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Ethereum Founder AMA Summary | Regulation, Stablecoins, Ethereum Vision, Love to Listen to Angela Zhang's Greatest Hits?

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Ethereum Founder AMA Summary | Regulation, Stablecoins, Ethereum Vision, Love to Listen to Angela Zhang

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin conducted a Twitter AMA experiment in early September, where the 268 people he followed could ask him any question. When asked by Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi why he was doing this experiment, Vitalik stated:

I wanted to see if there's any way to make Twitter still feel like a useful conversational platform for me while also providing design inspiration for other social platforms. I mostly just check DMs on platforms like Telegram, Status, Discord, etc. Twitter is useful, but only for keeping up with what people I follow are doing. My personal most-desired feature is group chat on Status.

Life Philosophy

1. Ethereum core developer Hsiao Wei Wang: It is said that the music people listen to at the age of 14 has the most profound impact on their taste later in life. What books, movies, music, or creations changed your worldview during your adolescence?

I read classic books on Austrian economics in 2011-12, which had a profound influence on my thinking and made me pay attention to Bitcoin early on. I only listen to music that I personally find pleasing and that makes my two-hour long runs more enjoyable. As you know, I randomly play songs from many Taiwanese singers. Currently listening to Angela Zhang.

2. ConsenSys Decentralized Commissioner Christian Lundkvist: Any progress in life extension research? Are you optimistic about the possibility of achieving longevity escape velocity? Thoughts on VitaDAO for longevity?

There is definitely growing optimism, and there seems to be significant progress in the removal of aging cells technology. VitaDAO is great, but I hope to see more innovative funding mechanisms (why can't we use $3.4 million worth of Ether to fund longevity research?!)

Note: Longevity escape velocity refers to the point where a one-year study successfully extends life by more than a year, achieving the "longevity escape velocity."

3. Twitter user Tamara Winter: Besides cryptocurrency, what other rabbit holes have you fallen into? Anything interesting going on currently?

I want to better understand countries that I haven't spent much time researching, including Latin America and Africa, also Japan, thinking about where else...

4. Zcash Co-founder Zooko Wilcox: Why do you follow a fully plant-based diet?

Because they are healthy and delicious!

5. Pelith Founder Ping Chen: Any advice on improving tech-related writing skills?

@slatestarcodex This article has been really helpful to me.

6. Henry Farrell: Do you read novels regularly? Who are your favorite authors/books?

I have to admit, my recent favorite novel is Eliezer Yudkowsky's HPMOR.com.

7. Layer 2 solution zkSync: Have you read any interesting books lately?

I'm about a third of the way through Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism." This is definitely fascinating!

8. Divia Eden: What are your favorite podcasts?

Bankless, Julia Galef's "Rationally Speaking", Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History"

9. Ethereum UX Designer Alex Van de Sande: Is there a place or things you miss if you're away for too long, a place you can call home?

I think I've transitioned from a "fast nomad" to a "slow nomad"; I still spend a lot of time in different places, but I prefer staying 1-2 months rather than 2-4 days, although I've been in Singapore quite a bit recently!

10. The Graph Foundation Director Eva Beylin: What activities or habits do you believe contribute most to anti-aging?

The simplest thing is to completely reduce unnecessary sugar intake in your life, which is an underestimated theory that explains why tea is "healthy" and can replace many forms of high-sugar beverages.

11. Ethereum Developer Tim Beiko: How do you usually decide the order of things? Do you plan ahead or tackle urgent matters first?

The latter definitely more than the former.

12. Eliezer Yudkowsky: What recent event has changed your perspective?

Ten years ago, I thought processes like resources, property rights, and trade markets were the most important things in the world. Now, I focus more on ecological systems, and the spread of memes, culture, and ideas, whose rules are fundamentally different.

Blockchain

1. Gauntlet Networks CEO Tarun Chitra: Which privacy technologies do you predict will be widely adopted by 2025?

I expect ZK-SNARKs to enter the mainstream world in the next ten to twenty years, heralding a major revolution.

2. mariano.eth: Why do you think smart wallets haven't become popular? Thoughts on EIP-3074?

Currently, smart wallets require third-party infrastructure to pay transaction fees, and account abstraction can solve this issue; EIP 3074 addresses other problems, not this one.

3. Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Paul Graham: Have you considered launching another cryptocurrency?

No.

4. Afr Schoe: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and DeFi have elevated unregulated capitalism to new heights. Will we address issues like social inequality, environmental destruction, or intellectual decay?

Proof of Stake (PoS) will address environmental issues, Ethereum's public goods can address social inequality, and once matured, they could expand beyond Ethereum. A crypto-based social platform with incentives is more suitable for high-quality content than the current centralized web2.

5. Bankless Founder David Hoffman: How do you define the Metaverse?

As far as I know, it combines the Internet with hyper-immersive virtual reality, or the Internet with shared states so objects can switch between platforms, in the latter case, Ethereum will certainly be positioned as the center of the universe.

Ethereum

1. Avalanche Protocol Founder Emin Gün Sirer: What is the most challenging lesson you've learned from Ethereum?

It's harder to coordinate people in a small group than I imagined. You can't simply get everyone to sit in a circle, see the good in each other, and get along, especially when there are significant conflicting interests.

2. Cosmos Developer Sunny Aggarwal: What's Ethereum's biggest non-technical regret to date?

All the stuff about the "eight co-founders," choosing them in such a fast and uncertain situation.

3. Cosmos Developer Sunny Aggarwal: Favorite but most underrated mechanism design?

Frankly, I think EIP 1559 is underrated in mainstream mechanism design, it's a key example inspired directly by community ideas, entering the existing ecosystem and having a significant impact.

4. MyCrypto Founder Taylor Monahan: What were you overly confident about and turned out to be dead wrong?

Ethereum transitioning to Proof of Stake within 1-2 years.

5. MyCrypto Founder Taylor Monahan: Which Ethereum application has surprised you the most?

NFTs.

6. F2Pool Co-founder Chun, the Arctic Boy: Would you consider transitioning Bitcoin to PoS if possible? What can PoW do that PoS can't?

I would prefer to see the Bitcoin community appreciate the advantages of PoS on their own.

7. Defi Pulse Co-founder Scott Lewis: After the mainnet merge, which protocols will consider upgrading first?

Ethereum account abstraction, stateless nodes, sharding.

8. proto.eth: Favorite game theory application?

EIP 1559 might be a truly successful design mechanism inspired by my 2018 conversation at ACM SIGecom, it's very novel, grounded in reality rather than just theory, making it more impactful.

9. Three Arrows Capital Founder Zhu Su: What's your vision for Ethereum's collaboration with Dogecoin? Why are you interested in Dogecoin?

I hope Dogecoin will quickly transition to PoS using Ethereum's code, and I hope they don't cancel the annual 5 billion Dogecoin issuance and instead put it into a DAO that funds global public goods, which aligns well with Dogecoin's non-greedy, ethical spirit.

10. Gnosis Founder Martin Köppelmann: Users pay much more to the platform than to the DApp on Ethereum, for example, Apple's tax is 30%, is Ethereum's tax higher than Apple's?

This is a big issue, and we hope to see changes in the future. This is why we continue to focus on scalability.

11. Yatreda ያጥሬዳ: How can the unbanked, people in developing countries without strong currencies like the USD, such as Ethiopia, further participate in Ethereum?

How easy is it to get a small amount of Ether to Ethiopia and participate in the ecosystem? I think the entire crypto ecosystem is very focused on how to obtain $10,000, rather than researching simple ways to obtain $40. However, Rollups must mature more, and I think there has been significant progress, with the Layer 2 solution Arbitrum already launched.

12. Shyam Sridhar: So far, the beacon chain has performed well in terms of on-chain health indicators and efficiency, with participation rates exceeding 98%, and more than 30 blocks per slot. What changes do you foresee in the long run, such as after the merge?

Actually, I hope the participation rate decreases 😄. Ideally, I'd like everyone to easily participate, stake alone, even if they're newbies with poor internet connections or need to VPN, etc.

13. Famous Musk Parody Account: How are you? It seems important for everyone.

The good news is, I feel much less dependent on Ethereum! There are many great people, like @dannyryan,@drakefjustin,@dankrad,@pipermerriam, administrators, and many others who have taken over tasks I used to do myself.

14. Beacon Chain Client Developer Paul Hauner: With the Earth facing a 1.5°C warming threat, besides switching to PoS, do you think the Ethereum community can look the next generation in the eyes and say Ethereum is one of the solutions?

I hope so, but I think transitioning to PoS is just a small step. Ultimately, we need the long-term contributions of many smart people, such as solar energy, carbon capture, nuclear fusion technology, etc.

15. Ethereum 2.0 Developer Ben Edgington: How do you view Ethereum's medium to long-term goals? Specifically, what role will Ethereum play in the global society in 10-20 years?

I hope we will see a robust decentralized financial system, a strong ENS (Ethereum Name Service) ecosystem with various ZK proofs, decentralized autonomous organizations controlling large amounts of capital, and placing them outside the realm of cryptocurrencies to do truly useful things. Of course, there will also be a complete PoS and sharding mechanism to make all of this possible.

Currency, Stablecoins

1. Bloomberg Columnist Tyler Cowen: What exactly is your job? Is it about studying monetary theory and then integrating your views?

I've studied less about monetary theory compared to a few years ago. I no