Thread by @ETHGlobal

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🦄 Vitalik Buterin & Tyler Cowen talk Ethereum

Stream 👉 live.ethonline.org

"In 2018 @VitalikButerin joined @tylercowen for a Conversation with Tyler podcast, and tonight is a spiritual successor to that with a twist - this time, Vitalik does the interviewing"

@VitalikButerin: "looking back at last 25 years since the declaration of cyberspace independence, where do you see techno idealism in general? Where has it succeeded, where has it failed?"

@tylercowen: "What has been under-predicted is the increase in disorientation - how we as human beings deal with so much information"

@VitalikButerin: "If you were @jack, what would you do? How would you govern moderation?"

@tylercowen: "there's a massive subsidization of resources moving into crypto, attracting smart people [...] That subsidization also means you don't have discipline on your governance experiments... people can try all sorts of things, but it's hard to tell what works"

@tylercowen: "Is there something you can do with crypto that is actually transformative? For transactional value you want it to be stable, but for a portfolio you want it to be unpredictable. There are these two forces tugging on crypto"

@VitalikButerin: "What's your take on why @SubstackInc has gotten more popular?"

@tylercowen: "People trust the media less, mostly for good reasons. And people have learned they can make a lot of money now"

@tylercowen: "Two big winners from the internet are the United States and China. The internet gives greater reach to soft power."

@VitalikButerin: "A lot of people see crypto as primarily a financial thing. There's also the potential for crypto to be a base for non-financial apps. Do you see potential here?"

@tylercowen: "Enabling new kinds of transactions is important - for example, prediction markets"

@tylercowen: "If you look at hyperinflations in history, people often waited until inflation hit 40% before trying to denominate their contracts in USD - maybe because of mental tx costs.

So will those same barriers stop new kinds of crypto transactions from taking off?"

@VitalikButerin: "Last time we talked about quadratic funding, it was mostly an idea. Since then, in the @ethereum ecosystem we've done these experiments with @gitcoin grants and quadratic funding.

How have your views on quadratic funding changed?"

@tylercowen: "I think it can work, it's been shown it can work. But when I look at collective choice in general, the key thing is quality of voter preferences. What do people want, what does culture tell people is or is not important?"

And now, a very special edition of overrated/underrated!

@VitalikButerin: Virtual reality?

@tylercowen 👎 Overrated

@VitalikButerin: Mars?

@tylercowen: I am a skeptic about space travel, but not Mars per se. Seems to me the journey is perilous.

I sometimes say - when Nevada is full, I'll start to think about Mars.

And now, questions from the audience!

@TheRealKartik: Tyler talked about how people might not care about decentralization. What's your take on that argument?

@VitalikButerin: Often people don't care until something affects them. But if it's a bad system, eventually it will affect you.

@tylercowen: "I wouldn't say @VitalikButerin and I disagree, we just have different stances. I'm a distanced observer. Vitalik is a doer."

@TheRealKartik: "How would you pitch ethereum as a topic to an economics student?"

@tylercowen: "I'm not sure the pitch would matter. They would need to see papers in a top journal. It's all proof by showing - might be unfortunate, but that's how it works right now."

@TheRealKartik: What do you predict for Ethereum in 2 years?

@tylercowen: "It will be more of an august, mainstream institution. Vitalik will be more of an elder statesmen. It will feel more grave and serious, but it will be doing bigger things."

@TheRealKartik: What do you predict for Ethereum in 2 years?

@VitalikButerin: "Continued, steady growth & technical progress. This will be a necessary bedrock to enable a lot more applications. Once the tech is actually there to handle it, the results may well be amazing"

and that's a wrap folks - thanks for tuning in! <3