BM rarely accepts interviews with the Chinese community. What did he say?
This article summarizes six key points and issues of concern in the Chinese community based on the video content, and shares them with everyone.Author of this article: Author: Crypto Peter.
BM is one of the most well-known figures in the blockchain industry. He has communicated multiple times with Satoshi Nakamoto on early Bitcoin forums and has created several well-known blockchain projects, including BitShares, Steem, and EOS, achieving high-performance blockchain systems. Recently, BM rarely accepted a video interview with the Chinese community for the first time in three years. What did he say during our hour-long conversation?
Why did you write the book "More Equal Animals" in 2020?
BM: I have always worked to ensure the life, property, and justice of everyone, creating a series of market solutions through technology. The problem is that even with the most powerful technology, if users do not have the necessary philosophical principles, the final result will deviate from expectations. I have two purposes for writing the book: first, I am providing organized answers to my own questions; second, I am condensing what I have learned over the past decade into this book for others to read. Readers can understand my views on multiple topics at once, including the following points: why we should collaborate, why and how to reach consensus, and how the Pareto principle affects rights. Writing the book is necessary to achieve the consensus defined by principles in the community. In my view, principles are more important than any technology, and I hope this book can improve the world by conveying my ideas.
Are you still involved with the Voice social media platform?
BM: I withdrew a long time ago.
What problem does the new project Clarion aim to solve?
BM: Twitter, Facebook, Voice, and Hive all want to provide "communication as a service," but this is actually impossible. They are logically centralized third parties that have the right to decide whether your speech can be broadcasted to the world. Clarion is a tool for you and your friends; as long as you are connected to the internet and can connect to their computers, your information can be transmitted worldwide. Clarion uses a P2P network to disseminate information, and this technology is not based on blockchain development. Clarion can achieve the functionality of email, which is similar to asynchronous communication, meaning communication when one party is offline. By using Clarion, you don't have to worry about account security; no one can shut down your account because it exists on multiple servers, most of which are run by your friends and family. The technology of Clarion is similar to BitTorrent; once it goes online, it cannot be shut down. Clarion is not a company; this is our ultimate goal.
What is your current relationship with Block.one?
BM: My relationship with them is the same as with other community members and node teams. I communicate with Block.one's PBE department to explore how to collaborate with them. For Block.one, my current identity is that of a community member. The way I provide suggestions to Block.one is the same as how I suggest to the world; if I have any ideas, I will publish them on my blog, and anyone, including Block.one, can read them and see how we can take the next step together.
What is the principle behind your envisioned new consensus mechanism, Proof of Burn?
BM: I have also started developing a new consensus mechanism that is more autonomous, and node teams do not need to pull votes. I call it Proof of Burn. Instead of allowing the blockchain that does the most proof of work to win and rewarding the block-producing team, the idea of this new mechanism is to let the blockchain that burns the most tokens or has the greatest deflation win. The competition among block-producing teams is about who spends the most tokens to compete for the right to produce blocks, so when more teams participate in block production, the speed of token burning will also increase. If a block-producing team wants to control the right to produce blocks, they must purchase tokens from the community. If they cannot earn profits from block production, the team will run out of funds. At this point, the team's business model is to charge users a fee for putting transactions on the chain while acquiring the next block at a lower price, profiting from the price difference. In this consensus mechanism, broadcasting transactions to the blockchain is a scarce resource and a privilege. The blockchain system rewards those who restrain themselves from broadcasting, while tokens symbolize the power to broadcast. I believe this mechanism is more autonomous while retaining the low energy consumption advantage of POS, avoiding the negative effects of Pareto and the flaws of POW.
What do you predict will be the ultimate fate of Bitcoin?
BM: If Bitcoin is really going to become a mainstream currency, it must be locked away in a vault, like gold. At that point, Bitcoin users will no longer need to transfer Bitcoin; traditional institutions will use new protocol technologies, and the opportunities to actually use Bitcoin for transfers will be very few. By then, Bitcoin's mission will also be declared a failure, and the reason for failure will be that the performance scalability of the Bitcoin mainnet is too poor.
