joepie91

You don't need a blockchain.

If you're reading this, you probably suggested to somebody that a particular technical problem could be solved with a blockchain.

Blockchains aren't a desirable thing; they're defined by having trustless consensus, which necessarily has to involve some form of costly signaling to work; that's what prevents attacks like sybil attacks.

In other words: blockchains must be expensive to operate, to work effectively. This makes it a last-resort solution, when you truly have no other options available for solving your problem; in almost every case you want a cheaper and less complex solution than a blockchain.

In particular, if your usecase is commercial, then you do not need or want trustless consensus. This especially includes usecases like supply chain tracking, ticketing, and so on. The whole *p

joepie91

Don't use VPN services.

No, seriously, don't. You're probably reading this because you've asked what VPN service to use, and this is the answer.

Note: The content in this post does not apply to using VPN for their intended purpose; that is, as a virtual private (internal) network. It only applies to using it as a glorified proxy, which is what every third-party "VPN provider" does.

• A Russian translation of this article can be found here, contributed by Timur Demin.
• A Turkish translation can be found here, contributed by agyild.
• There's also this article about VPN services, which is honestly better written (and has more cat pictures!) than my article.