Episode

#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
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2:11:44
Published: Tue Mar 09 2021
Description

Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant) | Brought to you by Wealthfront automated investing, Pique's Daily Immune (Vitamin C optimized for absorption), and Theragun percussive muscle therapy devices.Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) is the creator of Ethereum. He first discovered blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies through Bitcoin in 2011, and was immediately excited by the technology and its potential. He co-founded Bitcoin magazine in September 2011, and after two and a half years looking at what the existing blockchain technology and applications had to offer, wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He now leads Ethereum’s research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol. In 2014, Vitalik was a recipient of the two-year Thiel Fellowship, tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s project that awards $100,000 to 20 promising innovators under 20 so they can pursue their inventions in lieu of a post-secondary institution. You can find his website at vitalik.ca. Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the co-founder and chairman of AngelList. He is an angel investor and has invested in more than 100 companies, including many mega-successes, such as Twitter, Uber, Notion, Opendoor, Postmates, and Wish. You can subscribe to Naval, his podcast on wealth and happiness, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find his blog at nav.al.Please enjoy!*This episode is brought to you by Pique and their brand-new supplement, Daily Immune—Vitamin C optimized for absorption. Pique’s Daily Immune is maximized for absorption with liposomal encapsulation technology and Pique’s unique formula supports a healthy immune system. It’s so easy and tastes so good—think black European elderberries—you might choose to take it once or twice a day, as I do.Try it for yourself risk-free—with their 30-day satisfaction guarantee, you either love it or get your money back. Go to PiqueTea.com/Tim and use code TIM at checkout to get 5% off your first order plus free shipping when you purchase a bundle.*This episode is also brought to you by Theragun! Theragun is my go-to solution for recovery and restoration. It’s a famous, handheld percussive therapy device that releases your deepest muscle tension. I own two Theraguns, and my girlfriend and I use them every day after workouts and before bed. The all-new Gen 4 Theragun is easy to use and has a proprietary brushless motor that’s surprisingly quiet—about as quiet as an electric toothbrush.Go to Theragun.com/Tim right now and get your Gen 4 Theragun today, starting at only $199.*This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront! Wealthfront pioneered the automated investing movement, sometimes referred to as ‘robo-advising,’ and they currently oversee $20 billion of assets for their clients. It takes about three minutes to sign up, and then Wealthfront will build you a globally diversified portfolio of ETFs based on your risk appetite and manage it for you at an incredibly low cost. Smart investing should not feel like a rollercoaster ride. Let the professionals do the work for you. Go to Wealthfront.com/Tim and open a Wealthfront account today, and you’ll get your first $5,000 managed for free, for life. Wealthfront will automate your investments for the long term. Get started today at Wealthfront.com/Tim.*If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissDisclaimer: I am not an investment adviser. All opinions are mine alone. There are risks involved in placing any investment in securities or in Bitcoin. None of the information presented today is intended to form the basis for any offer or recommendation or have any regard to the investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of any specific person.Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chapters
Tim Ferriss hosts a special episode with Nick Szabo on crypto and more, delving into the ideas surrounding cryptocurrencies and discussing the technology and benefits behind it.
00:00 - 04:08 (04:08)
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Cryptocurrency
Summary

Tim Ferriss hosts a special episode with Nick Szabo on crypto and more, delving into the ideas surrounding cryptocurrencies and discussing the technology and benefits behind it.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Get 5% off plus free US shipping on a bundle of Peak T when you use the code TIM at checkout from Pique Tea.
04:08 - 08:57 (04:49)
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Discount
Ethereum is a platform for building unstoppable applications where codes are checked on the machines of many people all around the world, who are incentivized to maintain a single computing state.
08:57 - 15:08 (06:11)
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Ethereum
Summary

Ethereum is a platform for building unstoppable applications where codes are checked on the machines of many people all around the world, who are incentivized to maintain a single computing state. Unlike traditional centralized platforms, once you build your application, it does not depend on any single person for its continued existence, ensuring that it continues running according to specified rules and cannot be tampered with.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Decentralized finance or DeFi is a new category of decentralized companies and protocols that use smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to handle financial activities previously only handled by Wall Street.
15:08 - 21:45 (06:36)
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DeFi, Ethereum
Summary

Decentralized finance or DeFi is a new category of decentralized companies and protocols that use smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to handle financial activities previously only handled by Wall Street. Ethereum.org, for example, uses a DNS to maintain a mapping of IP addresses similar to the domain name system used by traditional websites.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Ethereum was founded during a time when people were beginning to realize the potential of blockchain beyond just running a currency.
21:45 - 33:41 (11:55)
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Ethereum, blockchain, smart contracts
Summary

Ethereum was founded during a time when people were beginning to realize the potential of blockchain beyond just running a currency. With a programming language, developers could build unique systems that could be executed by nodes in a network, allowing rules to be enforced collaboratively. Smart contracts can be used for various applications, including contracts for difference, decentralized file storage, and organizations where the rules for decision-making can be written as rules in a smart contract.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The two families of scaling in blockchain are Layer 1 and Layer 2.
33:41 - 42:38 (08:57)
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Blockchain
Summary

The two families of scaling in blockchain are Layer 1 and Layer 2. Layer 1 scaling aims to improve the blockchain itself, while Layer 2 scaling involves creating protocols that sit atop the blockchain and utilize it in more innovative ways to ensure the same level of security as a blockchain.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Proof of Stake supporters argue that it can survive with lower rewards than Proof of Work, as it requires validators to lock up funds instead of buying more computing equipment to run hashes.
42:38 - 49:53 (07:14)
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cryptocurrency
Summary

Proof of Stake supporters argue that it can survive with lower rewards than Proof of Work, as it requires validators to lock up funds instead of buying more computing equipment to run hashes.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Rollups use proofs to ensure that computations are done properly and can support a wide range of applications, making them much more efficient than publishing every aspect of a contract onto the Ethereum blockchain.
49:53 - 55:06 (05:12)
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Ethereum
Summary

Rollups use proofs to ensure that computations are done properly and can support a wide range of applications, making them much more efficient than publishing every aspect of a contract onto the Ethereum blockchain.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The risks of Ethereum and blockchain technology are causing people to start with low-value things like domain names, but people will gradually become more comfortable with the industry.
55:06 - 1:01:44 (06:38)
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Ethereum
Summary

The risks of Ethereum and blockchain technology are causing people to start with low-value things like domain names, but people will gradually become more comfortable with the industry. There are disagreements over whether to make layer 1 more powerful or to have layer 2 do more.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
In this episode, the speaker discusses the success of Uniswap in the crypto space and how it is different from other amoral projects that focus only on profit-making.
1:01:44 - 1:12:53 (11:08)
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Uniswap
Summary

In this episode, the speaker discusses the success of Uniswap in the crypto space and how it is different from other amoral projects that focus only on profit-making. They also talk about the challenges of building decentralized projects in the pre-blockchain era and how Uniswap has overcome those challenges.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Ethereum's design allows for functioning prediction markets, public goods, financial systems, voting systems, gaming systems, and nifty tokens.
1:12:53 - 1:17:23 (04:29)
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Ethereum
Summary

Ethereum's design allows for functioning prediction markets, public goods, financial systems, voting systems, gaming systems, and nifty tokens. The platform has created a strong community around the world and has redundancy in design features like proof of stake.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Bitcoin's value derives from the currency itself while Ethereum's value comes from the blockchain and the token acting as consumable gas for transactions.
1:17:23 - 1:21:34 (04:11)
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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Sound Money
Summary

Bitcoin's value derives from the currency itself while Ethereum's value comes from the blockchain and the token acting as consumable gas for transactions.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker believes that a churn is healthy for the ecosystem, as it brings new life into the wealth distribution and reduces government reliance on tax revenue.
1:21:34 - 1:28:41 (07:06)
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Cryptocurrency
Summary

The speaker believes that a churn is healthy for the ecosystem, as it brings new life into the wealth distribution and reduces government reliance on tax revenue. The comparison between the crypto and fiat ecosystem is difficult to make due to the differences in their institutions.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
Quadratic funding provides greater subsidies to projects receiving micro-donations from a larger number of people than those receiving larger donations from fewer donors.
1:28:41 - 1:34:13 (05:31)
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Quadratic Funding
Summary

Quadratic funding provides greater subsidies to projects receiving micro-donations from a larger number of people than those receiving larger donations from fewer donors. It helps in fundraising for public goods through micro-donations, which is a more efficient way than traditional fundraising techniques.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The idea of creating coins associated with public goods can be used to incentivize investment in organizations that fund meaningful studies or projects.
1:34:13 - 1:40:15 (06:02)
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Coins, Public Goods
Summary

The idea of creating coins associated with public goods can be used to incentivize investment in organizations that fund meaningful studies or projects. This can be done through reputation or by using quadratic funding with tokens and investments.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This podcast episode discusses the bioethics opinion regarding human challenge studies, and how the concept of the consequences of contracting COVID-19 is slowly leaving the public consciousness.
1:40:15 - 1:46:03 (05:48)
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Human Challenge Studies
Summary

This podcast episode discusses the bioethics opinion regarding human challenge studies, and how the concept of the consequences of contracting COVID-19 is slowly leaving the public consciousness. It also mentions identifying long term effects and side effects anecdotally through forums with approx 1000 people.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The life extension community should spend more time trying to convince regulators to classify aging as a disease rather than finding ways to independently finance their research.
1:46:03 - 1:51:30 (05:27)
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Life extension
Summary

The life extension community should spend more time trying to convince regulators to classify aging as a disease rather than finding ways to independently finance their research. The internet has surprisingly increased public goods despite our assumption that it has increased private property.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The success of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has to do with how they interplay with important cultural trends.
1:51:31 - 2:01:23 (09:52)
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Cryptocurrency, Blockchain
Summary

The success of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology has to do with how they interplay with important cultural trends. Humans are motivated by their position within social contexts and cryptocurrency's success may be due to its affiliation with cultural trends.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This podcast series consists of 90 episodes that teach you a language from scratch up to a basic level.
2:01:23 - 2:06:15 (04:52)
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Language Learning
Summary

This podcast series consists of 90 episodes that teach you a language from scratch up to a basic level. Another method is to immerse yourself in a foreign city and try to learn via local signs and podcasts.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
This episode is sponsored by Pique and their Daily Immune Vitamin C Supplement that supports a healthy immune system and is optimized for absorption.
2:06:15 - 2:10:47 (04:32)
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Pique
Summary

This episode is sponsored by Pique and their Daily Immune Vitamin C Supplement that supports a healthy immune system and is optimized for absorption.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show
The speaker is promoting Theragun, a handheld percussive therapy device, which can be personalized using an OLED screen and an app, and can be used in a variety of ways.
2:10:47 - 2:11:38 (00:50)
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Theragun
Summary

The speaker is promoting Theragun, a handheld percussive therapy device, which can be personalized using an OLED screen and an app, and can be used in a variety of ways. The product is available on the website Theragun.com/Tim, starting at $199 with a 30-day risk-free trial.

Episode
#504: Vitalik Buterin, Creator of Ethereum, on Understanding Ethereum, ETH vs. BTC, ETH2, Scaling Plans and Timelines, NFTs, Future Considerations, Life Extension, and More (Featuring Naval Ravikant)
Podcast
The Tim Ferriss Show