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Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Ethereum, just called for a DAO and ETH trading halt at all Ethereum exchanges: https://www.reddit.com/r/

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Ethereum, just called for a DAO and ETH trading halt at all Ethereum exchanges: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oif2x/dao_attack_exchanges_please_pause_eth_and_dao/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oif2x/dao_attack...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mpeg 10y ago
Apparently all that talk of decentralisation goes out the window when you're losing money. Ha
- curiousgal 10y ago
  Huh? What does halting trading has to do with compromising decentralization? You do know what "decentralization" mean right?
  - mpeg 10y ago
    They're now talking about essentially blacklisting the hacker's ETH address, how is that decentralised? Halting trading is a show of force too, if they believed a single thing of what they preach they'd let the free market continue its course with the hacker walking away with the money. Looking at your comment history it seems clear you have an agenda here, so I'll ignore the ad hominem.
    - parasubvert 10y ago
      Decentralization doesn't mean complete lack of central control, or anarchy, it means that balance of power is in the periphery with the broader organization largely controlled by protocol and policy. Issuing an edict in a crisis doesn't necessarily imply centralization if the member nodes can ignore the edict. In the history of organization structures, for example, Peter Drucker in 1946 wrote the "Concept of the Corporation", a study on General Motors, which was arguably one of the early detailed studies of Decentralized governance in an organization.
    - tremon 10y ago
      how is that decentralised? [..] Halting trading is a show of force too Decentralisation does not preclude "force". The one really has nothing to do with the other. Unless your idea of "decentralization" is actually the solipsist view that every person is an island, and social structures hold no benefit for survival.
    - Bud 10y ago
      The "free market"? I don't think that's what "free market" means.
- icebraining 10y ago
  Actually, I'd say the fact that he has to publicly ask for exchanges to stop the trades, and can't simply press a button or send out an order, shows the decentralization. Decentralization doesn't prevent coordination.
  - infodroid 10y ago
    I think you're missing the point. The fact that one man can bring the whole of Ethereum trading to a halt with an announcement really demonstrates just how much power he has. So it doesn't matter that he doesn't have a physical kill switch if the end result is the same.
    - weego 10y ago
      I mean, they don't have to honor the request to do so.
    - curiousgal 10y ago
      The announcement didn't come out of the blue. Exchanges don't want stolen funds to go through them so it is also in their interest to halt trading.
      - joosters 10y ago
        ...but they didn't halt trading until they were asked to, so clearly it wasn't totally in their interests? Exchanges are in a difficult position once the 'head' of ethereum tells them to stop. It's a sign that the blockchain might be forked, so any further trades they make might be undone - they simply have little choice but to stop after being told to do so.
        mcherm 10y ago
        > but they didn't halt trading until they were asked to, so clearly it wasn't totally in their interests? Not at all. This is a classic "coordination problem". It is advantageous for many participants in the overall system to take an action, but only if the other participants are ALSO taking the action. In such a case, a widely followed and popular leader is one possible coordinating mechanism. And it does not give that popular leader the ability to do ANYTHING, only things that actually ARE popular but require coordination.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

mpeg 10y ago

Apparently all that talk of decentralisation goes out the window when you're losing money. Ha

curiousgal 10y ago
Huh? What does halting trading has to do with compromising decentralization? You do know what "decentralization" mean right?
- mpeg 10y ago
  They're now talking about essentially blacklisting the hacker's ETH address, how is that decentralised? Halting trading is a show of force too, if they believed a single thing of what they preach they'd let the free market continue its course with the hacker walking away with the money. Looking at your comment history it seems clear you have an agenda here, so I'll ignore the ad hominem.
  - parasubvert 10y ago
    Decentralization doesn't mean complete lack of central control, or anarchy, it means that balance of power is in the periphery with the broader organization largely controlled by protocol and policy. Issuing an edict in a crisis doesn't necessarily imply centralization if the member nodes can ignore the edict. In the history of organization structures, for example, Peter Drucker in 1946 wrote the "Concept of the Corporation", a study on General Motors, which was arguably one of the early detailed studies of Decentralized governance in an organization.
  - tremon 10y ago
    how is that decentralised? [..] Halting trading is a show of force too Decentralisation does not preclude "force". The one really has nothing to do with the other. Unless your idea of "decentralization" is actually the solipsist view that every person is an island, and social structures hold no benefit for survival.
  - Bud 10y ago
    The "free market"? I don't think that's what "free market" means.
icebraining 10y ago
Actually, I'd say the fact that he has to publicly ask for exchanges to stop the trades, and can't simply press a button or send out an order, shows the decentralization. Decentralization doesn't prevent coordination.
- infodroid 10y ago
  I think you're missing the point. The fact that one man can bring the whole of Ethereum trading to a halt with an announcement really demonstrates just how much power he has. So it doesn't matter that he doesn't have a physical kill switch if the end result is the same.
  - weego 10y ago
    I mean, they don't have to honor the request to do so.
  - curiousgal 10y ago
    The announcement didn't come out of the blue. Exchanges don't want stolen funds to go through them so it is also in their interest to halt trading.
    - joosters 10y ago
      ...but they didn't halt trading until they were asked to, so clearly it wasn't totally in their interests? Exchanges are in a difficult position once the 'head' of ethereum tells them to stop. It's a sign that the blockchain might be forked, so any further trades they make might be undone - they simply have little choice but to stop after being told to do so.
      - mcherm 10y ago
        > but they didn't halt trading until they were asked to, so clearly it wasn't totally in their interests? Not at all. This is a classic "coordination problem". It is advantageous for many participants in the overall system to take an action, but only if the other participants are ALSO taking the action. In such a case, a widely followed and popular leader is one possible coordinating mechanism. And it does not give that popular leader the ability to do ANYTHING, only things that actually ARE popular but require coordination.