16 Comments

You're the man, Packy. Another great piece!

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Great introduction to ZKPs! I think your points about the interest and demand for privacy are very important as to why this tech even matters. I especially liked the framing of this: The choice hasn’t been “Do I want to use the internet with or without privacy?” but “Do I want to use the internet or not?”..."if you could build more scalable applications that also let users control their data and offload the headache of handling their PII for the same cost and effort, why wouldn’t you?"

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Much appreciated. Rollups need documentation and exposition, and as an Ethereum implementer, this is a excellent overview. Swimming naked is fun but not always apropos.

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Can any one tell me the names of project in L2 Scaling and Privacy 3rd one and 5th one

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Hey Packy I'm listening to a podcast with you in it. I just finished my first full year on Substack with an A.I. Newsletter. Do you have any tips for me to grow and find a sweet point or breakthrough? I'm wracking my brain trying to pay the rent.

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Hey Packy! Amazing stuff - will u publish a podcast version of it too?

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If Packy compiled his posts like Vitalik did with Proo-of-Stake, you'd get over 1,000 pages.

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"The longest I’ve essay I’ve ever written about the most complex subject I’ve ever written about" was an interesting introduction as it feels like it should be the other way around.

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

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This looks extraordinarily stupid.

First of all, it looks like nothing more than hash matching.

data1 --> hash1; data2 --> hash2. If hash1 = hash2, then data1=data2

Ok great. Now the real world:

1) How do prove data1 or data2 isn't faked?

2) The greater the size/detail of data1, the more likely data1 <> data2 because of an extra space or a typo or some such.

Nowhere in this equation is the need for trust obviated: trust that the intermediary (repositories presumably of data1 and/or data2; more importantly, the arbiters of what data1 & data2 should be) or trust that data1 OR data2 are legitimate. Ultimately this comes down to trust in whether the holders of data1 AND data2 AND the intermediary are honest and genuine.

Also: please stop repeating the nonsense that blockchain = privacy. Blockchain is the literal antithesis of privacy - if you want to be private, then data should be not preserved/deleted, or at least not preserved forever. There's a reason why real privacy apps have auto-erase functions.

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Do you understand how PGP encryption works? This article is a joke for a lot of reasons but not because of “blockchain”. It sounds like you don’t understand the basics of how encryption works.

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Clearly you didn't read anything I wrote - since I never talked about any issues with the encryption.

What I wrote is that encryption, blockchain, whatever is never going to fundamentally solve the problem of GIGO.

And to expand further: PGP works because it is just a way of transferring information from point A to point B securely. However, PGP cannot ensure GIGO any more than any other of these ludicrous schemes.

If we extend this to real property - i.e. contracts involving money - then there are additional requirements beyond GIGO including enforcement of the contract, interpretation of the contract, reversibility, transparency, etc etc.

So thanks for playing - your claim to technical expertise is not the least bit supported by your comment.

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Dunning-Kruger IRL lol

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Reading comprehension of a 4th grader IRL. LOL.

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You’re literally just misusing terms you’ve just learned, then devolving to insults when called out. Way to prove your expertise when you don’t even understand the basic premise of how encryption works.

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You're literally just arguing that your inability to read what I wrote, is because I don't understand encryption.

Stupid since I never said the encryption was the problem per se.

But keep on trying to divert the discussion to a topic which is irrelevant.

Nor am I the least bit impressed by your attempts to attack what I understand about encryption.

It is utterly irrelevant whether Aleo uses a public/private key setup like PGP, or blockchain via hash functions, or some combination of that, or something else. The real problems that need to be solved, are not solved by any of these.

Only true morons believe encryption solves any problems other than ... encryption.

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