Maintaining a fresh start

[Steve Sokolowski]

How many readers remember what bitcoin was like in 2013? I may be one of the few who does. It was an amazing time, one where there was a huge amount of potential and promise that cryptocurrency would take over the world. Every day was exciting - new products and services, new merchants accepting bitcoin, and new people coming aboard. Unfortunately, that magic was lost at some point, but this week I've started to notice glimmers of possibility that I never thought I'd see again.

While some see the rise of Ethereum as simply a changeover from one cryptocurrency to another, few are recognizing the wider implications of what may be starting to occur. While there will certainly be a lot of money to be made (and lost, as bubbles burst), the real story in the growing realization that a full-scale transition to Ethereum may be underway is that there is once again hope that cryptocurrency may become used in everyday life. That possibility is not possible with bitcoin in its current state.

Relatively few people in the world using bitcoin, but the lack of adoption wasn't due simply to users declining to use it. It also didn't result of people worried about the blocksize problem and declining to buy bitcoin. Lack of adoption was a result of venture capitalists and small businesses deciding against developing services based upon bitcoin. For example, I've stated many times that we had to make a decision last year about how to expand, and instead of moving into bitcoin mining we doubled down in scrypt.

Without being provided services, people saw no reason to use bitcoin. There are many potential use cases for bitcoin that simply cannot function with its limited transaction capacity, and entrepreneurs were waiting to see how the transaction capacity issue would be resolved before developing them.

The potential widespread adoption of Ethereum is exciting because it brings back the possibilities everyone thought about in 2013, before the blocksize issue poisoned bitcoin. Back then, people talked about smart appliances paying for things, DAOs that controlled banks of servers, and services that replaced the legal system. Corporations like Coinbase received tens of millions of dollars in investments. There was a "bitcoin bowl." Then, bitcoin stagnated while people engaged in childish Twitter wars and forum censorship.

These events have a huge impact on whether people are willing to risk their money. Bitcoin is a billion-dollar industry. Its employees are people with homes, children, and other responsibilities that depend on the system's stability and continuity. While I understand how some people may differ on how to resolve the blocksize issue, the behavior of Core developers like Peter Todd and Gregory Maxwell constitutes unacceptable professional conduct.

As money begins to flow into Ethereum, the number one priority that Buterin and others must begin working on immediately is a plan for preventing the influx of bad people into the new community. Ethereum's developers, who have conducted themselves professionally and continue to work with each other, must prepare to take action on a number of fronts to prevent Ethereum from repeating bitcoin's failures. Since any changeover is likely to occur literally overnight, they need to prepare for the possibility that they could suddenly end up as the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry and be ready to take on many new particpiants and prevent past mistakes should that occur.

First, the Ethereum community need to ensure, before big money interests arrive, that the major Ethereum discussion forums and media outlets are distributed and under the control of independent entities. The bitcoin discussion forums have failed on two fronts: they are heavily moderated for content that is in disagreement with differing viewpoints, and they are too lightly moderated for personal attacks and slander. /r/bitcoin and /r/bitcoinmarkets are two examples of forums where the moderators censor posts on the grounds of "altcoins" but leave posts with namecalling and personal attacks. Much of the attention of forum users has been on eliminating the first type of censorship, but imposing censorship of personal attacks is equally important.

Second, a basic standard of professional conduct for developers should be created. While every action doesn't have to be monitored, serious violations like slurs and threats should be dealt with swiftly to set an example that such behavior is unacceptable. After being provided a second or third chance, developers who fail to treat others with basic human decency should have their contributions refused, regardless of quality, for a period of time. While some smart people may be removed, the increased productivity and morale among those developers who treat each other with dignity would more than offset the losses. A contract that allows voting proportional to how much Ethereum one owns cannot be gamed by trolls and may be a solution to determine who enforces what is considered to be humane conduct. Since most of this Ethereum would be controlled by exchanges (which have an interest in promoting Ethereum usage and trading), they would be able to quickly oust people who do not represent the currency in a good light.

Third, it is critically important that those involved in causing bitcoin's problems be unconditionally disallowed from shifting focus to a new coin. The most obvious example of someone who must be excluded is Michael Marquadt (theymos), the moderator of bitcoin on reddit who is probably the single most responsible individual for the industry's problems. At the very least, he should be banned by Buterin from any participation in any properties that Ethereum's developers or foundations control. One of the most insidious problems with allowing people like theymos to be a member of an organization is that it establishes a "culture" that overrides people's natural tendencies. theymos himself isn't as much a problem as the idea that others see that there are no consequences to his actions in bitcoin, and therefore they decide to push the boundaries themselves. In bitcoin, theymos is seen as the "insider," and people who preach openness and honesty are not welcome. In the Ethereum community, if a culture of respectful discussion and inclusiveness is established immediately, then a precedent is set that people like theymos are "outsiders," and they will be shunned by the group.

When it comes to whether other bitcoin developers should be invited to contribute, the answer is less obvious. There are obviously some developers who have behaved more poorly than others, but the inclusion of any major bitcoin developer, including people like Andresen, would be a source of neverending controversy. Craig Steven Wright, who is probably the most likely person to be Nakamoto, has certainly not demonstrated the quality of character necessary to warrant respect for his opinions should he confess. I will controversially argue that the core Ethereum team should not welcome the addition of any of the major bitcoin development figures. There is too much bad blood and those developers could still create an alternate implementation or work on auxiliary services instead.

It may sound ludicrous to believe that strict guidelines for behavior would be necessary or should be enforced at all. Some surely would see it as unfair to treat some people differently than others in an "egalitarian" open source project. However, in bitcoin and litecoin, we have seen how the lack of an active and decisive leader and clear guidelines led to stagnation, fighting, and deadlock. Decentralized networks present great opportunities, but there will always be the need for some sort of order. Indeed, in some projects like the Debian operating system, becoming a developer is a highly sought-after position that involves an interview process and a commitment similar to a standard job.

This isn't about being fair. The cryptocurrency industry finally has a chance for a reset, and if you remember 2013, then you understand what that time was like and why it is so important to preserve it. This is why I'm watching the outflow of money into Ethereum and can't wait for enough capital to shift over and confirm the transition, because then I can start all sorts of projects. Imagine what will happen if Ethereum begins to be accepted everywhere bitcoin is. The cryptocurrency industry may finally have the opportunity to grow with the only bound being how much computational power is available on the network. This opportunity took years to arrive, and it is imperative that it not be thrown away by allowing any possibility that negative people will again turn the focus from innovation to childish attacks and interpersonal drama.

Vitalik Buterin may soon find himself in a position where people start to look at him for guidance on one of the world's most important computer science projects. He will quickly find himself under siege by trolls, moneyed interests, and controversial bitcoin personalities. Bitcoin is failing not because of technical issues, but because a small group of famous people and a large group of infamous forum trolls has eliminated the opportunity to solve issues. While any project should make every effort to be as inclusive as possible, decisive rules to remove negative and disrespectful people will be necessary to prevent a repeat of the past. As a leader, he is the only person who will be able to take a stand and unequivocally set boundaries for acceptable debate. I certainly hope that he has given some thought about what examples a leader should set. The future of cryptocurrency could soon depend upon whether the Ethereum development team is ready to lead, as their moment may arrive sooner than most believe.

[GenTarkin]

I still don't get it.
How can you be so bullish on ETH when it remains 100% user unfriendly.
Your hyper bullish position is interesting to say the least....

[CritterDog]

As a newbie from 2013 point of view on the cryptocurrency industry.

I think I can speak for many when I say what I think a major problem is in the cryptocurrency industry. The guys that know how it all works refuse to speak in layman's terms!

I started mining script back in 2013 and I am no computer whiz by any means. I know basic stuff.. I have built a few computers not really knowing what I was doing but lets face it its not that hard.. So this whole mining thing started I wanted in on it. One big problem.. I bought a few thousand dollars worth of miners then had to figure all this new script bitcoin how to get set up mining. I am no programer I dont know computer lingo its like a different lauguage that geeks use. So when I went and downloaded my first cgminer program it was all to technical to figure out for me. So I searched for help in the forums. Well most the people in there it was like they did not want to help or teach anyone else how to get in on this mining action. I spent about 2 weeks so frustrated trying to get some basic info on mining If I asked a question I would get a response """google it"" or "this has already been covered" go find it attitude!

Things are now the same with Ethereum.. I do not understand that computer lingo that everyone uses.. How are you ever going to get the general population to accept something they don't understand? This is why I think bitcoin never has really taken off. NO PR for the normal people or dumb people that just know how to do very basic stuff.. You can't talk all tech language to a room full of noobs like myself.

Until they realize and start trying to talk so a normal person can understand nothing will take off.. Its been 3 years I have been into mining and I just bought a A2 Mega cheap a few months back and still had to jump through hoops to get it up and going. The group that knows how all this stuff works needs to learn to be nicer to all the noobs that want to get into this.

[gaanthony]

I think they are working on their "Thesis" paper for college.
They bring some good perspective and thought that is outside the box besides being very capable technically with the cryptocurrencies to run a multi-coin pool and all the various wallets and millions strands of code and Exchange APIs.