Post
Topic
Board Development & Technical Discussion
Re: Bad Code Has Lost $500M of Cryptocurrency in Under a Year
by
nullius
on 21/02/2018, 05:26:12 UTC
I intended, and may perhaps make some replies upthread.  Sorry, I lost track of the discussion.

Whereas now, I am compelled to call out an object example of just how we get so much bad code, causing so many losses:

“I want to learn coding / with blockchain whats the best language?”

Some excerpts of my reply:

First, realize that you have a profound responsibility when you write code which handles Other People’s Money.

I am all for helping more people become Bitcoin users.  But we do not need more coders.  We need fewer and better coders working on Bitcoin and “cryptos”.  Whereas most people are innately incapable of ever becoming good coders, just as I myself am innately incapable of ever becoming an Olympic gymnast.

Do I discourage you?  I intend to!  You should be discouraged from learning to code machinery which handles Other People’s Money, unless you have such a keen ability that nothing I say could possibly discourage you.  People who have such an ability always do know themselves that way.

If you have NO experience start with HTML and CSS, slowly work your way into JS. Once in JS, Solidity should come fairly easy to you

This is how we eventually obtain such threads as, “Bad Code Has Lost $500M of Cryptocurrency in Under a Year”.  See especially the discussion downthread of Ethereum.

If that’s how you need to learn to code, then YOU SHOULD NOT BE CODING.  Most of all, you should stay the hell away from Other People’s Money.

Think:  Would you trust a surgeon who started his formal studies by doing “surgery” on pineapples with a kitchen knife, then worked up from there?

We will stop getting “Bad Code Lost XYZ” threads, when people take the coding of financial software as seriously as they take the practice of medicine, engineering of bridges and tunnels, and other professional tasks where errors result in PEOPLE GETTING HURT.

Seriously.  This world is infected with the notion that everybody and his dog is entitled to learn programming.  People take it as an affront if you do not encourage this, and an outrage if you suggest that they are just not capable.  Then—surprise, surprise—“Re: Bad Code Has Lost $500M of Cryptocurrency in Under a Year”.

“If you have NO experience start with HTML and CSS, slowly work your way into JS.”  Please tell me you do not code anything which touches money, ever.

FWIW, one of the characteristics I respect about Core is its reputation for being—shall we say, a bit of a harsh environment.  Not a “welcoming environment”.  So-called “welcoming environments” are welcoming to the rot of lowering standards.