Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum and immortality
UpOnly: Chats with Crypto Experts
I'm Still Thinking About the Living, Right?
Vitalic asks our guest for some wisdom and life advice. At the end of every episode, we ask our guest for a some wisdom that they could also use in their lives. This week's question is: What do you think about extending your life span?
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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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