Where is the true Ethereum? A detailed explanation of Vitalik's "masterpiece of cryptocurrency."

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

As the author of the Ethereum white paper and a co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik's every move has varying degrees of influence on the cryptocurrency industry. His speeches at various events are regarded as one of the "industry barometers," and projects he supports or frequently mentions are seen as "orthodox Ethereum projects."

On August 7, Vitalik stated: "From my perspective, both L1 and L2 confirm transactions in seconds, with L2 costing less than $0.01 per transaction. The performance of Farcaster, Lens, and Polymarket over the past year has been astonishing, and we are beginning to enter the ZK ID and ZK voting phase." He consistently praises the development of L2 networks and highly acknowledges popular products in other sectors.

Odaily Planet Daily will briefly summarize his past statements in this article, interpreting Vitalik's view of "representative works of cryptocurrency."

The Hottest Cryptocurrency: Leading Prediction Market Polymarket

In May of this year, the prediction market Polymarket completed a $45 million Series B funding round, led by Founders Fund, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and others. Previously, investment firm General Catalyst led the company's Series A funding round, raising $25 million. Its earliest seed round funding dates back to October 2020, when the project was just launched, raising $4 million, led by Polychain Capital.

This means that as the "hottest cryptocurrency" of 2024, Polymarket's total funding has reached $74 million. Considering the previous decline of cryptocurrency prediction markets, this move can be described as a "cryptocurrency miracle."

In this context, Vitalik's support for Polymarket is reflected not only in his financial investment but also in his multiple "supportive statements"------

On July 2, Vitalik wrote: "Prediction markets and Community Notes are becoming the two flagship social cognition technologies of the 2020s. Seeking truth and democracy, built on public participation rather than pre-selected elites. I want to see more technologies like this." He further noted that "the two are very complementary." This viewpoint was also publicly endorsed by Musk.

At the end of July, Vitalik again mentioned Polymarket in his latest speech, "The Next Decade of Ethereum," emphasizing: "In 2020, I paid $1,000 in transaction fees on Augur, and today the transaction cost on Polymarket is almost zero." He praised the latter's product extensively.

This is not the first time Vitalik has expressed views on the prediction market sector and its products. As early as 2021, in the second year after the 46th U.S. presidential election, Vitalik predicted that prediction markets would become increasingly important applications on Ethereum.

It can be said that Vitalik's insistence on "decentralization" and his foresight regarding the interplay of culture and technology have long been established.

Polymarket X Platform Account Homepage

ENS: Vitalik's Most Proud "Non-Financial Application"

Previously, in our article "The Evolution of the Cryptocurrency Venture Cycle (Part One): Rebuilding the New World," we mentioned a series of "industry questions" posed by Vitalik in 2017. Compared to speculative financial applications, Vitalik is more concerned with several key issues, including banking services, censorship-resistant commercial transactions, practical use case Dapps, real interest rates, anti-inflation, and payment channels.

In contrast to the speculative trading frenzy in the cryptocurrency field, he places greater emphasis on the "practicality" of cryptocurrencies, especially within the Ethereum ecosystem. This is one of the reasons why "non-financial applications" like ENS (Ethereum Name Service) have received high praise from Vitalik multiple times------his nicknames on several social media platforms are vitalik.eth.

In addition to his "public demonstration," Vitalik has also made numerous "frank" statements.

On January 3, Vitalik stated, "All L2s should run on a (trustless, Merkle-proof-based) CCIP resolver so that we can register, update, and read ENS subdomains directly on L2. ENS is very important; it needs to be affordable for everyone."

On May 21, Vitalik again "strongly supported" ENS------in a discussion with others about sorters & intents, he cited his views on cross-L2 infrastructure and emphasized three key changes: "Token transfers, ENS, and smart contract wallets (for individuals and organizations)." He mentioned, "We need an open decentralized protocol for quickly transferring assets from one L2 to another and integrating it into the default send page of wallets. Key changes in token transfers, ENS, and smart contract wallets can be easily implemented on L1 but are very difficult on L2. Light clients, basic reliability, and proof systems are also much safer/decentralized on L1 and far from sufficient on L2."

He then emphasized, "ENS is our most successful non-financial application; I don't know why more people don't care about it!"

It is evident that Vitalik is quite hurt by ENS's "pearl being tarnished." After all, most people only care about the price trends of ENS rather than its actual use cases.

It can be said that ENS embodies Vitalik's expectations and hopes for "building a new emerging internet."

ENS X Platform Account Homepage

Social Protocols: Lens and Farcaster as His "Favorites"

In November 2022, after Musk initiated the "blue check limit" on Twitter, Vitalik posted, "I am eagerly trying out Mastodon, Farcaster, Lens, and other applications, and I will pay Lord Elon $8 a month… but only if these applications are available on non-iOS platforms. May the best social platform win! There will be multiple winners!"

It is clear that as a "social media enthusiast," Vitalik was extremely dissatisfied with the platform changes brought by Musk, which led him to try niche social applications including Farcaster, Lens, and Long Mammoth.

In September 2023, Vitalik's X account was hacked, posting a phishing link for a free ConsenSys-related Proto Danksharding commemorative NFT, resulting in user losses exceeding $690,000. Subsequently, Vitalik stated on Farcaster that his X platform account had been subjected to a SIM card hijacking attack, possibly due to exposing his phone number while verifying the blue check, and he mentioned that he had uninstalled X and joined Farcaster, which allows account recovery through Ethereum addresses.

In February of this year, in the comments section of a tweet by DragonFly partner Haseeb, Vitalik commented: "'Bad GameFi is replacing fun with financial speculation. Blockchain games need to be as fun as games'------I've said this many times. I believe the same applies to crypto social. Here's a prediction: Farcaster and Lens will not be abandoned in 4 months or 1 year."

In May, Vitalik again expressed optimism about Farcaster and Lens, stating, "Never forget the ultimate goal: to build a free, open, and trustworthy internet. This cannot be achieved through theory and role-playing; it requires actual use of technology." In June, he responded to a tweet by Bloomberg podcast host Joe Weisenthal expressing disappointment with crypto culture, saying, "We're still here! And a lot of idealized open internet content has actually made significant progress, such as Farcaster and Lens, etc."

Undoubtedly, just as many people's obsession is to "bet on the next Ethereum," "open internet" is also one of Vitalik's obsessions.

Conclusion: The Original Intention of Ethereum is Social, Trading, and Gaming

At the end of 2013, Vitalik mentioned in the Ethereum white paper: "I suggest designing a new Bitcoin. This new Bitcoin will be based on a general programming language that can be used to create a variety of applications, such as social, trading, gaming, etc." It can be said that he has always been a person of "action and knowledge," and thus the projects and products he has endorsed over the past decade since Ethereum's birth have always "stayed true to their original intention."

As Ethereum steps into its "next decade," products in these areas will continue to receive Vitalik's high attention, becoming part of the "group of Ethereum orthodoxy."