Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum and immortality
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The Biggest Research Question That We Need to Solve Now?
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Show Notes
Wdyd Besides Crypto?
– Vitalik reads a lot
– Fascinated in how languages have evolved
– Vitalik: Like you know how gate used to mean a structure that lets things in and out…now “gate” means a media scandal!
– Ledger: “Favorite high fantasy?”
– Vitalik: “Early Game of Thrones were great. Early high fantasy was very much good vs. evil, like in Lord of the Rings Elves and men are good, and Orcs are evil”
– It’s possible Vitalik would run a book club in the future given Cobie would want it
10 years ago what’d you see yourself doing?
– Wasn’t thinking too deeply
– Then Bitcoin came along and turned into something
– Vitalik was the first writer for Bitcoin magazine
– Cobie: “Did you at one point apply for a job at Ripple?”
– Vitalik: “Yes”
– Jed McCaleb said yes, but Visa trouble prevented him from joining
Ethereum Beginnings
– Too many co-founders at first (there are 8 for those of you who just pretend you like crypto)
– Some coding changes too
– Vitalik: “Sometimes I wonder how things would’ve turned out if Ethereum had different distribution”
– Cobie: “Do you see Ethereum now as your life’s work or is there a future where you don’t work on Ethereum?”
– Will be a large part of future
– Might do some writings and other stuff in the future
– Vitalik: “There’s a part of me that just wants to troll the market and repeat that stunt again [faking death lol]”
Family
– Vitalik’s dad is like a crypto influencer
– Mom getting involved in crypto, optimistic rollup
Proof-of-Stake
– When did PoS become obvious as the path forward?
– Vitalik: “2014” holy chad
– Eventually had a proper understanding of the tradeoffs and got convinced it was the way forward
– ZEC and DOGE also switching to PoS
NFTs
– Why are they so good at onboarding and what’s the future?
– There are huge desires for inclusion and collectibles
– Vitalik: “Even like 10 years ago privatejet.com was more valuable than a private jet”
– Virtual property is a thing
– NFTs could be the big first use cases for crypto besides currencies and DeFi
– Its an easy way for artists to get money
– Vitalik: “Sometimes there is certain value in trading of things being hard”
*Vitalik cuts out*
”He needs to pay more gas!”
Research
– Most research prob already done
– zk is really amazing technology but needs to be improved til we can use it
– MEV could use some more research
Wallet Improvements
– Wallet security and multisig
– Most wallets just have 1 password, can be dangerous
– Alternatives:
– Multisig – 3 keys, need at least 2 to transfer funds
– Social recovery – on Vitalik’s cold wallet there are 6 individuals who have power, 4 out of 6 needed to move funds
Most likely to be Satoshi?
– Craig Wright, Charles Hoskinson, Elon Musk, Loomdart
– Vitalik: Blueberry
– Cobie: “If you had to choose someone who’s your best guess?”
– Vitalik: “If I had to choose someone I’d guess Hal Finney… between 1-20% chance it’s Hal Finney”
Vitalik Memes
– Vitalik has replied to deranged vitalik memers hahaha
– Vitalik: “FTX – does that stand for FiTalik Exchange?”
Multi-chain but not Cross-Chain
– There are too many risks with bridging
– Can just create same assets and use on 1 chain
– In single chain, you can always revert chain and everyone gets assets back to at least initial state
– With multi-chain, if stuff breaks, the problem is way larger (double spending etc)
Ethereum Roadmap
– Goal is still to have $0.05 per transaction
– Hard to scale without sacrificing on security or centralization
– With Rollups and sharding Ethereum can scale immensely
– Within a couple of years Ethereum fees will be back under 5 cents
Future of Ethereum
– Progress on zk EVM is going very well
– Most nodes won’t store full chain
– There will be a few who do
*wifi cut out 5 min miss*
Privacy
– Blockchain isn’t “true privacy” just pseudonymous
– Regulators ok with that
– Once its on ETH… where do we go?
– Vitalik: “People are really underestimating the risks/ downsides of no privacy”
– Ledger: “I want to know the craziest thing Vitalik ever bought with crypto”
– Vitalik: “Metformin probably”
– Anti-aging drug
Anti-aging
– Ledger: “How long do you think someone born today will live?”
– Vitalik: “I think more than a 50% chance someone will see the year 3,000”
– SIR!
– How does equality come into play? Just the rich live forever?
– Vitalik: “I think it will shortly evenly distribute”
– Not just billionaires get to live forever
– Anti-aging stuff should be part of the plan for countries that have universal health care
– Vitalik: “COVID vaccines should have been offered as a choice for those who wanted it in summer 2020”
– More towards very conservative for mandates, very liberal for choice
– Vitalik: “If people start to live to be 500 years old psych will be bad – this is a fair critique”
– Not all tech solves all problems
World Stuff
– It will take a long time before we actually populate Mars
– Think about Antartica…we aren’t there yet and its way easier
Non-crypto Area of Investment
– Biotech
– Really thinks there will be a long arc of progress over next 70 years
– Same way computers had a long arc of progress over last 70 years
FINAL ALPHA
– Vitalik: “Come out of every day a better person than when you went into that day”
– Vitalik: “Whether its math or cryptography or working out, whatever it is do something”
– It puts you in a frame of mind of progress which is really good for mental health
Music by GiovanniPickle
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