The Problem with Ethereum
tomerstrolight.medium.com
The Problem with Ethereum
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Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#2This article actually explains certain aspects of Crypto way better than actual articles that try to explain Crypto.
E.g., I've been wondering why a certain Bitcoin podcaster, who is very popular, has never mined a Bitcoin. He/she talks all day about "stacking Sats", but he/she only buys them. Reading this article made me realize that he/she might see him/herself as a member of the ruling class.
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#3> working class — a group that does the work the community needs to operate it.
It would be more correct to call miners a Merchant Class. They exploit capital to make profit. Like merchants of old, they take risks that regulations (real-world and the "ruling class") won't impede profit.
Hardware gets outdated quickly as mining difficulty rises, so a timely exit is not difficult - wait until cards die, or offload them ebay.
> As a Bitcoiner I find these actions intolerable and unacceptable
Bitcoin has also forked, many times. Bitcoin Gold for example restored the ability to mine with GPUs. The "ruling class" decided that unless you had access to custom hardware, you could not be part of the "working class".
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#4This article actually explains certain aspects of Crypto way better than actual articles that try to explain Crypto. E.g., I've been wondering why a certain Bitcoin podcaster, who is very popular, has never mined a Bitcoin. He/she talks all day about "stacking Sats", but he/she only buys them. Reading this article made me realize that he/she might see him/herself as a member of the ruling class.
> I've been wondering why a certain Bitcoin podcaster, who is very popular, has never mined a Bitcoin
The people actually mining Bitcoin don't have time for podcasts.
Podcasts, Youtube, media in general are mostly dominated by people who don't actually do other work, because creating content for those platforms is extremely time-consuming.
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#5Is there any network where the inflationary half-life of the currency is something like a week? I've been looking for something like that since I heard that Bitcoin was deflationary.
(I was excited about Eth until I learnt its currency had persistent value...)
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#6Seems like one of the core arguments of this is that the the core devs have pushed the difficulty bomb multiple times because they've missed their original timelines for switching to PoS without any repercussions.
It seems to me that this is actually the correct thing to do. I'd rather the core devs take their time and iron out the issues instead of being incentivized to play fast and loose with a system that manages billions.
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#7"Something here seems awfully similar to the system that crypto-currency was meant to fix. It was meant to eliminate rulers. It was meant to make everyone accountable for their actions. It was meant to reward the intelligent, the hard working and the capable, and not reward the incompetent, or the makers-yet-breakers of promises. However, this repeat of the broken old system seems to be playing out again."
One response is that the promise was not well thought through. The idea was to replace "rulers" (human beings who make decisions to take care of a system) and "law" (written rules interpreted by humans) with code. But (a) code is written by humans who make mistakes; (b) the world changes, and systems need to update to respond to that; (c) somebody has to be responsible for dealing with a and b. As a result, currencies need central organizers to look after them. And those central organizers need to be motivated, i.e., paid. Old-fashioned currencies have sovereigns to back them, and the sovereigns are paid by the monopoly of taxation and/or the ability to issue money. Inefficient, but it works.
From this perspective, bitcoin et al. look like technical solutions to social problems. In particular, bitcoin is designed to have nobody taking care of public goods problems on its behalf. That's a flaw![1]
[1] https://wyclif.substack.com/p/thought-bubble-defending-bitco...
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#8> Something here seems awfully similar to the system that crypto-currency was meant to fix. It was meant to eliminate rulers. It was meant to make everyone accountable for their actions. It was meant to reward the intelligent, the hard working and the capable, and not reward the incompetent, or the makers-yet-breakers of promises. However, this repeat of the broken old system seems to be playing out again.
Was it? Most of these goals were definitely not talked about when Bitcoin was first invented, and to this day I wouldn't say this is the list the vast majority of people in the crypto space would come up with if you asked them what the point of cryptocurrency is.
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#9Seems like one of the core arguments of this is that the the core devs have pushed the difficulty bomb multiple times because they've missed their original timelines for switching to PoS without any repercussions. It seems to me that this is actually the correct thing to do. I'd rather the core devs take their time and iron out the issues instead of being incentivized to play fast and loose with a system that manages…
The actual core idea seems to be that the core devs can do whatever they want without cooperation from miners, which is... the opposite of true.
Re: The Problem with Ethereum
#10Is there any network where the inflationary half-life of the currency is something like a week? I've been looking for something like that since I heard that Bitcoin was deflationary. (I was excited about Eth until I learnt its currency had persistent value...)
Are you saying you would like to purchase and use such a currency? Or would you like other people to purchase and use it?