Vitalik Buterin: decentralization is an experiment, and we succeed in it

02.06.2020

Lena Dzhess

Actions of Ethereum Developershave proven their commitment to principles many timesdecentralization, says Vitalik Buterin, the creator of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization. As part of the Planet Wide SOS hackathon, ForkLog Live producer Lilia Tulupenko asked him about the collapse of The DAO, which led to a split in the community and the emergence of Ethereum Classic.

Buterin said that after the attack on The DAO,the consequences of which would cause irreparable harm to the community, most of the developers supported his decision to hard fork. However, he himself is trying to move away from control of the network.

“I feel like I'm trying to get out of control withtheir side in any possible way. And when people from time to time attack me demanding more control, I have to disappoint them, because in reality I have no control over anything ”,Vitalik Buterin said.

Ethereum's creator emphasized that developers often listen to the community:

“For example, we didn’t unfreeze the Parity wallet, wehave not done a lot of other things related to defrosting funds, even in the case of ProgPoW. This is another example where the community influenced a solution that was supported by most of the developers. "

All this, according to Buterin, proves thatthe community stayed true to the concept of code immutability. In addition, the discussion of the protocol in 2020 is significantly different from what similar discussions looked like in 2016.

“Decentralizing Ethereum is a process. When there are few members in a community, centralization is inevitable. If the ten people behind the technical and analytical work discuss it with each other, you feel it [centralization] - whether you like it or not, but as the community grows, this kind of center becomes more and more blurred ”,- noted the creator of Ethereum.

Recognizing that project decentralization takes time and is largely experimental, Buterin stated the success of his development team:

“It's kind of an experiment - can you start with something more centralized and make it more decentralized over time. And I think so far we have succeeded. "

As a reminder, in July 2016 The DAO project washacked, the damage exceeded $ 60 million. The Ethereum Foundation, headed by Vitalik Buterin, decided to save The DAO's assets in favor of investors. The disagreements within the community ended with the Ethereum hard fork. A part of the old community with a “code is law” position remained in the old chain known as Ethereum Classic.