because he knows of the 2 coin transfer to him from Jack that is not on the ledger, otherwise he goes without compensation for the tomato -- or are you saying that everyone has to agree in principle to potential transactions throughout each day, but no one is supposed to actually fulfill those transactions until the next day after the ledger is published? That's not going to work. Too much economic friction. What if Hugo's tomato's all rot overnight, or a one of the wild boars Kate is chasing rampages through the garden?
Also, in a real economy, there has to be some managed way to expand the money supply, because as Kate and the gang get busy replicating and the population grows to exceed 400 persons, then the musical chairs principle means there will always be people with no money. The original meeting of the whole in which everyone agreed to magically create 400 coins, while workable, in this childishly simplistic case, fails to scale. No way, once people already have built up a nest egg of cash are they going to just let new people have magical new money for free. And on the other hand, the one's of the original four that run out of cash would just as strenuously object to giving new-comers free money when they themselves are flat broke ... their going to want some of that, too!
Someone has to control monetary expansion in a fair way, otherwise the currency becomes worthless as everyone just prints their own money when they run out.
(Score: 2) by wisnoskij on Sunday May 20 2018, @03:05PM
OK, but how would you mine for bitcoins?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday May 20 2018, @07:39PM
This must be Pen Island....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 20 2018, @07:54PM
Now with 48% more blockchain!