Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#1

Post by sangfroid » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 4:45 PM UTC

Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum
backchannel.com

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#2

Post by Aelinsaar » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:02 PM UTC

That is a very comprehensive PR puff piece, but it's still very much PR. To be honest, more than anything it seems to be endless painstaking descriptions of Buterin's clothing, mannerisms, and eating habits.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#3

Post by pfraze » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:06 PM UTC

Eugh. Wow.

> In Miami, Buterin’s army was small, but already keenly aware of the importance of beatifying its leader. Joseph Lubin, one of the developers staying at the house, and one of the few people who seemed to understand Ethereum enough to decipher its potential, told me in an endearing, paternal tone that Buterin was a genius alien that had arrived on this planet to deliver the sacrosanct gift of decentralization. Nearby, Buterin was shuffling around on the grass, looking down at the ground, muttering to himself in preparation for a talk he would give to the Bitcoin elite the next day.

Are we writing software or starting a cult?

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#4

Post by drcode » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

pfraze wrote: post #3

Eugh. Wow. > In Miami, Buterin’s army was small, but already keenly aware of the importance of beatifying its leader. Joseph Lubin, one of the developers staying at the house, and one of the few people who seemed to understand Ethereum enough to decipher its potential, told me in an endearing, paternal tone that Buterin was a genius alien that had arrived on this planet to deliver the sacrosanct gift of decentralizat…

I agree the article is distasteful in its focus on personalitiy...

...but as someone who's deeply involved in this technology (and an unabashed believer in the ethereum technology stack) I personally consider Vitalik's combination of skills in systems architecture design, cryptocurrency protocol coding, and cryptoeconomic analysis to be unmatched by anyone else in the community.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#5

Post by amaks » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

pfraze wrote: post #3

Eugh. Wow. > In Miami, Buterin’s army was small, but already keenly aware of the importance of beatifying its leader. Joseph Lubin, one of the developers staying at the house, and one of the few people who seemed to understand Ethereum enough to decipher its potential, told me in an endearing, paternal tone that Buterin was a genius alien that had arrived on this planet to deliver the sacrosanct gift of decentralizat…

Digital currency is a cult.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#6

Post by johndevor » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:22 PM UTC

amaks wrote: post #5

pfraze wrote: post #3

Eugh. Wow. > In Miami, Buterin’s army was small, but already keenly aware of the importance of beatifying its leader. Joseph Lubin, one of the developers staying at the house, and one of the few people who seemed to understand Ethereum enough to decipher its potential, told me in an endearing, paternal tone that Buterin was a genius alien that had arrived on this planet to deliver the sacrosanct gift of decentralizat…

Digital currency is a cult.

Not an argument.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#7

Post by fit2rule » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:29 PM UTC

pfraze wrote: post #3

Eugh. Wow. > In Miami, Buterin’s army was small, but already keenly aware of the importance of beatifying its leader. Joseph Lubin, one of the developers staying at the house, and one of the few people who seemed to understand Ethereum enough to decipher its potential, told me in an endearing, paternal tone that Buterin was a genius alien that had arrived on this planet to deliver the sacrosanct gift of decentralizat…

Cults and Software go hand in hand. Don't be so terrified of cults if you're just getting into software - they're important in this industry. Very little of any import actually gets done without them ... and despite what you may think, the cult model is very useful when it comes to software development. Without a stable individual around which to rally, technology wheels spin and spin. However, with a cult figure making key decisions and acting as a centralized figure around which to rally, software development efforts - inherently group based - prosper.

No committee ever designed and delivered decent software systems. It takes the tall poppy to stick his head above the crop and survey the field before progress can be made.

And, before you downvote, consider the examples. There are many, many positive software cults in our world today.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#8

Post by brighton36 » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

johndevor wrote: post #6

amaks wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital currency is a cult.

Not an argument.

it's not an argument, it's an observation. I agree with him

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#9

Post by brighton36 » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:32 PM UTC

No one needs ethereum. It's a penny stock scam that sells the cure to whatever ails you to any willing solutionist that's looking to get rich quick.

Re: Profile of Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum

#10

Post by drcode » Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 5:38 PM UTC

brighton36 wrote: post #9

No one needs ethereum. It's a penny stock scam that sells the cure to whatever ails you to any willing solutionist that's looking to get rich quick.

I agree there's a dearth of compelling, live applications on ethereum right now. However, the problem is caused primarily by the difficulty in developing robust decentralized autonomous systems, not in the lack of ideas or potential applications.