back to article Ethereum blockchain is sailing to Byzantium – hard fork up and running

The latest upgrade to the popular Ethereum blockchain protocol – Byzantium –went live today, adding additional privacy and performance features. Blockchains claim to offer users additional anonymity compared to standard systems because they're decentralised. Bitcoin is focused on cryptocurrencies, while the Ethereum network is …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    2.5 million Ether is $2 ?

    Looks like Ethereum ain't gonna cause BitCoin any problem any time soon.

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: 2.5 million Ether is $2 ?

      Gas != Ethereum. It is purchased WITH Ethereum, and its price can fluctuate. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/ suggests (right now) that one ETH is worth about $300.

      But $1/vote is awfully high for anything short of serious transactions--which is probably a good thing. Cutting the price by more than half is great, however. Note that as the value of ETH goes up, the cost of gas goes up as well, so increasing the popularity of the network will raise the costs of voting.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. David Pearce

    Additional anonymity = better for ransomware operators and criminals in general

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

      Additional anonymity = better for ANYONE who doesn't care to have their every financial transaction followed by everyone from Google to what ever LEA that happens to have a snooper installed somewhere on the planet.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Claptrap indeed ...

  3. Claptrap314 Silver badge
    Megaphone

    Not for average programmers?

    The article misses the point here. So long as ETH can be readily converted to a major currency, there is real money at stake. While I encourage and any all to play with the language in sandboxes at the like, the fact that https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/frequently-asked-questions.html#what-does-the-following-strange-check-do-in-the-custom-token-contract is part of the faq scares me. What that check does is see if you are ready to write actual contracts. (If you have to ask the question, you are NOT ready--no guarantees the other way.)

    No, serious crypto is beyond the reach of average programmers. That's why libraries are provided. If the libraries that are available are too hard, then more accessible ones can be created. But no amount of libraries can prevent the types of errors that happen when people lack the training in this stuff. This goes beyond RTFM. It's more like Take the Fine Class.

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Future Order under Future Orders

    Deep See Mining in the Mega MetaDataBase Field which harvests and distributes novel prime proprietary intellectual property for practical applications of virtual reality .... for global presentations and media spinning, is not ever going to be made easy and readily available to any who are not able and enabled and possessed of the right frame of sound mind.

    The fabulous rewards which are delivered are far too great to be lavished upon the masses without Advanced IntelAIgent Commands for Control with Remote Controls in HyperRadioProActive Command.

    Fiat currency systems cannot compete against cryptocurrency exchanges that value and support viable creative disruptive thought share more than the coins and any IOU papers themselves.

    1. Claptrap314 Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: Future Order under Future Orders

      Detweiler?

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