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Exactly 2 years ago today, @naval posted one of the most viral blockchain threads ever. In the time since, the idea of market networks “governed w/o kings, priests, elites, corporations" reached stratospheric heights, cratered, and is poised for resurgence
2/ June 2017 was heady times. In addition to Naval's thread, @cdixon wrote a piece on open network design that presaged his seminal later piece "Why Decentralization Matters" medium.com/@cdixon/crypto…
3/ Of course, we all know what happened next. A unique combination of friction free fundraising, pent up investor demand, a massive FOMO creating hype cycle and heady ideas of decentralizing the world led ICOs to raise $14b in ~a year, and crashed just as quickly.
4/ In the aftermath, it wasn't just the projects that were put on trial but the fundamental concepts underlying them. Chief among those was "decentralization"
In this August '18 thread, @Melt_Dem argued that decentralization is the means, not the ends
In this August '18 thread, @Melt_Dem argued that decentralization is the means, not the ends
5/ Around the same time @SarahJamieLewis argued that "decentralization" needs to be applied to multiple levels of a system: Political, Protocol and Practical.
She also provided this definition
She also provided this definition
6/ @Obstropolos built on these themes in a piece for @tokendaily. To him, decentralization was:
+not inherently bad, BUT
+had become fully reduced to marketing, AND
+a better approach was to be clear about what we really mean when we use the word
tokendaily.co/blog/the-death…
+not inherently bad, BUT
+had become fully reduced to marketing, AND
+a better approach was to be clear about what we really mean when we use the word
tokendaily.co/blog/the-death…
7/ A half a year on from that, we're now watching the Bitcoin price surge ever closer to $10k and contemplating what the next bull run we mean, as exemplified by @real_vijay
8/ And as much as the media is looking for a Facebook Libra vs. BTC narrative, the reality is that nothing could more clearly demonstrate the benefits of Bitcoin's true decentralization than the launch of a permissioned blockchain managed by a corporate cartel.
9/ *THIS* was the point @pierre_rochard was making in this tweet.
10/ And so, the interesting thing to me is, as we get ready for the next wave of recruits to flood into Bitcoin and crypto more broadly, might it be worth revisiting how we discuss "decentralization"?
11/ Especially with the emergence of Libra, we're starting to see this renewed discussion. @jackoholleran writes that, despite our skepticism, the bear market actually created the infrastructure for decentralized systems to succeed. skalelabs.com/blog/in-defens…
12/ These liminal moments between bear and bull markets are great time to think about where we've been, where we're going, and why.
So whaddya think @naval? Two years on, with everything we've learned, does this still resonate?
So whaddya think @naval? Two years on, with everything we've learned, does this still resonate?
