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Well, as a coder my assessment of Vitalik is based on personally studying his writings and designs, not on any external metrics (though having a 50 billion doll

by drcode 8y ago

Well, as a coder my assessment of Vitalik is based on personally studying his writings and designs, not on any external metrics (though having a 50 billion dollar platform developed based on his whitepaper is noteworthy on its own) For Tyler, he frequently ranks high on lists of influential economists among peers (see his wikipedia article) and I personally find his writing compelling, insofar as I can judge it as a non-economist.

root_axis 8y ago
> having a 50 billion dollar platform developed based on his whitepaper is noteworthy on its own Certainly noteworthy is an understatement, it is an epic accomplishment, however it doesn't really reflect on his importance as a computer scientist, especially if we consider prior art (i.e. bitcoin). I am struggling to think of a metric that would qualify Buterin as anywhere near one of the most important computer scientist alive today. When I think "most important computer scientists alive today" I think of people like (in no particular order): Brian Kernighan, Ken Thompson, Donald Knuth, Bjarne Stroustrup, Larry Wall, Tim Berners-Lee, James Gosling Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bill Joy, Robe Pike Larry & Sergey, Gudio, Matz, and many many more. The pioneering work of these computer scientists has had ripple effects throughout the world of computing and the economy in general. Ethereum, on the other hand, while technically sophisticated, has had near zero impact outside of the very narrow blockchain niche. > For Tyler, he frequently ranks high on lists of influential economists among peers (see his wikipedia article) and I personally find his writing compelling, insofar as I can judge it as a non-economist. Tyler does seem to be a more important individual within his field, but I am not seeing any signs that would indicate he is among the most important economists.
- drcode 8y ago
  I am certainly making an allowance for "future impact" in my assessment, which is certainly an exercise fraught with error, and one that involves subjectivity.
  - root_axis 8y ago
    I can respect that. I am a cryptocurrency skeptic but I am just as ignorant of what the future may hold as you are.
    - drcode 8y ago
      I think there's lots of room for skepticism, certainly the lack of a "killer app" so far for this type of technology (at least one that doesn't involve illegal activities) is pretty glaring. That said, I find it highly unlikely that the engineering behind ethereum won't have lasting impact, even in unlikely case that cryptocurrencies themselves end up being a bust. There is lots of deep thinking about cryptography and networking and game theory here that I think will have lasting impact.

by drcode 8y ago

root_axis 8y ago

> having a 50 billion dollar platform developed based on his whitepaper is noteworthy on its own Certainly noteworthy is an understatement, it is an epic accomplishment, however it doesn't really reflect on his importance as a computer scientist, especially if we consider prior art (i.e. bitcoin). I am struggling to think of a metric that would qualify Buterin as anywhere near one of the most important computer scientist alive today. When I think "most important computer scientists alive today" I think of people like (in no particular order): Brian Kernighan, Ken Thompson, Donald Knuth, Bjarne Stroustrup, Larry Wall, Tim Berners-Lee, James Gosling Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bill Joy, Robe Pike Larry & Sergey, Gudio, Matz, and many many more. The pioneering work of these computer scientists has had ripple effects throughout the world of computing and the economy in general. Ethereum, on the other hand, while technically sophisticated, has had near zero impact outside of the very narrow blockchain niche. > For Tyler, he frequently ranks high on lists of influential economists among peers (see his wikipedia article) and I personally find his writing compelling, insofar as I can judge it as a non-economist. Tyler does seem to be a more important individual within his field, but I am not seeing any signs that would indicate he is among the most important economists.

drcode 8y ago
I am certainly making an allowance for "future impact" in my assessment, which is certainly an exercise fraught with error, and one that involves subjectivity.
- root_axis 8y ago
  I can respect that. I am a cryptocurrency skeptic but I am just as ignorant of what the future may hold as you are.
  - drcode 8y ago
    I think there's lots of room for skepticism, certainly the lack of a "killer app" so far for this type of technology (at least one that doesn't involve illegal activities) is pretty glaring. That said, I find it highly unlikely that the engineering behind ethereum won't have lasting impact, even in unlikely case that cryptocurrencies themselves end up being a bust. There is lots of deep thinking about cryptography and networking and game theory here that I think will have lasting impact.