Vitalik Buterin’s Exclusive Interview with Blocktempo Part 1 is conducted entirely in Chinese and discusses the unique aspects of the Taiwanese community in relation to Ethereum, as well as how technologies such as ZK and DID can improve modern democratic mechanisms and safeguard freedom of speech. Part 2 is conducted in English and covers topics such as the centralization issues in the age of AI, how to regain the spirit of cypherpunks, and the unknown challenges Ethereum faced before transitioning to Proof of Stake (PoS).
Table of Contents:
Chinese interview video
Love for the Taiwanese community’s autonomous learning
Vitalik: Not understanding Plurality is normal
Implementing Plurality with blockchain technology
Important tools for Plurality thinking
English interview – Searching for the Crypto Punk
Crypto Punk = Freedom and openness
The need for awareness, not speculation
How does Ethereum’s high-resolution democracy differ from Plurality?
Democracy should also make good use of modern information technology
Macro democracy is inefficient, while micro democracy is insecure
Searching for a secure voting method that is both micro and macro
Trust upgrade of infrastructure
Combining blockchain and zero-knowledge proof
Ethereum can prevent the recurrence of FTX events
Zero-knowledge proof is no longer just a theory
Zero-knowledge development has become easier
Dencun upgrade promotes the spirit of Cypherpunks
Optimism in technology
Discussions on PoS began in 2014
Underestimating the complexity of transitioning to PoS
The outline of artificial intelligence
The world places too much trust in centralization
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, came to Taiwan to participate in the Tempo X Plurality Salon, which wrote a milestone in open collaboration with experts from various fields.
Background:
Highlights of the Plurality speech: Radical market Glen Weyl: The direction of democracy and information technology, Taiwan is an important breakthrough.
Chinese Interview Video
The following is an article about the Chinese interview video (content in video Pt.1). The second half is the transcript of the English interview. Readers interested in blockchain technology and democratic innovation can watch the video and understand the details of the interview.
Vitalik: Hi, Blocktempo and readers from Taiwan. I am Vitalik Buterin. I am very happy to be at Tempo X today to talk about Plurality!
Jigglypuff Tsai: Hi, Vitalik. Let’s start by discussing Taiwan. Whether it’s Ethereum or Plurality, we really like Taiwan. Have you seen any potential in Taiwan, or why Taiwan?
Vitalik: The first time I came to Taiwan was in 2015. Alex Liu from Maicoin invited me to visit his company and the Taiwanese community. That’s when I started to connect with the Ethereum community here. What I really liked about Taiwan was that there were many people who loved learning. It wasn’t because a professor told them to learn, but they were spontaneously curious and wanted to understand these topics.
I remember this happened many times. I would write an article or code, and the next day, there would be a Google document where they copied my content. There were about 5 to 10 people collaborating, helping each other understand various things I or other Ethereum researchers had done. So I have always liked this culture.
In 2017, I started looking for a local team in Taiwan, including Xiao Wei, Zhi Cheng, and some other developers. Xiao Wei is still working at the foundation today, and there are also others working on various ZK projects or elsewhere. So I have always liked them.
Jigglypuff Tsai: The second question is about what you just mentioned, that Taiwanese people love learning, but they don’t understand Plurality. Do you have any tips to help us understand?
Vitalik: Plurality is a very new concept, so it’s normal that people don’t understand it because even the inventor hasn’t explained it clearly yet. We haven’t found the perfect way to describe this concept, so it’s a bleeding-edge idea.
Yes, it is difficult to understand. I think when thinking about the concept of Plurality, we can consider democracy, open source, open democracy, and open government as technologies. Technology has a characteristic that it can have better versions. There will always be a day when someone suddenly discovers a better algorithm, and if there is a better algorithm, everyone will know what is better. Therefore, we can start thinking about how democracy and what most people are thinking about democracy are very different because most people are discussing the mechanisms of government, which are very old, dating back 200 or 300 years, and they are difficult to change.
Many people also start to speculate whether Plurality is outdated, something that is not suitable for this era. But if we start thinking about these things as technology, something that can be developed, researched, understood, and contemplated, then we can start thinking about what democracy is most suitable for the 21st century.
Glen has been curious about quadratic voting and quadratic funding, which are new voting mechanisms, researching how to make these mechanisms the best. They also have the concept of Bridging bonuses, which is another update. So we are now in the second version of Plurality, as the first version refers to the concept of quadratic voting, and the second version considers the relationships between individuals.
Now we have these new technological directions, and more and more people are starting to think about how to apply these concepts on a larger scale. But it is very complex to explain and understand Plurality with a simple sentence.
Jigglypuff Tsai: Thank you. Many of our readers are mainly focused on blockchain. If they want to understand Plurality better, I think it is necessary to explain it from the perspective of blockchain. We asked Glen and Puja similar questions, such as what Plurality means to you. But I want to ask in a different way: What is the relationship between Plurality and blockchain technology or decentralized collaboration?
For example, Ethereum has DAO governance voting and funding distribution or funding mechanisms. Are there any existing cases where Plurality voting has been used, or I know that Ethereum also has some funding methods for public goods that let us know that Plurality has already been implemented on the blockchain?
Vitalik: Actually, we had it more than three years ago, maybe it’s already the fourth year. This platform is called “Gitcoin Grants,” which is a platform that uses quadratic funding. People can donate Ether or other currencies to various public good projects, and there is a matching formula based on quadratic funding. There is a shared pool.
If many people donate to a project, the pool will provide more matching funds. This algorithm calculates how much matching each project will receive, which is quite complicated.
Gitcoin Grants has been implementing this quadratic funding mechanism and has gone through at least 18 rounds. There are actually multiple rounds running in parallel now. I remember at the beginning, it was a very small amount, maybe the matching pool was only about $25,000, but now it is common to have a matching pool of $500,000 or $1 million.
The supported projects are related to the Ethereum ecosystem, such as code, research, society, communities, education, and more. Gitcoin Grants has also started to support other communities. So Gitcoin Grants is an excellent, best, and implemented example of the Plurality concept.
Important tools for Plurality thinking
Jigglypuff Tsai: Are there any blockchain technologies that you are currently following, such as ZKProof, DID? Do you think they are important tools for developing the Plurality concept in the future?
Vitalik: We can understand it by breaking down the technology into two layers, just like building a house. The first layer is the design of the house, and the other layer is what materials are used to build the walls, roof, windows, etc.
If the materials chosen are not suitable, no matter how good the house looks, if it rains, snows, or there is a small earthquake, the house will collapse. So in this voting system, these two layers are the mechanism, how to create the best mechanism by combining the different ideas and opinions of many people.
The second layer is how to protect the security of this mechanism. In fact, security has many definitions. For example, one type of security is that if you want to do something like politics, private voting, or polls, if these votes do not protect privacy, people may be unwilling to express their true thoughts. Another type of security is whether someone will create many “fake accounts.” Gitcoin has also had this problem.
They created many accounts and donated to a project with multiple accounts, pretending to be a community. But in fact, the whole community is controlled by one person, deceiving the mechanism, pretending to be a public company but actually being a personal project. Defeating this can be considered an attack, so it is also a security issue.
Therefore, zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology has created this advantage. ZK can protect people’s privacy and solve these security issues. For example, you can simultaneously prove that you are a qualified participant in the system, one of the eligible voters, while keeping your specific information confidential. If there is