48 points speckx 2 hours ago 4 comments

ortusdux 1 hour ago | parent

Reminds me of the Tom Scott video on the cable singe that leverages the moiré effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99_h30swtM

alexpotato 45 minutes ago | parent

I worked for an L1 blockchain for a couple years and while the term "decentralized" is bandied about a bit too much, reading articles like this does underscore how vulnerable global traffic is.

e.g. some EVM chains have a majority of "stake" in either one country or several adjacent countries (particularly in Asia). A cable cut there, which the article points out has happened, can lead to the blockchain getting cut off or even halting.

hylaride 40 minutes ago | parent

I think the issue is that centralization is more economical due to scale, but that assumes all else (geopolitics or other black swan events) don't impact things.

We saw a similar thing with supply chains and chip suppliers.

scottyah 29 minutes ago | parent

I think people conflate decentralization with redundancy or resilience. IMO it just means you have multiple points of failure instead of one.