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Some people will be turned off by claims that a technology can have a significant impact on humanity at large. Others will be curious to find out whether these

by natrius 11y ago

Some people will be turned off by claims that a technology can have a significant impact on humanity at large. Others will be curious to find out whether these claims can be substantiated. My audience is the latter. Learning how to build applications on top of Ethereum is one of the most important things an engineer can do if they want to maximize their impact on humanity. I am not ashamed of these claims, and encourage anyone who wants to debate them to email me. niran@niran.org

patrickaljord 11y ago
Could you find me an inventor in history of a technology that actually changed humanity who made such a claim before it did so? Did Google claim or even knew their search engine would change the world? Did Apple? Did Facebook? Nope. You should focus your message on why your tech is useful, not that it might save humanity, most startups don't change humanity, heck, most startups fail. So it's a bit premature to claim yours will. Don't you think?
- natrius 11y ago
  Ethereum isn't my project. I build apps on top of it, like Augur. I'm claiming that work other people did will be pretty huge for humanity, which I consider pretty acceptable. What questions do you have about how Ethereum is useful? I attempted to answer that question, but appreciate pointers that would make it more effective.
  - saganus 11y ago
    I think that after explaining a somewhat complex subject like how Ethereum works, you perhaps could followup with a clear example on how Ethereum solves a problem that other technologies would have a hard time doing. Maybe you can talk how Ethereum can be useful for, if I understood the platform correctly, buying/selling a car by means of a colored coin. Or maybe you can explain how it competes for buying/Selling money Bitcoin-style, but with the specific advanteges pointed out (e.g. you don't have to download the blockchain as far as I know, etc). Edit: After going through a few explanations, this one came up as the one I would think of using to someone that already knows Bitcoin: Blockchain technology, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto with the proof-of-concept implementation of a simple value transfer system known as bitcoin, represents the best digital system we have (after the internet itself) for administering multi-user interactions without any need for centralized coordination or oversight. Effectively, a decentralized system is its own authority for enforcing the rules (e.g. 'you can only spend your money once' in bitcoin, or 'whatever rule you programmed in to your smart contract' in Ethereum) So Bitcoin enforces a very specific rule, Ethereum generalizes by letting you specify complex rules and even composite rules on top of that.
- vbuterin 11y ago
  Have _I_ ever claimed that Ethereum will "change humanity"? (for those who don't know, I'm the founder :) )

by natrius 11y ago

patrickaljord 11y ago

Could you find me an inventor in history of a technology that actually changed humanity who made such a claim before it did so? Did Google claim or even knew their search engine would change the world? Did Apple? Did Facebook? Nope. You should focus your message on why your tech is useful, not that it might save humanity, most startups don't change humanity, heck, most startups fail. So it's a bit premature to claim yours will. Don't you think?

natrius 11y ago
Ethereum isn't my project. I build apps on top of it, like Augur. I'm claiming that work other people did will be pretty huge for humanity, which I consider pretty acceptable. What questions do you have about how Ethereum is useful? I attempted to answer that question, but appreciate pointers that would make it more effective.
- saganus 11y ago
  I think that after explaining a somewhat complex subject like how Ethereum works, you perhaps could followup with a clear example on how Ethereum solves a problem that other technologies would have a hard time doing. Maybe you can talk how Ethereum can be useful for, if I understood the platform correctly, buying/selling a car by means of a colored coin. Or maybe you can explain how it competes for buying/Selling money Bitcoin-style, but with the specific advanteges pointed out (e.g. you don't have to download the blockchain as far as I know, etc). Edit: After going through a few explanations, this one came up as the one I would think of using to someone that already knows Bitcoin: Blockchain technology, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto with the proof-of-concept implementation of a simple value transfer system known as bitcoin, represents the best digital system we have (after the internet itself) for administering multi-user interactions without any need for centralized coordination or oversight. Effectively, a decentralized system is its own authority for enforcing the rules (e.g. 'you can only spend your money once' in bitcoin, or 'whatever rule you programmed in to your smart contract' in Ethereum) So Bitcoin enforces a very specific rule, Ethereum generalizes by letting you specify complex rules and even composite rules on top of that.
vbuterin 11y ago
Have _I_ ever claimed that Ethereum will "change humanity"? (for those who don't know, I'm the founder :) )