Author

Topic: What the heck is Blockstream doing now? (Read 362 times)

legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 6382
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November 23, 2021, 03:37:38 AM
#24
If you think that NFTs are (stupid) money grab scheme only found on ethereum or similar centralized blockchains and has nothing to do with unique art, than you were wrong.
Blockstream and Liquid Network decided they need to have their own platfrom for NFTs

NFTs are a gold mine for all who sell or take fees on selling them.
Blockstream is a company, hence their target is... to make money. Everybody who can, tries nowadays to sell or provide a platform for selling NFT. I'm not surprised that they do this too.

And whatever they say... that's only about how they're selling their image, really. At companies one have to see what they do.
Look at the bright side: all this crap probably also funds useful things too.
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
November 22, 2021, 03:07:26 PM
#23
If you think that NFTs are (stupid) money grab scheme only found on ethereum or similar centralized blockchains and has nothing to do with unique art, than you were wrong.
Blockstream and Liquid Network decided they need to have their own platfrom for NFTs called Raretoshi.com, but I have to be honest and say that it is full of rubbish.
You probably heard they have plans to create tokenized bonds and more tokens on Liquid, and they already have L-USDT, so I really don't understand why they are still calling out other altcoins, when they are constantly doing exact same thing.
Quote
Raretoshi is the first NFT platform that uses the Bitcoin Liquid Network instead of Ethereum or Counterparty. The Liquid network is a bitcoin sidechain where transaction fees are denominated in L-BTC, Liquid Bitcoin, which is pegged 1:1 to bitcoin.
https://raretoshi.com/faq
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
October 28, 2021, 10:12:10 AM
#22
Blockstream will now be a sponsor for Federated E-Cash as a Bitcoin scaling technology, with purpose of having blind signatures for improving privacy and usability for bitcoin.
E-cash concept was first mentioned in 1983 paper ''On Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments'' by David Chaum, and coins will be held in bitcoin multisig wallet.
Some people say that this may eliminate the need for using any privacy altcoins, and from what I am reading first version should be released somewhere in Q1 of 2022, but now it's still in experimental stages.
This is interesting for sure and it can help scale Bitcoin, but the issue I have is that federation members should be trusted and considered honest.


Source: https://medium.com/blockstream/blockstream-sponsors-federated-e-cash-as-a-bitcoin-scaling-technology-637ba05de7b3

Experimental Rust implementation of Federated E-Cash called Minimint is available for testing:
https://github.com/fedimint/minimint
copper member
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1901
Amazon Prime Member #7
October 12, 2021, 12:26:47 PM
#21
You can't really blame a company if it's looking to launch new products or take a new direction. Every company needs to evolve to stay in the game, otherwise it becomes a dinausor

I don't get it either.
It's a company that received funding from investors when they presented their plans, all that money was put in there with the hope of generating more money, not some utopian dreams, companies don't work like that if they would have gone only on nonprofit endeavors they would be long gone by now.
There are a lot of people around here that are insistent that everyone should work for free. IMO, it is utopian nonsense.

I personally think these tokens are tacky, but there is clearly a market for what they are selling, and AFAICT, they aren’t misleading anyone, so I don’t see an issue.

Further, most of their projects are on GitHub so anyone can fork/copy what they are offering if they think they can offer a better product.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 3684
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October 10, 2021, 06:02:33 AM
#20
Forget about proper debugging to find root of the problem. If they don't even bother try perform hard fork on testnet (assuming it's exist) first to see if something crashed, then this project have no bright future.

Problem (?) is they've been around for years, and like most projects deluding themselves into partnerships with their circle of corporations, the future is always bright. That's how they exit on the hundreds of millions of dollars. On the endless promise of potential and bright futures.

I'm just waiting for that exit to happen for Liquid -- probably in the next fad cycle or when someone of financial note decides that "Bitcoin defi" is the next big thing.
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 7490
Crypto Swap Exchange
October 10, 2021, 04:06:41 AM
#19
This kind of bug should be caught easily with some testing. Looks like Liquid Network doesn't even have testnet network (whether it's public or private network).

Ah right, I saw a discussion on this in News section yesterday, looks like it was down after all @OgNasty.

There's probably a testnet. There's just probably zero interest from anyone other than their network of "partners" and friends who want to use it, and if the volume's as the explorer suggests (almost as negligible as say, Bcash), then no surprise debugging wasn't sufficient.

Forget about proper debugging to find root of the problem. If they don't even bother try perform hard fork on testnet (assuming it's exist) first to see if something crashed, then this project have no bright future.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 3684
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October 09, 2021, 09:32:00 AM
#18
This kind of bug should be caught easily with some testing. Looks like Liquid Network doesn't even have testnet network (whether it's public or private network).

Ah right, I saw a discussion on this in News section yesterday, looks like it was down after all @OgNasty.

There's probably a testnet. There's just probably zero interest from anyone other than their network of "partners" and friends who want to use it, and if the volume's as the explorer suggests (almost as negligible as say, Bcash), then no surprise debugging wasn't sufficient.
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 7490
Crypto Swap Exchange
October 07, 2021, 03:54:07 AM
#17
Liquid network was down for more than 20 hours yesterday after activating hard fork, and they reported an issue with block signing related to a recent functionary upgrade.

--snip--

This kind of bug should be caught easily with some testing. Looks like Liquid Network doesn't even have testnet network (whether it's public or private network).
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
October 06, 2021, 09:26:28 AM
#16
Liquid network was down for more than 20 hours yesterday after activating hard fork, and they reported an issue with block signing related to a recent functionary upgrade.
This was worse than some shitcoin outages we saw before and I don't see any difference here, this is totally centralized solution and nobody should trust storing any coins stored there.
Imagine any network being down for almost a day... this is not looking good at all.
Quote
The root cause was determined to be a failing consistency check for the value of the consensus parameter signblock_witness_limit. In the Liquid production network, this value is hardcoded in Elements and included in the headers of the first DynaFed block.
https://blog.liquid.net/liquid-hard-fork-diagnostic-report/

legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
September 03, 2021, 05:52:35 AM
#15
I guess in the end it's going to completely depend on context. Artist just straight off selling his/her art NFTs? Not a scam. An artist selling his/her NFTs while directly/indirectly claiming that it will go up in price? A scam.
NFT's are tokens by definition, non-fungible-tokens, and most of them are scam with few exceptions maybe.

One more free USDT Tether promotion by Adam Back, and Liquid is advertising as better version of ethereum with cheaper fees for sending USDT...
What could possible go wrong?   Roll Eyes


https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/1433371246960553985


https://twitter.com/Liquid_BTC/status/1433694398739406850
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 6403
Blackjack.fun
August 26, 2021, 06:24:39 PM
#14
Well, it is kind of a scam to give false promises.

But with what promises was that rock sold?
There was no such thing, I actually suspect more false promises are in normal auctions, I've seen enough collectibles brochures that make ridiculous claims of those items being one of kind and highly sought by investors are art lovers and how the price for them will only go up for the next ten centuries.

Lies starting from simple things such as promising decentralization and big pumps to overtake bitcoin all the way to bigger lies including making electricity free and curing cancer Cheesy

But again, no art NFT made any of those claims, nor did NFT promise to solve a thing, other than keeping your favorite baseball picture safe from spilling a drink over it.

On the other side, I would consider those so-called NFT games a scam, this is a different thing, when you must pay in order to start playing, breed with $2k some kitties that will be worth cents, that's different.

But maybe the Blockstream people should stop trashing ICOs and NFTs like every other day on Twitter if they're going to just end up joining the craze in the end. And they're free to change their mind on these things anyway, but nooo, if it's on Ethereum it's bad but if it's on Liquid it's totally fine! /s

I don't give a damn about Blockstream but again they're doing just what everyone does, my database has one more table and is cuter, that's why you should use my services and not the others. The moment I'm going to see the attitude you're expecting from them or anyone else displayed on Twitter I'm going in the basement to wait for the apocalypse.

Not saying that as an excuse or that is normal but one should start ignoring these altogether, at the end of line you just bring more people to talk about them.
mk4
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 3873
Paldo.io 🤖
August 26, 2021, 11:15:33 AM
#13
Well, it is kind of a scam to give false promises. Lies starting from simple things such as promising decentralization and big pumps to overtake bitcoin all the way to bigger lies including making electricity free and curing cancer Cheesy

I guess in the end it's going to completely depend on context. Artist just straight off selling his/her art NFTs? Not a scam. An artist selling his/her NFTs while directly/indirectly claiming that it will go up in price? A scam.
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
August 26, 2021, 09:13:43 AM
#12
Here is Adam Back on twitter again promoting Blockstream Jade hardware wallet purchasing with L-USDt Tether with a 10% discount, and this is not the first time he is doing that... sorry but I don't understand this.
Maybe it's not so strange to see this when we know that Blockstream partnered with Bitfinex few years ago and that is another name for Tether printing machine.
Jade is now out of stock, but they are selling other stuff in their shop so I went to see what payment options they are offering, and here is the list, so anything you buy there have 10% lower price with Tether Liquid:

- credit cards
- bitcoin
- bitcoin LN
- Liquid Bitcoin
- Liquid CAD (I didn't even know that exists...)
- Liquid Tether (10% off) ?!




https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/1430856852800249858

legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
August 25, 2021, 10:49:31 PM
#11
I agree on your take on NFTs not being a scam tho. Useless waste of money? Maybe, it's totally subjective. But scam? I don't think so.
Well, it is kind of a scam to give false promises. Lies starting from simple things such as promising decentralization and big pumps to overtake bitcoin all the way to bigger lies including making electricity free and curing cancer Cheesy
mk4
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 3873
Paldo.io 🤖
August 25, 2021, 12:49:25 AM
#10
I don't get it either.
It's a company that received funding from investors when they presented their plans, all that money was put in there with the hope of generating more money, not some utopian dreams, companies don't work like that if they would have gone only on nonprofit endeavors they would be long gone by now.

Everyone knows that Blockstream is just a business that needs and wants to make money. But maybe the Blockstream people should stop trashing ICOs and NFTs like every other day on Twitter if they're going to just end up joining the craze in the end. And they're free to change their mind on these things anyway, but nooo, if it's on Ethereum it's bad but if it's on Liquid it's totally fine! /s

I agree on your take on NFTs not being a scam tho. Useless waste of money? Maybe, it's totally subjective. But scam? I don't think so.
legendary
Activity: 2912
Merit: 6403
Blackjack.fun
August 25, 2021, 12:22:29 AM
#9
You can't really blame a company if it's looking to launch new products or take a new direction. Every company needs to evolve to stay in the game, otherwise it becomes a dinausor

I don't get it either.
It's a company that received funding from investors when they presented their plans, all that money was put in there with the hope of generating more money, not some utopian dreams, companies don't work like that if they would have gone only on nonprofit endeavors they would be long gone by now.

I really don't understand this NFT hype that is probably much worse than ICO scams, someone literally sold JPEG image of rock for $600k.
If that is not a scam than I don't know what is.

And where is the scam?
Poeple knew what they were buying, they wanted one of those 100 pictures of rocks and they paid that much for one of their own will. Did the seller claim they will be worth 20 million in a month? Did they claim they hold keys for 1000 BTC? No! Just like other stupid auctions it was simply a show of people waiting to spend money and feel special.

Unlike ICOs that claim their token and their company will solve all of the world's problems from hunger to poverty, those NFT issuers don't do anything like this.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
August 24, 2021, 11:10:33 PM
#8
I really don't understand this NFT hype that is probably much worse than ICO scams, someone literally sold JPEG image of rock for $600k.
If that is not a scam than I don't know what is.
It is the same exact scam as ICO scams, they just keep changing the acronym to hide this fact.
Basically these are like lottery tickets or dice rolls that traders gamblers pay money for and hope that their ticket wins or their roll succeeds and gives them a lot of money. They don't care what they buy, whether it is a token, a JPEG image or even dog shit in a bag as long as the "chance" of winning the bet is there. And that "chance" is the chance of that shitcoin being pumped.

Obviously when there is this many gamblers looking for a "game" to play, someone has to provide them with that game. Hence the creation of thousands of useless tokens and dozens of platforms to create these on.
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
August 24, 2021, 06:36:05 AM
#7
Sorry Man, i can't see where is the problem if Blockstream follows a successful model like blockchain.com or coinbase, as there isn't a single accusation against it.
Why comparing Blockstream with exchanges like Coinbase or Blockchain.com when there is nothing related with what I said before?
I am not saying they are doing everything in a wrong way, maybe that satellite example is actually good, but I am not sure it is used in real life or maybe it's used more for their sidechain.

The reality is that there are a lot of idiots out there that are willing to give their money in exchange for garbage only if it has a fancy name such as ICO or nowadays DeFi or in this case NFT. Obviously anybody who can, will produce the garbage these idiots want to buy and happily take their money, or better yet create the platform where scammers build garbage to scam others.
I really don't understand this NFT hype that is probably much worse than ICO scams, someone literally sold JPEG image of rock for $600k.
If that is not a scam than I don't know what is.

I don't think anyone hates them for creating such products. It's the fact that they like to trash ICOs and altcoins and etc but then they end up making really similar products, the difference being that it's on their Liquid sidechain. It's just hypocrisy.
It is 100% hypocrisy, and I am expecting to see rock images to be sold on Liquid soon, just because they can...
Check out Adam Back twitter account and some of hi recent tweets.


https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/1426303274337148934


https://twitter.com/adam3us/status/1428036833473089546
mk4
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 3873
Paldo.io 🤖
August 24, 2021, 12:24:08 AM
#6
You can't really blame a company if it's looking to launch new products or take a new direction. Every company needs to evolve to stay in the game, otherwise it becomes a dinausor

Maybe they didn't have much originality or creativiry, maybe they didn't do it the right way. But at least they didn't sit on a chair and do nothing.
I mean, at least they are trying.
You don't become the best overnight. You learn step by step, every day. From 6 years ago to nowadays, they started from almost nothing to a multi millionaire company

I don't think anyone hates them for creating such products. It's the fact that they like to trash ICOs and altcoins and etc but then they end up making really similar products, the difference being that it's on their Liquid sidechain. It's just hypocrisy.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
August 23, 2021, 11:24:58 PM
#5
Surprise surprise, a centralized company is trying to use the ongoing hype to make money Cheesy
The reality is that there are a lot of idiots out there that are willing to give their money in exchange for garbage only if it has a fancy name such as ICO or nowadays DeFi or in this case NFT. Obviously anybody who can, will produce the garbage these idiots want to buy and happily take their money, or better yet create the platform where scammers build garbage to scam others.
To be honest if I didn't have morality I too would have created at least a dozen tokens and be super rich by now.
copper member
Activity: 2940
Merit: 4101
Top Crypto Casino
August 23, 2021, 02:53:12 PM
#4
You can't really blame a company if it's looking to launch new products or take a new direction. Every company needs to evolve to stay in the game, otherwise it becomes a dinausor

Maybe they didn't have much originality or creativiry, maybe they didn't do it the right way. But at least they didn't sit on a chair and do nothing.
I mean, at least they are trying.
You don't become the best overnight. You learn step by step, every day. From 6 years ago to nowadays, they started from almost nothing to a multi millionaire company
hero member
Activity: 2338
Merit: 757
August 23, 2021, 01:35:46 PM
#3
Sorry Man, i can't see where is the problem if Blockstream follows a successful model like blockchain.com or coinbase, as there isn't a single accusation against it. This is a big market and we intend to see more competitors (new comers) in the near future .
Within any industry field, greed people are everywhere .

PS
I will use this topic for all future ''great'' new inventions by Blockstrem, and it's open for discussion.
Last year, Blockstream announced the new version of their satellite bitcoin blockchain stream [Blockstream Satellite 2.0] : https://blockstream.com/2020/05/04/en-announcing-blockstream-satellite-2/
This success has a great importance as described here bu Gmaxwell : Blockstream Satellite 2.0
mk4
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 3873
Paldo.io 🤖
August 23, 2021, 09:22:31 AM
#2
Don't you know?

Tokens are bad but it's fine if it's a Bitcoin sidechain.
NFTs are bad but it's fine if it's on Liquid.

/s

They're simply just businessmen that's going to do anything that's going to benefit them while trashtalking competition.
legendary
Activity: 2212
Merit: 7064
August 23, 2021, 06:54:51 AM
#1
Blockstream is looking more and more like ethereum every day, and maybe even worse because they keep trashtalking eth while doing exactly the same thing.
First they created centralized sidechain called Liquid and they created tokens, like L-BTC and USDT Tether, than they also created some fake dex exchange called Tdex (True Decentralized Exchange), and now they created guess what... NFT's and LNFT platform Roll Eyes.
They are now selling digital collectibles and selling tickets with access to the film sci-fi movie Silhouettes, but it looks to me they are just copy-pasting everything ethereum is doing.
I guess they are thinking only profit and pumps, or maybe Adam Back is thinking of changing movie industry with NFT's... yeah right.
https://blog.liquid.net/sci-fi-film-silhouettes-integrates-liquid-nfts/

PS
I will use this topic for all future ''great'' new inventions by Blockstrem, and it's open for discussion.

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