Ethereum Co-Founder Backs Farcaster’s Move to Private Likes via ZK Technology
Summary:
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has endorsed X engineer Haofei's idea to make "likes" on the decentralized social media platform Farcaster private. Buterin further proposed to implement zero-knowledge (ZK) technology from Zupoll, for anonymous liking. Haofei's move towards private likes aims to lessen preference falsification, and Buterin's suggestion aligns with Farcaster's principles of user privacy and decentralization. Buterin has also offered strategies to mitigate the miner extracted value (MEV) problem. The community has given mixed responses to these ideas.
The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has shown his support for a recently announced initiative by X engineer Haofei, disclosed on the Farcaster, a decentralized social media platform. According to Haofei, X is set to move towards having "likes" be private. On May 20th, Buterin took it a step further, proposing that Farcaster employs zero-knowledge (ZK) likes to discourage preference falsification — the act of misrepresenting true preference because of social pressure or fear of backlash.
ZK technology is a cryptographic method that preserves privacy, enabling one party to demonstrate the truth of a statement to another party without revealing confidential details. If used for likes, it would validate that someone has liked a post without exposing their identity.
Buterin suggested taking ZK technology from Zupoll, a tool he initiated and named Zuzalu, used in the pop-up city concept. Focusing on decentralization and cryptography, Zupoll is used for anonymous voting and making decisions in polls.
His proposition to employ ZK technology resonates with Farcaster's core principles — user privacy, resistance to censorship, autonomy, and distinction from centralized social media platforms.
Addressing gossip that X is planning to automatically hide users’ likes, Haofei confirmed the platform intends to make likes private and provided the reasoning behind this choice. “Public likes encourage inappropriate behavior. For instance, numerous individuals refrain from liking content that may be considered "edgy" for fear of backlash from trolls, or to safeguard their public reputation," He detailed. Haofei added that users would soon be able to like posts “without concern about who might see it.” He also highlighted that the algorithm improves the more posts a user likes.
The community's reaction was mixed to the news. Some suggested taking the idea further, proposing "Why stop at likes? Following is the same." However, prominent accounts like Wall Street Silver expressed a different view.
Buterin has also recently offered solutions to ease the miner extracted value (MEV) issue outside the realm of ZK cryptography. Validators can capitalize on profits through arranging transactions within a block to take advantage of inaccessible arbitrage opportunities using MEV strategies. This practice, however, can congest the network, raise trader slippage requirements, and increase gas fees. To counteract this, Buterin recommended implementing MEV minimization quarantine techniques, inclusion lists, and reducing requirements to operate a node.
Published At
5/22/2024 12:28:42 PM
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