Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 8

vitalik.eth

@VitalikButerin

Nov 8

3. Optimizing for ETH as SoV is aligned with decentralization and CROPS

Whenever I ask what people appreciate the most about Ethereum (as opposed to either other blockchains, or anything outside the blockchain world), the most common answer is: decentralization and CROPS (censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security).

Decentralization and CROPS have a lot of value, even to institutions. For individuals, privacy is often viewed as an abstract ideology. For institutions, it's prudent risk management, data protection law compliance, and a number of other things. Likewise for security. And likewise for running your own node (enterprise buzzword: "on-prem deployment").

But what about for the ETH holder? Well, it depends why you're an ETH holder. If you want ETH to optimally chase financial trends and collect fees from them, then you want a Fearless Leader™ who bravely shouts on the socials that Ethereum loves [insert opportunity here] and will pragmatically reconfigure itself to give it explicit protocol support.

But if your primary reason to hold ETH is as an SoV, then you will be judging ETH by SoV-ish metrics. And what is the first and most important SoV-ish metric?

To survive.

That's what a big chunk of this last Devcon was about ("post-quantum and post-AI"). You want a chain that is taking conservative tradeoffs ("hash-only security, all formally proven, >3x more rounds than known to be necessary for security"). You want a chain that is aiming for at least partial ossification, where the great balance of work will move to higher levels of the stack once the core is complete. You want a chain that aims to minimize protocol politics, by having a very high bar before it accepts either precompiles that bloat the protocol or new kinds of in-protocol rewards that could get captured.

What other SoV'ish metrics?

The ability to easily hold it safely (hence, work on multisigs).
The ability to hold it privately (hence, kohaku work).
The ability to hold it privately *and* safely (hence, 8288 and private-AA workstreams already starting).
The guarantee that if you have coins, you can send them, and block builders can't stop you (FOCIL)
Minimized infrastructure dependence (basically the whole decentralization roadmap, including the fact that I am able to currently run a node on this laptop, and it synced in < 6 hours and takes up only 1/8 of my hard drive - better stats than in 2019!)

Now, are there "adoption" goals that are highly synergistic with SoV?

Very much so.

The more assets there are natively issued on L1, including both RWAs and native decentralized assets, the larger a set of things you can "do" with your ETH, the better. Being able to easily (including safely, trustlessly) convert back and forth between ETH and other assets, use ETH as collateral to do things with other assets, etc, all forms part of the utility of holding ETH.

There are still some conflicts between serving these use cases and decentralization (eg. we want to be careful about fast slots and impact on centralization), but on the whole much less than what you get if you maximize fees.

Conclusion:

The best social reason to care about Ethereum is because it makes decentralization and CROPS properties a reality for more people and uses.

The best private reason to hold ETH is its SoV properties, which are a direct consequence of that decentralization and CROPS.

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 9

Justine Moore

@venturetwins

Nov 9

Damn they’re giving the AI interviewers some personality now

(from itsnickreid on TikTok)

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 9

Bitcoin News

@BitcoinNewsCom

Nov 9

🚨 ETHEREUM FOUNDATION SUED OVER MANDATE REQUIRING EMPLOYEES TO PLEDGE TO “TAKE HIS OR HER OWN LIFE WITH A SWORD”

Former Ethereum Foundation employee Kayleen Fulton alleges she was fired just 13 days after disclosing her ovarian cancer diagnosis and 12 days after organizing ation’s controversial Mandate.

According to the lawsuit:

• The Mandate contained a pledge to commit suicide with a sword for violating its terms.

• 79 employees voted to remove the provision, but the Foundation published it unchanged.

• Vitalik Buterin allegedly promised “significant changes” before the document was permanently inscribed on Ethereum.

• 53 employees signed a letter opposing forced affirmation of the Mandate. Both organizers were subsequently fired.

• The plaintiff alleges she was fired just 13 days after disclosing her cancer diagnosis and 12 days after organizing the protest.

The lawsuit alleges disability discrimination and retaliation. The allegations have not been proven in court.

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 8

Ryan Grim

@ryangrim

Nov 8

All In realizes they’ve lost “the podcast bros”

All your bros is gone to us

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 6

Andrew Tate

@Cobratate

Nov 3

My cell is infested with cockroaches and ants. I kill all roaches.

Ants I leave alone, I like their teamwork. Unless they’re walking on the walls then I kill them.

I don’t like show-offs.

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 6

TSA

@TSA

Nov 5

drone drone drone drone drone drone drone drone drone drone dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne drone drone dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne drone drone dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne dr0ne drone drone drone drone drone drone drone drone.....

Richard “Dick” Whitman (🌎/21M)

@GhostofWhitman

Nov 5

gee

@12gee_man

Nov 5

Abella Danger explains why one OnlyFans video does not make you a porn star

“No fuck you. I’ve been on set for like 12 hours fucking 35 guys and once I earned that title, you went on OnlyFans one night and you’re a porn star now? Fuck you”

“If I started OnlyFans tomorrow and put up a single video of me fucking around, I’m a porn star? … You don’t feel like you have to earn it”

“I think you have to have done anal too. There are plenty of popular women who have filmed themselves having sex on camera for money, they’re not porn stars. You gotta go the extra mile”

“Mia Khalifa never did anal. She’s not a porn star. Don’t get me started on Mia Khalifa. That’s a girl who hated being associated with it… Why do you still use your porn name? Why do you still profit off it? Change your name, change your look, get face surgery, go work at McDonald’s. Have a normal job”

“I actually think the OnlyFans revolution will be really important for the porn industry… Your best friend is doing OnlyFans and it’s like, well you love that person… it’ll change a lot of people’s minds”
x.com/wandermist/sta…

Community note

The quotes in this clip criticizing OnlyFans creators and Mia Khalifa are spoken by the interviewer, not Abella Danger. She responds more inclusively and states that the OnlyFans revolution will be important for the porn industry.
youtube.com/watch?v=WfdmjR…