Ethereum

anyone watched the Ameen's talk? 

it sparked an interesting discussion on Kiwi 

(link below)

I figured out the rift in the Ethereum community. There are two groups who can't relate to each other:

1. Collectivists who see themselves as peers with people like Vitalik and the EF. As labour, they collaborate on equal terms with each other and embrace a plurality of interests.

2. Corporatists who see a hierarchy with themselves as shareholders, the EF as a board of directors, and Vitalik as the CEO. As capital, they expect the interests of the shareholders to be prioritized and feel entitled to make demands.

While most of us are both, labour (contributing to the ecosystem) and capital (holding ETH), we primarily identify from the perspective of one.

It's not a disagreement about management or roadmap, but a disconnect in how we perceive social structures, our entitlements, and others' responsibilities.

Building @kiwi 
Writing @ https://kanfa.macbudkowski.com/

I think this has more explanatory power: https://warpcast.com/shazow.eth/0x21a5d07c

A doodler and computerer. I like permissive/permissionless open source, smart contracts, p2p systems, room-scale VR, and NixOS.

shazow.net

Currently: WhatsABI

interesting perspective. i think Ameen sees himself as a peer with Vitalik, they even wrote papers together :) my impression is that Vitalik (and EF in general) strive for credible neutrality, which is generally good. 

but there are areas where they do have control, e.g., how they run the EF, who gets the grant, how they influence the roadmap etc. and they should be held accountable for that. since they don't have shareholders or investors, the only people who can do it are the community members.

good thing is that in the last few months i saw a lot of great activity at EF that leans into that direction :)

If we stop believing in soft power, it goes away.

If we stop believing in hard power, it only gets stronger.

I don't think Ameen does, despite wanting that to be true. He sees and assumes hierarchies everywhere.

I see EF as a minor player and peer at this point, their internal funding and the funding they provide is a tiny fraction of other players like Paradigm/Coinbase/etc. Sure, everyone should be accountable, no disagreement there.

Some people choose to attribute absurd amounts of soft power to individuals and companies who have no real hard power, and it's important to remember this:

Could be, I spoke with Ameen maybe twice in my life, so I can't reliably evaluate what does he think.

I agree that Vitalik and EF have much less capital than, e.g., Coinbase, but Vitalik still has way more soft power than Jesse Pollak. 

In my opinion, it's a hard-earned soft power based on merit, but there are areas where V&EF are more competent and areas where they're less. 

Since we as humans are prone to halo effects, it's important to counter steer and try to always evaluate what people say based on merit, and challenge their POV when it makes sense.

I don't think Ameen does, despite wanting that to be true. He sees and assumes hierarchies everywhere.

I see EF as a minor player and peer at this point, their internal funding and the funding they provide is a tiny fraction of other players like Paradigm/Coinbase/etc. Sure, everyone should be accountable, no disagreement there.

Some people choose to attribute absurd amounts of soft power to individuals and companies who have no real hard power, and it's important to remember this: https://warpcast.com/shazow.eth/0xa8ee491c