V God: Peace and consensus in the encrypted world requires struggle and dedication

Author: Vitalik Buterin

10-15 years ago the "New Idealism Movement "One of the big differences between the scene and today is that back then people felt like they could be on the team of all the good guys at the same time. Today, the world has more confrontational thinking and conflict.

I have been trying to understand, why did things become like this?

Many libertarians are excited about direct democracy, there is a mix of "big libertarian movement" and many blockchain people and People in the "open source community" see each other as natural allies.

Today we saw @doctorow, sign a letter advocating tougher The initiative to regulate cryptocurrencies, which has unsettled and confused many cryptocurrency advocates, as many look up to his vision and see themselves as fellow travelers — his Devcon speech expressed some specific concerns about the financialization of crypto.

But I think there are deeper reasons, and the divide between the crypto industry and the tech left is not the only one: various groups There are different conflicts between.

Example:

*Minimalist groups in crypto

* Many libertarians oppose {democracy|immigration|cosmopolitan morality...}

* Types of Extreme Social Darwinism

* Last year's little internet war between the "sane and rationalists"

* Twitter attacks

All this It all makes me so sad, it's always been in my nature that I want to be part of a team of all the good guys and bring everyone together. But now, many of these circles that I grew up loving are turning on each other and seeing each other as harmful.

Complaining about this phenomenon does not solve the problem, it needs to be understood.

One big factor is that all of these movements have gotten "bigger" over the past decade. When one thing is small, even if you don't like it, it's not a threat, so small groups can easily survive; but when everything is big, there's more competition, and problems arise because of it.

Related to this is the "dense jungle" phenomenon I talked about in my previous article: https://vitalik.ca/general/2020/12/28/endnotes.html#big-x-is-here-to-stay-for-all-x…< /a>

The internet naturally distances one part from another, thus increasing the divide in life.

Explanation 3: Once small idealistic actions become big, it is easy to lose idealism and start Doped with other things, and these impurities are prone to negative effects. As Cory said, encryption was originally just a decentralized enthusiast, but now various types of "money people" have also appeared-this is inevitable out of the circle. In non-financial movements, over time, various The specification and operation of the genre quickly attracts scammers.

Explanation 4: Today's culture in general is driven more by fear of dystopia, Instead of getting excited about a positive vision, everyone's first question right now is "is your stuff going to create a dystopia?" (and if so, I think we should be fighting this phenomenon head-on)

Explanation 5: We now have social media, and social media rewards negativity. (If that's the case, I think it's unhealthy and we should fight it directly, but not quite sure how to do that)

I tend to Believe that this is only part of the reason, and they are interrelated. But what can we do?

One path is to focus more on newer and smaller sub-movements that are more opinionated about their values. Ethereum’s “regen finance” movement is a good example.

(Thanks in large part to Gitcoin, Proof of Humanity, and now Optimism and MolochDAO)

Another example might be the Ethereum identity space (sign-in + ENS + POAP + maybe the upcoming soulbound coin SBT too).

These smaller spaces help create new optimistic visions for the future, creating things that people can participate in without having to be part of financialized trash.

But we also have to keep the peace between the major blocs and face the reality that many of these movements in their worst versions do contain facing each other's vision of a bright future for humanity.

One thing I think anyone working in any "big movement" should think more actively about offering an olive branch to the outside world: how can you make 10% more of what you're building Appeal to naysayers.

I do think many people are less divided than they think. E. Glen Weyl and Balaji Srinivasan, for example, fight a lot, but when I talk to them, they both have a strong "we're all "On the same boat" attitude: In this century, all mankind will either rise or all mankind will decline. This is a key consensus!

By the way, I very much agree with this sentiment.

Like, even selfishly speaking, a nuclear bunker can stop a nuke from killing me directly, but it won't stop a nuclear war from destroying me looking forward to the cure of aging in 60 years scientific ecosystem.

Balaji Srinivasan often likes to say "live and let live" Upgrade to "win and help win".

I think the conclusion is that maintaining peace and seeking cooperation requires an explicit commitment, not an acquiescence to the assumption that peace is everything.

Basically, "we have to fight this somewhere" (e.g., If your Happy Sunshine movement advocates the invasion of financial privacy on a global scale, then sorry, I will fight with you), but I think there is more room for cooperation and mutual appreciation than many people think.

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