So now we've built Ethereum, WTF is it?
- 1. Ethereum So now we’ve built it, WTF is it? Dr. Gavin Wood co-founder and lead developer, ethereum project @gavofyork
- 2. What, then why. Not how. Break it down
- 4. Important Things to Forget Coin Crypto Currency Bit Ledger ChainBlock Transaction Hash Proof of work Proof of stake Consensus Fork Miner Sign ASIC Curve Contract
- 8. It’s a Computer, Silly! Slow Code runs 5-100x slower that natively compiled Expensive to use Basic computation, memory and storage costs are ~1950s levels Not always immediately decisive Actions of last 60s may be reorganised
- 10. Actually, it is. Truly Global Singleton One computer for the entire planet now and forever Cannot Fail, be Stopped, be Censored No authority, government or corporation behind it, resistant to attack Ubiquitous Where ever there’s Internet, there’s Ethereum
- 11. Natively Multi-User Has as many accounts as is needed Natively Object-Oriented Encapsulation enforced in “virtual silicon” Accessible Where ever there’s Javascript, there’s Ethereum Verifyable & Auditable All code honoured now and forever
- 12. External account Object (code) message Storage The World Computer The World Computer
- 13. Guarantees Atomicity Entire operation runs or nothing does Synchrony No two operations can interfere with each other Provenance All messages (method calls) can be inspected to determine caller address
- 14. Guarantees Permanence Object’s data are permanent Immortality Object can never be externally deleted - can only voluntarily commit suicide Immutability Object’s code can never be changed
- 16. Compared to the walled garden of the server Ethereum is an Innovation Commons
- 17. Servers are Walled Gardens Interoperability Difficult Reliability, standards, trust, security collude to make it a nightmare Increased Barriers Naturally supportive of monopolies; try integrating trade or payment without a third party Cumbersome Servers are expensive to set up and maintain; Ethereum is always-on, always ready
- 18. Not to mention Privacy Privacy Less siloing of user-data; less intermediation; more privacy Security Security through nihilism; there’s no server to hack! Authenticity All interactions with the Global Computer are cryptographically signed: Unauthorised Interactions are Impossible
- 19. Ubiquitous and ethereal Ethereum is the First Decentralised Computer
- 20. Centralisation & Central Authorities Single point of control Single point of failure Single bottleneck
- 21. Software Development Individual coders Strict hierarchy “cathedral” Open-source hackers “bazaar” Clones and forks (Github-style)
- 23. (Rough) Progression of Governance Anarchy Monarchy/Empire/Fiefdoms Plutocracy/Aristocracy Bureaucracy/“Democracy”
- 24. Distance sales Back-of-magazine (close to zero) Amazon One Matchmaker, One Merchant eBay/Amazon Marketplace One Matchmaker, Many Merchants … No Matchmakers, Many Merchants
- 25. Communication Word-of-Mouth (close to zero) Press/Radio/Television Internet Mobile Mesh?
- 26. General Theme Nothing ...strong individual imposes order; progress to... Centralisation ...order enables cooperation; progress towards... Decentralisation Efficient Resilient Scalable ...or natural order?
- 27. A bridge across trust boundaries Ethereum Commoditises Trust
- 28. Ethereum Platform for Zero-trust Computing for autonomous trading smart contracts interoperable infrastructure permissions management trust webs ...
- 29. Underpins, specifies and enforces dealings Ethereum as the Court of the Internet
- 30. Ethereum & Crypto-law Uses blockchain to implement arbitrary social contracts without a central server
- 31. Pivotal in the (re-)decentralisation of the Internet Ethereum and the Serverless Internet
- 32. Ethereum & Web3 Infrastructure for the ITC revolution Ethereum Zero-trust computing Whisper Private asynchronous bulletins Telehash Private realtime comms IPFS/Swarm Decentralised data distribution
- 33. Ethereum The world computer Dr. Gavin Wood @gavofyork Questions?