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A more charitable view is that Vitalik is intellectually curious about areas where math/systems meet governance, and that interest led him both to crypto and to
by paulgb 3y ago
A more charitable view is that Vitalik is intellectually curious about areas where math/systems meet governance, and that interest led him both to crypto and to writing this blog post.
I’m a total crypto skeptic but I didn’t find the brief mentions of crypto to detract from the rest of the post.
- enlyth 3y agoAgreed, I'm also not invested in crypto but Vitalik seems like one of the genuine people in the space. It's the unfortunate attraction of the Ponzi grifters and get-rich-quick influencer types that tainted the whole ecosystem.
- Pxtl 3y agoI'd say "co-opted" more than "tainted".
- colesantiago 3y ago[flagged]
- flkenosad 3y agoCan't be both genuine and rich?
- colesantiago 3y agoNo you can't. There is no such thing as a genuine or kind million/billionaire.
- dee-bee 3y agoI'd argue it's the design of crypto, the "crypto values" themselves, that make the space so welcoming to grifters. Emphatically including YC.
- paulusthe 3y agoI think you're being overly charitable, because he's not really interested in governance writ large. He long ago decided what he thinks the best government system is, and sees everything political through that lens: is this good for my system, or is it bad. He never actually questions his own system, because he's ultimately an engineer. He's clueless on social structures or systems.
- hgsgm 3y agoHe questions his own system constantly, but he's necessarily committed to it (modulo modifications and extremely rare overhauls), because his identity is tied up in what he's built, and he can't just jump to something new without losing a huge amount of himself.
- soulofmischief 3y ago> He never actually questions his own system, because he's ultimately an engineer. He's clueless on social structures or systems. I'm sorry, but that is a false dichotomy and downright ridiculous assessment. Being a good engineer does not disqualify you from deeply understanding social organization or dynamic systems. I am an engineer and those two topics are among the most critical which guide my work. I'm obsessed with these topics. Being an engineer makes thinking about these things easier, not harder. Are you next going to proclaim that actors are clueless about politics?
- Slava_Propanei 3y ago[dead]
- flkenosad 3y agoMany engineers question thier own systems more than anyone else. How can you sag that with a straight face?
- pessimizer 3y agoIf your arguments rest on projecting internal states, beliefs, and motivations on people you disagree with, they're worthless.
- colesantiago 3y ago[flagged]
- xk_id 3y ago> All the actors in crypto are bad and you should not trust what they say, even Vitalik. To someone in good mental health, Vitalik has written 4k words giving an accurate overview of the Community Notes algorithm and its context and was peer reviewed by two others, one of them the lead ML engineer at Twitter. The first sentence in your reply reads like a paranoid delusion and the undertone of anger makes it concerning. You should take a break from whatever echo chambers you frequent and reflect on your mental state, perhaps with the guidance of a specialist.
- colesantiago 3y agoI don't think the thousands of people who lost their life savings and have been scammed would agree your assessment. Perhaps those who lost their savings and are affected by ransomware by crypto should they see a specialist for the amount of damage that crypto has caused them in getting their savings wiped out due to the speculative nature of crypto that Vitalik has helped to build. No amount of technical talk, ad hominems, or you fawning wax lyrical over Vitalik will change this fact and my statement still stands.
- xk_id 3y ago> fawning wax lyrical That's the thing, it's literally just facts. And yes, even after experiencing loss, it's even more unhealthy to lose one's ability to judge new situations rationally.
- colesantiago 3y ago> "And yes, even after experiencing loss, it's even more unhealthy to lose one's ability to judge new situations rationally." So this is what you said when one of your family members persistently begged to you for money because they gambled it all on crypto? It's a fact that millions of people have lost their life savings, got rugpulled, had to pay extra on 'fees', had their work destroyed due to ransomware and got their 'tokens' drained over Vitalik's creation, Ethereum, he is the one who got rich in this pyramid he orchestrated. I think he shouldn't be immune from criticism regardless of what he's rambling on about, you seem to think that he is above criticism because he is some sort of technical intellectual with humility. The law and regulations doesn't care. It's morbidly unhealthy to be blind to a person's bad actions, ignore all the effects and suffering their actions has caused and to take a bullet and defend that said person. Some recommended reading for you: https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-is-a-scam.html https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-is-a-scam.html