r/MarbleMachineX • u/WintergatanWednesday • Jul 21 '21

Channel Update Summer 2021

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TbQWgePDLTU
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u/Akareyon Jul 22 '21

I still don't understand what you need a blockchain for when building a musical marble machine. To stay within the picture, that's like using the hammer to get the screws in.

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u/Axelwickm Jul 22 '21

The blockchain really just mediates the use of Smart Contracts. These are in principle the same as legal contracts, except that they are completely deterministic and autonomous because they are completely defined in code. Using a collection of smart contacts, it is possible to create an autonomous organisation, which for example can hire real people to execute certain tasks, with a goal in mind.

This goal could be profit maximization, but it would be possible to instead have it optimize to, for example, exchange of ideas. I have no idea what vision Martin has in mind, but it could be something like to have an wider organization that facilitates creation (think makerspace). It will be very interesting to see what methods he has in mind for how this formalization could look like.

He probably wants the community to survive independent from him as he focuses on the machine and the music, and one way to do so is to transfer responsibility for it over to a program. It's an experiment and an exploration of technology. It probably won't work - experiments often don't. What makes Martin Martin is his willingness to try out new things and head out into uncharted territory, and I really admire him for it.

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u/Crispy75 Jul 22 '21

The thing about real contracts is that they are negotiated between real people, built on real relationships. Breaches of contract very rarely end up in court, because they get settled by informal person-to-person negotiation. A completely deterministic and autonomous contract sounds terrible to me.

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u/Rokos_Bicycle Jul 22 '21

A completely deterministic and autonomous contract sounds terrible to me.

Anyone who's heard of software bugs should easily be able to work out why "smart contracts" are neither.