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Just finished @mattleising 's excellent book on Ethereum, “Out of the Ether,” and wanted to share some thought-provoking passages and discoveries.
For those that lived it, or those that have recently read other great accounts (like @CamiRusso's), I’ll spare you the narrative arc. This is absolutely part of the cannon for anyone interested in the politics and personalities of distributed systems.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Out+of+the+Ether%3A+The+Amazing+Story+of+Ethereum+and+the+%2455+Million+Heist+that+Almost+Destroyed+It+All-p-9781119602934
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Out+of+the+Ether%3A+The+Amazing+Story+of+Ethereum+and+the+%2455+Million+Heist+that+Almost+Destroyed+It+All-p-9781119602934
Immediately after finishing, I scanned the sources and was struck again by how I came to know Ethereum through journalism. Like Matt, “I love complicated things. I love the process of figuring out how things work and then describing them to people in a way they can understand.”
. @ethereumJoseph instinctually invited @morgenpeck to stay at the Ethereum House in Mimai, where Vitalik first presented the idea of Ethereum at a Bitcoin conference. I remember reading her wonderful article in Wired. https://www.wired.com/2016/06/the-uncanny-mind-that-built-ethereum/
Explaining Etheruem is a convoluted task, and though it’s my job, I've learned a great deal from @paulvigna 's early stories in the WSJ, @joonian in @qz, or even @DelRayMan's article about bitcoin wallets in the New Yorker.
Even @jemimajoanna, an unsparing crypto critic, ironically helped convince Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella that @HiroMarleyG's presentation at Devcon 1 was worthwhile, evidence of “growth mind-set.”
Ethereum is an incredible tool for research. As a permanent archive, a journalist can pursue threads of inquiry in ways that normally would involve FOIA requests, access to a bank’s books, or unsealed court documents (you can see why the big four and banks are researching).
But also noteworthy, is how the journalists who have been undaunted when diving into @etherscan and forums, have fallen in completely. Just ask @CamiRusso or @joonian
After years of research, Matt is all in. “I believe in Ethereum...but I also know its flaws.” His book deftly navigates between Ethereum’s founding story and his own journey into the guts of the network to find out who was responsible for the first big flaw: the DAO attack.
Because Matt spent so much time with @VitalikButerin and his parents (not mention reading early and personal emails V sent), I more clearly saw what makes Vitalik compelling to me: he’s got a foundation in literature and the humanities.
Vitalik is more of a writer than a computer programmer. He speaks Russian, French, Latin, Chinese and read Thucydides in Greek (!) while at Abelard.
And it’s this background that helped Vitalik navigate the toughest early conflicts — “testament to how @BlockGeekDima , Maia, and Natalia raised a son who was radically equipped to draw from many different disciplines to achieve his goal.”
Also, Vitalik’s spent time in Calfou, a commune in Spain. But did you know that it was started by Enric Duran an anarchist and anitcapitalist famous for taking out loans for half a million euros, giving the money away, and then promptly and purposefully defaulting on the debt?
I appreciated how Matt understood why @ethereumJoseph positioned @Consensys to build Ethereum infrastructure to further accelerate the applications built on top. “The really fun stuff for me is the foundational protocol layer.”
Did you know that @AndrewDARMACAP made the Microsoft connection simply because @HiroMarleyG had “blockchain” written in his LinkedIn bio? Marley ended up visiting @Consensys 's office in Bushwick, coded late nights, and released Ethereum Blockchain as a Service for Azure.
It makes sense that Ethereum started attracting serious interest from the large and powerful banks. But I didn’t know about @AmberBaldet 's “bake off” to compare protocols and build an enterprise client, which is now @ConsenSysQuorum
But when it comes to enterprise uses of Ethereum I agree w/ Matt: “I’m not sure we’ll even noticed something has changed.” When we start thinking about the architecture of the web, however *ownership* matters, and we'll notice it on the consumer front.
