this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
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[–] i_c_b_m@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I was excited until I heard "blockchain". This feels like a memecoin launch and I'm not sure it will actually help BRICS reputation.

[–] Comprehensive49@lemmygrad.ml 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Please take the effort to understand blockchain before immediately denouncing it. It is useful in extremely specific conditions of low trust between a low number of equal peers. The one special thing about blockchain is that all users keep a ledger, a record of all transactions, and cross-verify it with one another.

In most scenarios, this feature is completely useless and a waste of energy because all users have to spend electricity on verifying random transactions by other people. For example, with you and your bank account, there is no reason to use blockchain because your bank is the one trusted entity and already keeps all the records of your money, so they can just use regular server infrastructure for all their customers. Using blockchain here would be unnecessary; if you did, you, your bank, and all the bank's other customers would waste energy verifying each other's transactions.

However, for transactions between nations, there is no one trusted entity because all nations are essentially equal in their trust level, or at least would like to be treated as such. The main problem with the current financial system is that the US has positioned itself (and its puppet the IMF) as the one trusted entity and wields its power indiscriminately and with abandon. Thus to fix this, BRICS must ensure there is no need for one trusted entity in the global financial system, so this is where blockchain comes in.

Basically, the BRICS plan is for every participating nation's central bank to keep a blockchain ledger, such that when they settle debts and do global transactions between each other, all of the transactions are recorded and verified on every other nation's central bank blockchain ledgers, so that no one nation can insert a bunch of fake transactions into its ledger to steal money from or attack other nations. Because there are way fewer nations than people in the world, the system physically cannot suffer from the same kind of blockchain inefficiencies of too many users verifying too many transactions simply because there will never be as many users making transactions on the blockchain. Also, because BRIC's blockchain system is backed and used by nations, the entire system will obviously have much higher security than a random blockchain made by some scammer in their garage.

No matter the inefficiencies of blockchain, the BRICS blockchain system is vastly more efficient than the current financial system of every nation sending their money to a US bank, paying the US bank a transaction fee, and then the US bank sending it to the final destination nation.

Ben Norton made a great video overviewing the comprehensive new financial system Russia is proposing here.

[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm the biggest critic and certified hater of blockchain technology, and I remain extremely skeptical. But this specific implementation of blockchain, I find to be slightly intriguing.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 3 weeks ago

This might be a rare case where blockhain actually makes sense. You want a public ledger that's not owned by any single entity, and that's basically what blockchain is.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Blockchain transactions are definitely much less efficient than a centralized ledger, still i think its a current necessity because the current centralized ledger is compromised in the hands of the US and its dogs. They have made it clear that they will steal anyone financial assets if they oppose them, so it makes sense to have a decentralized system.

I think the world has to go through this decentralized stage in order to reach a centralized stage if that makes sense.

And in the bottom line it could prove more efficient than the current centralized system, since the US wont be able to use the funds of the world to kill and destroy the opposition.

[–] Comprehensive49@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Efficiency depends on the actual cost of the ledger to the users, not just the energy costs. The decentralized BRICS ledger will only cost the participating nations servers and energy, which on the nation-level is practically negligible. The current U.S. system requires a percentage cost per transaction from all nations who have to send their money to a U.S. intermediary bank.

This means that overall, the BRICS decentralized system will actually cost participating nations much less than the current US system, not counting the other benefits of not relying on the USA. Calculations covered by Ben Norton here project 15 billion USD in savings from not paying the US transaction fees.

[–] TankieReplyBot@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: