Imagine ordering a powerful new pneumatic nail gun. You aren’t a roofer; you bought it mostly as a toy because you like power tools. The first thing you would do after unpackaging it is start looking around for things to nail and nail you would: walls, your workbench, walls, boards, and walls. You have a new toy- a new technology- and you want to use it wherever you can justify using it.
Seven years ago blockchains were invented as part of Bitcoin. For year one, almost no one knew the project existed. In year two, people learned how to make use of the currency. During year three, people started using a different blockchain, Namecoin , to hold domain name information in a system which was academically interesting but not widely used. Since then people have started trying to hold all kinds of things in blockchains: deeds, contracts, and all sorts of documents. On the outside, it sounds sensible: a censor-proof fully distributed persistent data storage system. An Organization Finds a Fun Power Tool
Last week DARPA, the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, put out a request for prototypes for a secure messaging platform. Potential participants are tasked with creation of a platform which uses “a decentralized messaging backbone to allow anyone anywhere the ability to send a secure message or conduct other transactions across multiple channels traceable in a decentralized ledger.” In particular, they want a blockchain. It’s rare that DARPA demonstrates much misunderstanding of new technology but this RFP makes it clear that DARPA has jumped on the “Just use a blockchain!” bandwagon without regard to their huge downsides. DARPA has found a nail gun and by God, it wants to use it.
The problem is that blockchains are bad at storing data. They aren’t even intended to […]
