Vitalik: Ethereum, Part 1
Introduction 0:00
Haseeb’s background 0:22
Vitalik’s background 2:43
A blockchain you can build any app on top of 7:02
Eth trades efficiency for transparency 10:18
Like plain text, Eth is simple and efficient 12:41
Only high-value transactions can afford the blockchain 13:08
Doing away with ‘trusted’ third parties 14:09
Trading performance for security 14:43
‘Impregnable castles made of math’ 16:23
Ethereum’s limitations are latency and privacy 16:56
There are ways to get back your privacy 19:32
Can Eth provide a high level of decentralization and a high level of scaling at the same time? 20:39
Sharding leads to more centralization 21:49
Verifiability at the expense of scaling 24:00
How much decentralization is the right amount? 25:11
What happens when subsidies to join nodes disappear? 27:07
Stateless clients make it possible to verify the chain with very little on your hard drive 28:18
Staking culture is difficult to cultivate 28:52
New blockchain players tend to go for minimum viable decentralization 29:54
People don’t value privacy until somebody goes to jail over it 30:32
Eth is ‘simple at the base’ 31:12
Social recovery wallets make it easier to be your own bank 31:44
Block space is getting expensive 32:41
There’s not a lot of innovation on Bitcoin, by design 33:35
Blockchain’s ‘free-rider effect’ 34:57
Innovation is slowest at Layer 1 35:34
Layer 2 moves faster because it’s permissionless 36:59
What if we froze Layer 1 today? 37:25
Data for computation trade-off 38:57
Benchmarking blockchains apples-to-apples 40:02
Enshrining decentralization 41:43
Tensions between scaling and preserving value 42:27
There will be multiple stores of value 43:54
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Transcript
This This is Part 1 of my interview with Vitalik Buterin about Ethereum and blockchains. Also Part 2:
Naval’s thinking is so clear, great pod
Amazing as always! Just got done rewatching the last three web3 based podcasts naval co-hosted with Tim Ferris. If you guys want to check them out they are the ones with Nick Szabo, Chris Dixon and Vitalik
This was gold thank you for this
clarity of thought and speech have immense value. this is an instant classic.
I don’t know much about zero knowledge proofs, but from what I’ve learned, they are cool af! I even read on Vitalik’s blog that some of them could be secure when quantum computers come around and break all modern encryption.
Re: the common critique that theres not enough non-technical ways in to crypto
Vitalik literally got his start in the space as a writer
When 4 btc was worth $5
“Every generation there is some hustle that if you are really smart very aggressive and you are looking for edges and not afraid of looking weird, there are ways to get ahead early or to make a lot of money in a way that is not obvious to most people”
This is awesome. Thank you
5 mins in and it’s clear that Vitalik is our modern day Einstein. I am so grateful that Vitalik and Naval exist
@Deen Somally I truly respect that. Listening to the other side is more than most would do!
The one prediction that was horrifically wrong was that Vitalik doubled-down on the importance of decentralisation, and he is now beginning to realise that your average person (the people using the majority of the internet) isn’t actually too bothered about decentralisation, and that in fact truly decentralised platforms cannot scale (they are being forced to use sharding, which centralises the protocol by a factor of 100, because they can’t scale).
PoS certainly doesn’t help, but from this podcast the important bit for me was the discussion they had about sharding. Vitalik basically admitted that it’s impossible to scale something that is truly decentralised.
Yes, you’re probably right about it being more decentralised than its alternatives. But at the same time, I would ask, if Ethereum is admittedly becoming more centralised, and no one seems to care, is decentralisation even important? And if not, does Ethereum/Web3.0 actually have any intrinsic value?
They talk about creating a decentralised Twitter, and how it has already been tried. Why didn’t it work? Because your average Tweeter just wants convenience and network effects, not decentralisation and the inconvenience that comes with that–it’s making things more complicated for users, not more simple, and with no real upside either!
@zedrockiby I’m open to hearing more ideas like this that are counter to my current beliefs in order to find the truth. What was the one prediction that was horrifically wrong? And is the increased centralisation due to the switch to PoS? If so I can see in theory how that could be true. I’d need to investigate more because even if Ethereum becomes more centralised I’m still sure it will be way more decentralised than it’s alternatives
And Naval totally contradicts everything too! A minute after Vitalik basically saying Ethereum is going to become more centralised, Naval says oh yes, I think Ethereum is great and only the most decentralised coins will win because without decentralisation the blockchain is if no use ??? These are our modern-day geniuses???
I respect geniuses, and am certainly not one myself, but Vitalik is not one either. He literally just contradicted everything he’s been working towards over the last ten years. His one prediction was horrifically wrong, and he’s only just realising—doesn’t sound very genius to me!
That’s very disrespectful to Albert Einstein.
where is part 2. looking forward the rest. awesome chats
Now I understand ethereum more…… thank you naval.
wow a full podcast!! excited to learn from this
Thanks for this podcast Naval. You are truly a great host. Really smart and interesting questions. Way better than other podcasts
I listen to naval almost everyday while working,but I don’t think I understand him clearly. I need to listen to him with more focus to absorb his messages. His thoughts changing my views on life little by little. Thank you Naval!
Finally! More crypto talk with a powerhouse in crypto – Vitalik!
Vitalik is so intelligent and well spoken I could listen to his ideas and explanations all day long.
Thanks so much for this podcast
yeah he reads
Make content consistently. Type is influencers like you is what we need.
More content please!
Great as always
Waiting for part 2
Great deep dive and very important call out that Ethereum has enshrined a certain level of decentralization that other blockchains have not. It’ll be interesting to see how Vitalik’s perspectives here evolves, and where Ethereum’s place will be as a result. We have a video about Vitalik’s values and critical moments he’s been tested if anyone’s interested.