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Vitalik Non-giver of Ether @VitalikButerin
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
One simple litmus test for whether or not a blockchain project is truly decentralized: can a third party independently make a client for it, and do everything that the "official" client can?
For @AugurProject there are encouraging signs:

* predictions.global (seemingly an independent client but view-only)
* augur.casino (seemingly the official UI but put on IPFS so no need to download)

WARNING: I HAVE NO IDEA WHO MADE AUGUR . CASINO, COULD BE A SCAM
@joeykrug @tensorjack want to confirm whether or not augur.casino is legit?
Clarification: the above is necessary but not sufficient. There are of course contract backdoors etc etc.
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More from @VitalikButerin see all

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I'd like to follow @cryptochamomile's tradition and end the year with praise for groups I either consider outgroups or otherwise don't normally praise, both inside and outside the crypto space...
1. Many in the Bitcoin community legitimately care about non-cryptocurrency "freedom tech" that I think is very important and valuable and that much of the crypto space has a tendency to forget about, eg. open hardware:
2. Bitcoin culture is definitely on the "survive" side of Slatestarcodex's thrive/survive dichotomy (slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/04/a-t…) and this has genuine benefits...
Read 15 tweets
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1. Time for a brief tweetstorm on non-financial applications of blockchains. As blockchain scalability gets better and better, and UX improves and fees drop as a result, this will become a bigger and bigger part of the story.
2. One underappreciated way to view blockchains is as an extension of cryptography that does different things. Cryptography allows you to encrypt data, prove data was signed by someone, etc etc.... blockchains OTOH allow you to prove that a piece of data was *not* published.
3. A simple example is a blockchain university degree verification app I saw recently. A degree is certified with just a digital signature, but *revocations* are put on chain. With cryptography alone you can't check that a revocation was *not* signed; but with a blockchain....
Read 16 tweets
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Fun fact about the "cashless society" in China: the government is actively opposing it.

Translation: "Refusing to accept cash is illegal. Protect the legal tender status of the RMB"
Here's an article (Chinese) that describes their reasoning: zmdnews.cn/showinfo-93-48… (unfortunately it's down as of this moment)
Important caveat: opposing at the present time, not in principle forever.
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

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1/ @MakerDAO could eat up the vast majority of stablecoins.
2/ Wait—why would users ever deposit stablecoins into a CDP?

Maybe if they want to margin long a stablecoin, but there are better ways to do that. And it makes no sense to mint $100 to pay for something by locking up $250. You already have enough money to pay for that thing!
3/ But consider the profile of most stablecoins today:

$USDC $TUSD $GUSD

They are largely dollar-backed coins by centralized companies.

They are not private nor censorship resistant.
Read 7 tweets
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We purchased a box of this Dole sweet corn. 🌽 Very tasty! Got me thinking:

Can #Blockchain technology really help with supply chain traceability & authenticity of goods?
- Is this corn packaged by Dole?
- Is it really from stated country of origin?
- Really non-GMO & organic?
My thoughts about whether the so-called #Blockchain technologies can be applied to #RealWorld activities:

Regarding this box of corn, in terms of it being: genuine, nutritious, organic, non-GMO, from stated country, unspoiled & safe to eat: Who am I solely & implicitly trusting?
A hint for the correct answer? Apply the same questions above & tell me about this @LouisVuitton handbag.

Do I trust the brand, manufacturer, selling merchant, or delivery person?
Can #Blockchain technology actually help with authenticity & supply chain transparency? Not really!
Read 5 tweets
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1/n. McKinsey on #Blockchain's strategic value.

- It doesn't have to be a disintermediator to generate value. This encourages permissioned commercial applications.
- It's short-term value will be predominantly in reducing cost.
- It's 3-5 years away from feasibility at scale.
2/n. Blockchain’s core advantages are decentralization, cryptographic security, transparency, and immutability. It allows information to be verified and value to be exchanged without having to rely on a third-party authority.
3/n. Five common blockchain myths.
Read 22 tweets
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Blockchain world can learn a lot from p2p file sharing era

😡 Incentive issues (most shared NOTHING, tons of fake files + viruses)
🤝 Lots of attempted market mechanisms (from game theory to tokens) to fix incentives
💰 Monetization lessons
🍴 Forking vs governance

Thread 👇
Tokens are clearly good for balancing incentives. p2p attempts from 15+ years ago:

• Mojo: a liquidatable token to incentivize sharing storage, bandwidth, CPU
• eMule credits for upload/download
• Lots of research on p2p tokens (PPay, PeerMint, PeerMart)
• Kazaa PeerPoints
If you're building a fat protocol, putting ads in the thin client is a terrible way to monetize!

In file sharing days, people created lazy patched clients like "Kazaa Lite" which JUST removed ads. Reputation of bundling "AdWare" and "SpyWare" killed trust of creators.
Read 25 tweets
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Here are my favorite quotes from this amazing book. #THREAD
1. "Bitcoin can be best understood as distributed software that allows for transfer of value using a currency protected from unexpected inflation without relying on trusted third parties"
2. "While Bitcoin is a new invention of the digital age, the problems it purports to solve - namely, providing a form of money that is under the full command of its owner and likely to hold its value in the long run - are as old as human society itself"
Read 137 tweets
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In a malicious manner, @Comcast did TCP reset attacks on their own customers. Third party telecommunications packet sequences were intercepted, then tampered with. After intercepting third party data, Comcast forged packets, then injected said forged packets into the
original data sequence. Their injected packet was an automatic TCP reset packet. It was injected at the beginning of third-party packet sequences. After injected the @Comcast packet was then analyzed by Comcast's customer’s firewalls.
Said injected @Comcast packets were then the sole reason why Comcast provided firewalls denied other following lawful third party packet sequences. RST reset packets instantly kill the TCP connection. So as soon as their customers received the first COMCAST INJECTED
Read 14 tweets

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