I went to An Evening with Vitalik which sounds a like a cheap 1990s porno or something if we’re being honest instead of what it really was; a basic series of speakers topped off with a rundown of what is crypto-economics given by Vitalik himself.
The room was reasonably full - perhaps some 300 or so people were there. It was impossible not to notice the lack of women in the room. If there is a lack of women in technology and coding, there appears to be an extreme lack of women in the crypto/ethereum space. That’s a real shame.
Anyway, I thought I might share some thoughts about the event while they are fresh in my mind.
Expect a lot of 101 talks
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from the evening. I doubt I was alone in that sentiment. In the end, the talks were a lot of 101, covering some good territory in the “why use a blockchain” space.
Until the Web 3 world is a lot more broadly understood, I think you’ll be seeing a lot of talks like this one. Pretty much a summary of what makes crypto-economics so interesting; namely, the incentive models that ensure the operation and survival of chains like Ethereum and Bitcoin.
While it’s great to have the topic covered by an expect such as Vitalik, I realized while I was listening that I’m decently well versed in the 101 topics.
Coins should have a purpose
In one of the panels, the role of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) was discussed. I thought the perspective put forward was smart; coins should provide a value to the application and not just provide a funding source for the product. Don’t just add a coin as a way to get funding when you could just raise Ether without adding a useless coin layer into your app.
That said, I’m not sure how many people will just give over Ether to a project without the promise of getting some financial stake. It seems the simple act of purchasing coins for the sole purpose of actually using the app is not enough at this point to get a project going. People here want to make money.
People do seem concerned around security laws
No one directly addressed the issue of the legality of the ICO. A few speakers did speak in terms that gave you the clear impression they were not 100% certain about their legal footing is currently or that their footing might not completely change for the worse when “the politicians” get involved (as if politicians have nothing to do with the people they govern).
Whether the ICO is a legal model to raise funds or not, it’s clearly not a settled route to raising money and it’s argued that in a number of cases, the fund raising is forcing unnecessary complexity into the applications being built.
The current wave of ICO feel pre-mature
The general feeling I got listening to a few of the discussions was that the ICO market as it is now is mostly just opportunistic raising of funds (as if there were some other kind).
Certainly it was felt that what is being put on offer today is the first wave very equivalent to the dot com bubble. Not that we’re in a bubble since the space is incredibly small. Just that the money being raised - small as it is - doesn’t match up well with the proven needs or opportunities yet.
Another DAO fork is likely not in the mix
In the Q&A, the question of the DAO fork came up (mostly, does the fork invalidate the immutable nature of the block chain and should we see more of those in the future). I thought Vitalik’s answer was quite reasonable.
He basically doesn’t believe that a fork in the coming future will be even feasible in the practical sense. Ethereum was able to fork due to it’s small scale. As it grows up, it will be basically not practical to get the kind of speed and community agreement needed for similar types of actions.
I was originally not so much in favour of the DAO fork but having watched Ethereum improve over the past year, I think the leadership of the project has outweighed any religious gospel one might have previously clung to block chains.
Mistakes are made. Improvements are introduced. We’ve moved on and I think the project is better for it.
I also agree that it’s likely going to be a lot more difficult in the future to repeat.
Toronto certainly has some mindshare in the crypto world
There is no reason Toronto should not take on a big role in the future of crypto economics. I’m not sure tonight’s event will be remembered as the host framed it - “you’ll tell your kids about tonight” - but getting a room full of people to listen to Vitalik give a speach is great and launching that into a weekend hackathon is better.
Canada desperately needs this sort of thing. I hope to participate a lot more in the future.