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Tom Ritchford

@thomasfuchs Don't forget Ethereum, which is a really slow and expensive way to both perform computations and store data. The "Ethereum World Computer" manages to combine 7000 full-sized computers all over the world so that their net computation power is less than that of a Raspberry Pi, and storing 1K in that system costs more than buying a 1TB disk.

13 January at 8:17 | Wall-to-wall | Open on toot.community
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Steve

@TomSwirly @thomasfuchs
Is Ethereum _that_ inefficient? I thought its whole reason for existing was that it's many times more efficient than Bitcoin.

Are both points true, that Ethereum is absurdly inefficient, and also many times more efficient than Bitcoin?

14 January at 20:26 | Open on universeodon.com
Tom Ritchford

@Steve98052 @thomasfuchs

Yes, both are true.

They used to be similar, but Ethereum moved off "proof of work" to "proof of stake" and became far more efficient and I think that went as planned.

But the computations and data all have to be stored on each machine, it's the whole point of a blockchain, so still, everything's 7000x as expensive in total as just doing it on one machine.

14 January at 21:16 | Open on toot.community
Steve

@TomSwirly @thomasfuchs
Got it. With "proof of stake" the computations are repeated on 7000 machines and results stored on 7000 machines, yes it's ridiculously inefficient, even if the computations are fairly simple. But better than Bitcoin at least.

(Any idea how many machines do the Bitcoin "proof of work" computations, as opposed to primarily "mining"?)

15 January at 19:23 | Open on universeodon.com
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