LibreOffice and blockchain: What cool things are possible?
Update 18 November: Based on the majority of feedback, we will not continue the discussion or explore this topic any further, as it is rather clear that the LibreOffice community is not interested. Thanks to everyone who let us know what they think.
Archive text:
As you’re no doubt aware, LibreOffice is free and open source software, which means that anyone can delve into the code behind it, study how it works, and adapt it for their needs. And we’ve seen many examples of this, with LibreOffice’s core engine being adapted by the ecosystem to work on mobile devices and in web browsers, for instance.
Meanwhile, blockchain is technology that provides a distributed ledger, made up of growing list of records (blocks), that are securely linked together using cryptography. The most famous (or sometimes infamous!) example of blockchain technology is cryptocurrencies (eg Bitcoin), but it can also be used in many other ways such as in smart contracts, authentication and games.
Blockchain addresses are most commonly thought of as financial accounts, but they can also function as permissionless credentials. Zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs), which provide cryptographic proof that something is true (such as that an account has a certain property or that a user is authorizsd to perform a certain action) without revealing anything else, open up many interesting possibilities like private and decentralised groups, anonymous contributions, and more.
Recently, we had a chat with the Ethereum Foundation about possible ways for people to combine LibreOffice with blockchain technologies. (We’re not talking about putting blockchain into LibreOffice!) We’ve discussed some ideas – but we’d like to hear from you, LibreOffice users! In what ways could people find a combination of LibreOffice Technology and blockchain be useful? Think of document authentication, collaboration and so forth.
Please don’t. If there is a requested feature that _requires_ blockchain I’d be interested, but “possible ways to combine LibreOffice with blockchain technologies” sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
Please keep LibreOffice away from blockchain and cryptocurrency. I see no need to combine LO and blockchain technologies, and it’s completely out of the technology areas where LibreOffice could see positive effects of hybridization (computer graphics, database management systems, web development).
+1
Any problem you can imagine can be solved in a more simple and efficient way. Why you can even think that a office suite could use that?
Seriously, nothing. Please don’t.
You make a great Office suite that all of use use and love. Please don’t turn this into a blockchain-infested planet-destroying cesspool.
I don’t want to disparage great ideas for encouraging and supporting decentralised collaboration, but let’s leave crypto out of it.
In short:
– if you need to comply with laws restricting CSAM, PII, like GDPR, then you can’t use a blockchain
– if you have even a shred of responsibility for reducing Climate Apocalypse, then you can’t use a blockchain
– if you need a persistent, tamper-free, public ledger, built by mutually untrusting anonymous participants, in the face of a malicious network, and can’t use a trustee or certified central authority, then you need a blockchain
For a more nuanced assessment of whether LibreOffice could use a Block Chain, consider these:
– https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/09/29/how-to-determine-whether-you-need-a-blockchain/
– https://101blockchains.com/do-you-need-a-blockchain/
Thanks for your feedback, but please note that we’re not changing anything! As the blog post says, we’re NOT putting blockchain in LibreOffice. This is about collecting ideas that others may want to pursue.
decentralised document storage?
decentralised office suite?
I have alot of ideas. combining blockchain with an office suite seems really enticing and intriguing!
Mike – we know that you’re just collecting ideas, for others to enable Blockchain stuff.
We’re asking you *not* to do that, for the sake of the planet. It’s time we put cryptocurrency + blockchain in the same box as malware & ransomware. Just Don’t Do It, and Don’t Enable It.
You can have all the cool decentralised stuff, without blockchains, without the massive energy wastage.
Ignore the naysayers. Verification and provable timestamping are two good uses of this tech in any document software. Thanks for asking for ideas.
True, there’s so much to discover. The future is decentralized or we have not much future at all.
In no way. Blockchain is a useless and outright bad technology, with better alternatives available for just about anything it can do.
Let anyone who wants to use Blockchain produce the electricity a “transaction” requires by using an exercise bicycle attached by a (yet to be invented) connector-box to their computer.
However, we would then still have to address the technological-societal concerns around the Blockchain technology.
Let us think this through, before we act.
I cannot think of anything “cool” this could enable. I can think of many scary things this could enable.
No blockchains, please. Time can be spent elsewhere.
Crypto doesn’t have any good use outside of financial speculation. Crypto games exist only to fuel crypto and in every case they fall with crypto as noone wants to play them the sake of it.
The contracts only exist to generate hype within their own ecosystem. Cypto burdens the greater fool.
An organisation like The Document Foundation should not associate themselves with such financial and speculative schemes
(Seems my last comment got removed by moderators for voicing my opinion on the Ethereum Foundation, so I will leave that out this time)
Blockchain is a terribly flawed piece of technology with no actual use cases. None of the promised use cases have come true even through many years of false promises by those on the side of blockchain. It is pure hype with no technological merit. It is, frankly speaking, a scam, and LibreOffice would do well to not associate themselves with blockchain.
So, given you ask for what combination LibreOffice and blockchain could be useful, here is my answer: None.
All I want is for LibreOffice to be a functional office suite. I don’t want it to be associated with the scammy world of blockchain and the fact that the LibreOffice team considered this strongly enough to the point it became a blog post terrifies me and I very strongly hope you do an u-turn immediately and get out of this blockchain world. You’ve already burned quite some goodwill by even stating you are open to the idea of blockchain, please strongly reconsider the path you’re going down.
Please keep the Blockchain fad far away from LibreOffice. For the sake of yourself, the sake of your users and the sake of the planet.
Hi Sylvia, thanks for your feedback! Please note that there’s no “u-turn” to make – we’re not doing anything with blockchain in LibreOffice. This is just an open discussion for ideas that others may want to implement.