Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently expressed his views on the necessity of "good social philosophy" within Ethereum's application layer, emphasising its significance over the blockchain's underlying infrastructure. His comments were made on April 12, via a post on the social media platform Warpcast, in response to a user's assertion that Ethereum requires a new generation of developers who embody its core values to facilitate ongoing renewal.
Buterin articulated that the application layer, where decentralised applications (dApps) are constructed atop Ethereum's foundational infrastructure, is critical in shaping the future impact of Ethereum. He noted that “Apps are 80% special purpose,” highlighting that the types of applications developed are heavily influenced by the ideas and intentions developers hold regarding the potential purpose of Ethereum in the world.
He elaborated on the philosophical implications of programming languages by drawing a comparison between Ethereum's application layer and general-purpose tools such as C++. According to Buterin, while C++ could theoretically be developed by someone with extreme ideological beliefs without altering its functionality as a programming language, Ethereum's application layer is more susceptible to the philosophical inclinations of its creators.
Buterin stated, “Imagine that C++ had been made by a totalitarian racist fascist. Would it be a worse language? Probably not.” He contrasted this notion with Ethereum, explaining that decisions such as the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism inherently reflect the philosophy of its developers. He remarked, “Someone who doesn’t believe in decentralization would not add light clients, or good forms of account abstraction,” showcasing the intersection of technical decisions and social values.
In discussing examples of applications that embody good social philosophy, Buterin highlighted several projects, including the crypto privacy protocol Railgun, the Web3 social protocol Farcaster, the decentralised prediction market Polymarket, and the messaging app Signal. “You build apps that do the right thing behind the scenes by default,” he noted, acknowledging the complexities and challenges inherent to these applications.
Conversely, Buterin cited examples of applications he perceives to exhibit poor social philosophy. He named the memecoin platform Pump.fun, the now-defunct crypto ecosystem Terra and its native token, as well as the collapsed crypto exchange FTX. He stated, “The differences in what the app does stem from differences in beliefs in developers’ heads about what they are here to accomplish,” further illustrating how developer intentions can greatly influence the societal impact of their creations.
Buterin's insights underline an ongoing discourse within the Ethereum community about the role of philosophies in shaping the future of decentralised technologies and highlight the urgency for developers to engage with these ideas actively in their work.
Source: Noah Wire Services