HN Explorer

Ask HN: Anyone working on interesting blockchain projects?

2 points by justaguyhere ↗ HN
I know HN is deeply skeptical about blockchain, but there might still be some people here working on interesting projects. Would you like to share? Also, realistically, is it something worth learning, spending a year or two, from a career perspective? If yes, any specific topics you'd recommend?

1 comment

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 15.7 ms ] thread
mtmail
While OpenStreetMap is open to anyone it still relied on a central database (huge Postgresql installation plus API run by the OpenStreetMap foundation). https://www.streetcred.co/ is builing a decentralized geographic database, points of interests (banks, restaurants, bus stops). Such a database has value, commercial providers charge a lot for licencing their data. The idea is that multiple parties can update this database and everybody benefits. The startup itself might make money from building tools, consulting, packaging the database but not the data itself. Ran (paid) incentives for people to contribute data (cannot be copied from other databases obviously) which happened to be bitcoin instead of cash. Raised money from VCs. I like the model because I was able to explain it in a couple of sentences and I see value.

https://www.foam.space/ is running an army of sensors as location anchors. Those sensors, from multiple companies, can work together and give users (e.g. a car, a package) a trusted location and timestamp. That is then signed into a chain. Well at least that's my understanding. Because users want to prove where they've been they'd pay the company who runs the sensors. Their presentation on website and the whitepaper got better and clearer over the months. I admit I didn't understand the first blog posts, or at least the commercial value.