Reviving Cypherpunk Values in Ethereum: A Call from Co-founder Vitalik Buterin
Summary:
Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, calls for a revival of the "cypherpunk" revolution in the Ethereum network, which emphasizes decentralization, open participation, and privacy. Buterin hopes to see more non-financial applications implemented within the Ethereum sphere, leveraging developments such as rollups, zero-knowledge proofs, and account abstraction. He warned of the potential threats to the unique value of the crypto ecosystem if it drifts towards excessive centralization, echoing the existing web2 system.
In the early days of blockchain, a "cypherpunk" revolution was imagined, an idea that needs to be reignited within the Ethereum network, according to co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum was initially conceived as a publicly accessible, decentralized hard drive that utilized peer-to-peer communication and decentralized file storage. However, this original intention fell by the wayside around 2017 due to the focus shifting towards financialization within Ethereum, detailed Buterin in his Dec. 28 post.
Buterin hopes to reestablish certain key "cypherpunk" principles within Ethereum's future trajectory, such as decentralization, open participation, resistance to censorship, and credible neutrality. He maintains optimism for the potential growth of non-financial uses within the blockchain, citing some recent mainstream technological developments that could sustain these values, including rollups, zero-knowledge proofs, account abstraction and second-generation privacy solutions. To clarify, a "cypherpunk" is an individual using encryption while utilizing a computer network in an effort to ensure privacy from governmental authorities.
Other privacy-related functions that Buterin would like to see widespread within Ethereum include anonymous poll participation, and the application of quadratic voting and cross-tribal consensus-finding mechanisms to aid self-governance within organizations. He acknowledged the potential for the creation of crypto technologies that are not in line with these values, hinting at certain hypothetical examples. For instance, developing a highly centralized layer safeguarded by multisignature with no planned modifications, or an NFT ecosystem storing NFTs on a centralized server rather than systems like IPFS, a decentralized file storage platform.
Pushing back against these trends is difficult, conceded Buterin, however, if this is not done, there's a real threat of losing the crypto ecosystem's unique value and simply replicating the existing web2 system with additional inefficiencies and processes. While acknowledging these challenges, Buterin expressed admiration for some of the problem-solving initiatives that have emerged in response to major industry issues. He noted that decentralized exchanges have offered a response to centralized exchange hacks, while tools like Cowswap, Flashbots Protect, and MEV Blocker have helped mitigate the impact of sandwich attacks by Maximum Extractable Value participants on Ethereum users.
Early this week, Buterin proposed making the Ethereum proof-of-stake chain more efficient and straightforward by lowering the amount of required signatures from validators to maintain network operations, which took place on Dec. 27.
Published At
12/29/2023 7:09:51 AM
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