Kickstarter moving to blockchain

[RealAlHazred]

Hmm... that ExplainXKCD link is borked, and I can't figure out what it ought to be.

Thanks for the head's up! Fixed now!

 

[darjr]

 

[RichGreen]

That’s a really good thread!

 

[doctorhook]

This is enlightening.

Not about blockchain (which I only vaguely understand), but about the fact that apparently no one else can figure out the rationale for this either.

 

[guachi]

I won't be supporting projects on Kickstarter after the latest projects I've backed finally ship. Almost everything I support on Kickstarter is purchasable after the fact via some other avenue.

 

[Staffan]

Doesn't blockchain eat up significant electrical power? I know something related to cryptocurrency is a significant power drain, and that's the last thing we need when trying to reduce greenhouse gasses. Might get me to completely swear off kickstarting.

My understanding is that while the biggest power drain is cryptocurrency mining (I've seen it described as "What if leaving your car idling could solve sudokus that you could then trade for heroin?"), just making transactions is also much more costly in terms of energy than traditional methods.

The reason is that if I'm using a traditional bank and I'm paying you money, there are basically two databases/ledgers involved: my account and your account. The energy cost of that is pretty much negligible But if we're using crypto, the change has to be recorded in every instance of the blockchain, which takes a lot more energy (depending on how wide spread it is).

 

[RichGreen]

I've written to Kickstarter as a backer on more than 70+ projects and as an independent creator asking them to reconsider this move. I'm not sure how much they are going to listen to RPG backers and creators, but I figured that it can't hurt to let them know how I feel about it. The address is protocol@kickstarter.com

 

[UngainlyTitan]

My understanding is that while the biggest power drain is cryptocurrency mining (I've seen it described as "What if leaving your car idling could solve sudokus that you could then trade for heroin?"), just making transactions is also much more costly in terms of energy than traditional methods.

The reason is that if I'm using a traditional bank and I'm paying you money, there are basically two databases/ledgers involved: my account and your account. The energy cost of that is pretty much negligible But if we're using crypto, the change has to be recorded in every instance of the blockchain, which takes a lot more energy (depending on how wide spread it is).

This is not quite right. It is not the updating the blockchain that takes a lot of energy, it is the crypto-token mining (that authorises one to edit the blockchain) that takes all the energy.

They (Kickstarter) are not planning on installing crypto mining software on backers hardware are they?

 

[Staffan]

This is not quite right. It is not the updating the blockchain that takes a lot of energy, it is the crypto-token mining (that authorises one to edit the blockchain) that takes all the energy.

That's what I said. The mining is what makes it take up enormous amounts of energy, but even without the mining just making transactions takes a significant amount, compared to traditional transactions.

 

[Umbran]

The makers of Coyote and Crow, a recent million-dollar RPG project on Kickstarter, sent out an e-mail yesterday, saying that this move by Kickstarter means they'll have to take their crowdfunding efforts elsewhere.