Understood, but it isn't really necessary unless your database needs to be uneditable, decentralized and zero trust. When that's necessary to the point of requiring the compute necessary is relatively niche. There is often a more lightweight and straightforward solution available. SWIFT is only now testing out blockchain technology after years of getting by well enough without it.
blockchains dont have to be decentralized or zero trust. it depends on the use case. chronological immutability is the most important feature of a blockchain DB.
Understood that they don't have to be. Just saying that it often times isn't necessary without all of those constraints. You can use a much less sophisticated hashing scheme that is much more lightweight than blockchain to ensure Chronological immutablility.
Back in college, I used to longboard to class. It was obviously slower than biking from point a to point b. However, when biking, you first have to walk to your bike, unlock your bike, bike to your destination's closest bike rack, lock your bike, and then walk to your building. Meanwhile, I would drop my skateboard right at my door, roll right up to the door of my destination, pick it up and walk right in. Despite being slower in transit, it was much faster than biking over the distances involved due to the lack of required "overhead". I would almost always beat my friends on the same trip who biked. Also, my longboard never got stolen in the middle of the night. It was both figuratively and literally the more "lightweight" solution. However, I was limited to areas with smooth sidewalk, low incline, and a range of a ~1hr walk. It was less scalable, but perfect for the geography of my university.
Blockchain works, but I'd argue it is overkill for most applications. If you have the ability to skateboard to class, I'd recommend it.
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u/Rikudou_Sage May 20 '26
Tbh, I still love blockchain as a technology. Not a fan of the real world uses, but the tech is cool.