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Bitcoin is a Cult — Adam Caudill
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======
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The Bitcoin community has changed greatly over the years; from technophiles that could explain a [Merkle tree][1] in their sleep, to speculators driven by the desire for a quick profit & blockchain startups seeking billion dollar valuations led by people who don’t even know what a Merkle tree is. As the years have gone on, a zealotry has been building around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies driven by people who see them as something far grander than they actually are; people who believe that normal (or fiat) currencies are becoming a thing of the past, and the cryptocurrencies will fundamentally change the world’s economy.
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Every year, their ranks grow, and their perception of cryptocurrencies becomes more grandiose, even as [novel uses][2] of the technology brings it to its knees. While I’m a firm believer that a well designed cryptocurrency could ease the flow of money across borders, and provide a stable option in areas of mass inflation, the reality is that we aren’t there yet. In fact, it’s the substantial instability in value that allows speculators to make money. Those that preach that the US Dollar and Euro are on their deathbed have utterly abandoned an objective view of reality.
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### A little background…
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I read the Bitcoin white-paper the day it was released – an interesting use of [Merkle trees][1] to create a public ledger and a fairly reasonable consensus protocol – it got the attention of many in the cryptography sphere for its novel properties. In the years since that paper was released, Bitcoin has become rather valuable, attracted many that see it as an investment, and a loyal (and vocal) following of people who think it’ll change everything. This discussion is about the latter.
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Yesterday, someone on Twitter posted the hash of a recent Bitcoin block, the thousands of Tweets and other conversations that followed have convinced me that Bitcoin has crossed the line into true cult territory.
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It all started with this Tweet by Mark Wilcox:
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> #00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a
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> — Mark Wilcox (@mwilcox) June 19, 2018
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The value posted is the hash of [Bitcoin block #528249][3]. The leading zeros are a result of the mining process; to mine a block you combine the contents of the block with a nonce (and other data), hash it, and it has to have at least a certain number of leading zeros to be considered valid. If it doesn’t have the correct number, you change the nonce and try again. Repeat this until the number of leading zeros is the right number, and you now have a valid block. The part that people got excited about is what follows, 21e800.
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Some are claiming this is an intentional reference, that whoever mined this block actually went well beyond the current difficulty to not just bruteforce the leading zeros, but also the next 24 bits – which would require some serious computing power. If someone had the ability to bruteforce this, it could indicate something rather serious, such as a substantial breakthrough in computing or cryptography.
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You must be asking yourself, what’s so important about 21e800 – a question you would surely regret. Some are claiming it’s a reference to [E8 Theory][4] (a widely criticized paper that presents a standard field theory), or to the 21,000,000 total Bitcoins that will eventually exist (despite the fact that `21 x 10^8` would be 2,100,000,000). There are others, they are just too crazy to write about. Another important fact is that a block is mined on average on once a year that has 21e8 following the leading zeros – those were never seen as anything important.
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This leads to where things get fun: the [theories][5] that are circulating about how this happened.
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* A quantum computer, that is somehow able to hash at unbelievable speed. This is despite the fact that there’s no indication in theories around quantum computers that they’ll be able to do this; hashing is one thing that’s considered safe from quantum computers.
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* Time travel. Yes, people are actually saying that someone came back from the future to mine this block. I think this is crazy enough that I don’t need to get into why this is wrong.
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* Satoshi Nakamoto is back. Despite the fact that there has been no activity with his private keys, some theorize that he has returned, and is somehow able to do things that nobody can. These theories don’t explain how he could do it.
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> So basically (as i understand) Satoshi, in order to have known and computed the things that he did, according to modern science he was either:
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>
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> A) Using a quantum computer
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> B) Fom the future
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> C) Both
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>
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> — Crypto Randy Marsh [REKT] (@nondualrandy) [June 21, 2018][6]
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If all this sounds like [numerology][7] to you, you aren’t alone.
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All this discussion around special meaning in block hashes also reignited the discussion around something that is, at least somewhat, interesting. The Bitcoin genesis block, the first bitcoin block, does have an unusual property: the early Bitcoin blocks required that the first 32 bits of the hash be zero; however the genesis block had 43 leading zero bits. As the code that produced the genesis block was never released, it’s not known how it was produced, nor is it known what type of hardware was used to produce it. Satoshi had an academic background, so may have had access to more substantial computing power than was common at the time via a university. At this point, the oddities of the genesis block are a historical curiosity, nothing more.
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### A brief digression on hashing
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This hullabaloo started with the hash of a Bitcoin block; so it’s important to understand just what a hash is, and understand one very important property they have. A hash is a one-way cryptographic function that creates a pseudo-random output based on the data that it’s given.
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What this means, for the purposes of this discussion, is that for each input you get a random output. Random numbers have a way of sometimes looking interesting, simply as a result of being random and the human brain’s affinity to find order in everything. When you start looking for order in random data, you find interesting things – that are yet meaningless, as it’s simply random. When people ascribe significant meaning to random data, it tells you far more about the mindset of those involved rather than the data itself.
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### Cult of the Coin
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First, let us define a couple of terms:
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* Cult: a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.
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* Religion: a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance.
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The Cult of the Coin has many saints, perhaps none greater than Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the person(s) that created Bitcoin. Vigorously defended, ascribed with ability and understanding far above that of a normal researcher, seen as a visionary beyond compare that is leading the world to a new economic order. When combined with Satoshi’s secretive nature and unknown true identify, adherents to the Cult view Satoshi as a truly venerated figure.
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That is, of course, with the exception of adherents that follow a different saint, who is unquestionably correct, and any criticism is seen as not only an attack on their saint, but on themselves as well. Those that follow EOS for example, may see Satoshi has a hack that developed a failed project, yet will react fiercely to the slightest criticism of EOS, a reaction so strong that it’s reserved only for an attack on one’s deity. Those that follow IOTA react with equal fierceness; and there are many others.
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These adherents have abandoned objectivity and reasonable discourse, and allowed their zealotry to cloud their vision. Any discussion of these projects and the people behind them that doesn’t include glowing praise inevitably ends with a level of vitriolic speech that is beyond reason for a discussion of technology.
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This is dangerous, for many reasons:
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* Developers & researchers are blinded to flaws. Due to the vast quantities of praise by adherents, those involved develop a grandiose view of their own abilities, and begin to view criticism as unjustified attacks – as they couldn’t possibly have been wrong.
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* Real problems are attacked. Instead of technical issues being seen as problems to be solved and opportunities to improve, they are seen as attacks from people who must be motivated to destroy the project.
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* One coin to rule them all. Adherents are often aligned to one, and only one, saint. Acknowledging the qualities of another project means acceptance of flaws or deficiencies in their own, which they will not do.
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* Preventing real progress. Evolution is brutal, it requires death, it requires projects to fail and that the reasons for those failures to be acknowledged. If lessons from failure are ignored, if things that should die aren’t allowed to, progress stalls.
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Discussions around many of the cryptocurrencies and related blockchain projects are becoming more and more toxic, becoming impossible for well-intentioned people to have real technical discussions without being attacked. With discussions of real flaws, flaws that would doom a design in any other environment, being instantly treated as heretical without any analysis to determine the factual claims becoming routine, the cost for the well-intentioned to get involved has become extremely high. There are at least some that are aware of significant security flaws that have opted to remain silent due to the highly toxic environment.
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What was once driven by curiosity, a desire to learn and improve, to determine the viability of ideas, is now driven by blind greed, religious zealotry, self-righteousness, and self-aggrandizement.
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I have precious little hope for the future of projects that inspire this type of zealotry, and its continuous spread will likely harm real research in this area for many years to come. These are technical projects, some projects succeed, some fail – this is how technology evolves. Those designing these systems are human, just as flawed as the rest of us, and so too are the projects flawed. Some are well suited to certain use cases and not others, some aren’t suited to any use case, none yet are suited to all. The discussions about these projects should be focused on the technical aspects, and done so to evolve this field of research; adding a religious to these projects harms all.
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[Note: There are many examples of this behavior that could be cited, however in the interest of protecting those that have been targeted for criticizing projects, I have opted to minimize such examples. I have seen too many people who I respect, too many that I consider friends, being viciously attacked – I have no desire to draw attention to those attacks, and risk restarting them.]
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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via: https://adamcaudill.com/2018/06/21/bitcoin-is-a-cult/
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作者:[Adam Caudill][a]
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选题:[lujun9972](https://github.com/lujun9972)
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译者:[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
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校对:[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)
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本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译,[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出
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[a]:https://adamcaudill.com/author/adam/
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[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree
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[2]:https://hackernoon.com/how-crypto-kitties-disrupted-the-ethereum-network-845c22aa1e6e
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[3]:https://blockchain.info/block-height/528249
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[4]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Exceptionally_Simple_Theory_of_Everything
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[5]:https://medium.com/@coop__soup/00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a-cd4b67d446be
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[6]:https://twitter.com/nondualrandy/status/1009609117768605696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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[7]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology
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比特币是一个邪教 — Adam Caudill
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经过这些年,比特币社区已经发生了非常大的变化;社区成员从闭着眼睛都能讲解 [Merkle 树][1] 的技术迷们,变成了被一夜爆富欲望驱使的投机者和由一些连什么是 Merkle 树都不懂的人所领导的企图寻求 10 亿美元估值的区块链初创公司。随着时间的流逝,围绕比特币和其它加密货币形成了一个狂热,他们认为比特币和其它加密货币远比实际的更重要;他们相信常见的货币(法定货币)正在成为过去,而加密货币将从根本上改变世界经济。
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每一年他们的队伍都在壮大,而他们对加密货币的看法也在变得更加宏伟,那怕是因为[使用新技术][2]而使它陷入困境的情况下。虽然我坚信设计优良的加密货币可以使金钱的跨境流动更容易,并且在大规模通胀的领域提供一个更稳定的选择,但现实情况是,我们并没有做到这些。实际上,正是价值的巨大不稳定性才使得投机者赚钱。那些宣扬美元和欧元即将死去的人,已经完全抛弃了对现实世界客观公正的看法。
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### 一点点背景 …
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比特币发行那天,我读了它的白皮书 —— 它使用有趣的 [Merkle 树][1] 去创建一个公共账簿和一个非常合理的共识协议 —— 由于它新颖的特性引起了密码学领域中许多人的注意。在白皮书发布后的几年里,比特币变得非常有价值,并由此吸引了许多人将它视为是一种投资,和那些认为它将改变一切的忠实追随者(和发声者)。这篇文章将讨论的正是后者。
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昨天,有人在推特上发布了一个最近的比特币区块的哈希,下面成千上万的推文和其它讨论让我相信,比特币已经跨越界线进入了真正的邪教领域。
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一切都源于 Mark Wilcox 的这个推文:
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> #00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a
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> — Mark Wilcox (@mwilcox) June 19, 2018
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张贴的这个值是 [比特币 #528249 号区块][3] 的哈希值。前导零是挖矿过程的结果;挖掘一个区块就是把区块内容与一个 nonce(和其它数据)组合起来,然后做哈希运算,并且它至少有一定数量的前导零才能被验证为有效区块。如果它不是正确的数字,你可以更换 nonce 再试。重复这个过程直到哈希值的前导零数量是正确的数字之后,你就有了一个有效的区块。让人们感到很兴奋的部分是接下来的 21e800。
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一些人说这是一个有意义的编号,挖掘出这个区块的人实际上的难度远远超出当前所看到的,不仅要调整前导零的数量,还要匹配接下来的 24 位 —— 它要求非常强大的计算能力。如果有人能够以蛮力去实现它,这将表明有些事情很严重,比如,在计算或密码学方面的重大突破。
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你一定会有疑问,为什么 21e800 如此重要 —— 一个你问了肯定会后悔的问题。有人说它是参考了 [E8 理论][4](一个广受批评的提出标准场理论的论文),或是表示总共存在 2100000000 枚比特币(`21 x 10^8` 就是 2,100,000,000)。还有其它说法,因为太疯狂了而没有办法写出来。另一个重要的事实是,在前导零后面有 21e8 的区块平均每年被挖掘出一次 —— 这些从来没有人认为是很重要的。
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这就引出了有趣的地方:关于这是如何发生的[理论][5]。
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* 一台量子计算机,它能以某种方式用不可思议的速度做哈希运算。尽管在量子计算机的理论中还没有迹象表明它能够做这件事。哈希是量子计算机认为很安全的东西之一。
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* 时间旅行。是的,真的有人这么说,有人从未来穿梭回到现在去挖掘这个区块。我认为这种说法太荒谬了,都懒得去解释它为什么是错误的。
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* 中本聪回来了。尽管事实上他的私钥没有任何活动,一些人从理论上认为他回来了,他能做一些没人能做的事情。这些理论是无法解释他如何做到的。
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> 因此,总的来说(按我的理解)中本聪,为了知道和计算他做的事情,根据现代科学,他可能是以下之一:
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>
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> A) 使用了一台量子计算机
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> B) 来自未来
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> C) 两者都是
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>
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> — Crypto Randy Marsh [REKT] (@nondualrandy) [June 21, 2018][6]
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如果你觉得所有的这一切听起来像 [命理学][7],不止你一个人是这样想的。
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所有围绕有特殊意义的区块哈希的讨论,也引发了对在某种程度上比较有趣的东西的讨论。比特币的创世区块,它是第一个比特币区块,有一个不寻常的属性:早期的比特币要求哈希值的前 32 位是零;而创始区块的前导零有 43 位。因为由代码产生的创世区块从不会发布,它不知道它是如何产生的,也不知道是用什么类型的硬件产生的。中本聪有学术背景,因此可能他有比那个时候大学中常见设备更强大的计算能力。从这一点上说,只是对古怪的创世区块的历史有点好奇,仅此而已。
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### 关于哈希运算的简单题外话
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这种喧嚣始于比特币区块的哈希运算;因此理解哈希是什么很重要,并且要理解一个非常重要的属性,一个哈希是单向加密函数,它能够基于给定的数据创建一个伪随机输出。
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这意味着什么呢?基于本文讨论的目的,对于每个给定的输入你将得到一个随机的输出。随机数有时看起来很有趣,很简单,因为它是随机的结果,并且人类大脑可以很容易从任何东西中找到顺序。当你从随机数据中开始查看顺序时,你就会发现有趣的事情 —— 这些东西毫无意义,因为它们只是简单地随机数。当人们把重要的意义归属到随机数据上时,它将告诉你很多这些参与者观念相关的东西,而不是数据本身。
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### 币的邪教
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首先,我们来定义一组术语:
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* 邪教:一个宗教崇拜和直接向一个特定的人或物虔诚的体系。
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* 宗教:有人认为是至高无上的追求或兴趣。
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币的狂热追捧者中的许多圣人,或许没有人比中本聪更伟大,他是比特币创始人的假名。强力的护卫、赋予能力和理解力远超过一般的研究人员,认为他的远见卓视无人能比,他影响了世界新经济的秩序。当将中本聪的神秘本质和未知的真实身份结合起来时,狂热的追随着们将中本聪视为一个真正的值的尊敬的人物。
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当然,除了追随其他圣人的追捧者之外,毫无疑问这些追捧者认为自己是正确的。任何对他们的圣人的批评都被认为也是对他们的批评。例如,那些追捧 EOS 的人,可能会认为中本聪是开发了一个失败项目的黑客,而对 EOS 那怕是最轻微的批评,他们也会作出激烈的反应,之所以反应如此强烈,仅仅是因为攻击了他们心目中的神。那些追捧 IOTA 的人的反应也一样;还有更多这样的例子。
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这些追随着在讨论问题时已经失去了理性和客观,他们的狂热遮盖了他们的视野。任何对这些项目和项目背后的人的讨论,如果不是溢美之词,必然以某种程序的刻薄言辞结束,对于一个技术的讨论那种做法是毫无道理的。
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这很危险,原因很多:
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* 开发者 & 研究者对缺陷视而不见。由于追捧者的大量赞美,这些参与开发的人对自己的能力开始膨胀,并将一些批评看作是无端的攻击 —— 因为他们认为自己是不可能错的。
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* 真正的问题是被攻击。技术问题不再被看作是需要去解决的问题和改进的机会,他们认为是来自那些想去破坏项目的人的攻击。
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* 用一枚币来控制他们。追随者们通常会结盟,而圣人仅有一个。承认其它项目的优越,意味着认同自己项目的缺陷或不足,而这是他们不愿意做的事情。
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* 阻止真实的进步。进化是很残酷的,它要求死亡,项目失败,以及承认这些失败的原因。如果忽视失败的教训,如果不允许那些应该去死亡的事情发生,进步就会停止。
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许多围绕加密货币和相关区块链项目的讨论已经开始变得越来越”有毒“,善意的人想在不受攻击的情况下进行技术性讨论越来越不可能。随着对真正缺陷的讨论,那些在其它环境中注定要失败的缺陷,在没有做任何的事实分析的情况下即刻被判定为异端已经成为了惯例,善意的人参与其中的代价变得极其昂贵。至少有些人已经意识到极其严重的安全漏洞,由于高“毒性”的环境,他们选择保持沉默。
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曾经被好奇、学习和改进的期望、创意可行性所驱动的东西,现在被盲目的贪婪、宗教般的狂热、自以为是和自我膨胀所驱动。
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我对受这种狂热激励的项目的未来不抱太多的希望,而它持续地传播,可能会损害多年来在这个领域中真正的研究者。这些技术项目中,一些项目成功了,一些项目失败了 —— 这就是技术演进的方式。设计这些系统的人,就和你我一样都有缺点,同样这些项目也有缺陷。有些项目非常适合某些使用场景而不适合其它场景,有些项目不适合任何使用场景,没有一个项目适合所有使用场景。关于这些项目的讨论应该关注于技术方面,这样做是为了让这一研究领域得以发展;在这些项目中掺杂宗教般狂热必将损害所有人。
|
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[注意:这种行为有许多例子可以引用,但是为了保护那些因批评项目而成为被攻击目标的人,我选择尽可能少的列出这种例子。我看到许多我很尊敬的人、许多我认为是朋友的人成为这种恶毒攻击的受害者 —— 我不想引起人们对这些攻击的注意和重新引起对他们的攻击。]
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|
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|
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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|
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via: https://adamcaudill.com/2018/06/21/bitcoin-is-a-cult/
|
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|
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作者:[Adam Caudill][a]
|
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选题:[lujun9972](https://github.com/lujun9972)
|
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译者:[qhwdw](https://github.com/qhwdw)
|
||||
校对:[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)
|
||||
|
||||
本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译,[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出
|
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|
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[a]:https://adamcaudill.com/author/adam/
|
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[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree
|
||||
[2]:https://hackernoon.com/how-crypto-kitties-disrupted-the-ethereum-network-845c22aa1e6e
|
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[3]:https://blockchain.info/block-height/528249
|
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[4]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Exceptionally_Simple_Theory_of_Everything
|
||||
[5]:https://medium.com/@coop__soup/00000000000000000021e800c1e8df51b22c1588e5a624bea17e9faa34b2dc4a-cd4b67d446be
|
||||
[6]:https://twitter.com/nondualrandy/status/1009609117768605696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
|
||||
[7]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology
|
Loading…
Reference in New Issue
Block a user