Episode
#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
3:08:54
Published: Thu Jun 03 2021
Description
Vitalik Buterin is the co-founder of Ethereum. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil - Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/lex and use code LEX to get $5 off - Indeed: https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit - Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off - BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Vitalik's Twitter: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin Vitalik's Blog: https://vitalik.ca/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (08:18) - Shiba Inu story (25:35) - Regulation (29:48) - Crime (34:54) - Proof of stake vs proof of work (47:43) - Miner extractable value (53:19) - Scaling (54:42) - Bitcoin blocksize wars (1:00:51) - Hard fork vs soft fork (1:04:34) - Craig Wright (1:11:18) - Scaling: Sharding (1:18:07) - Scaling: Rollups (1:26:30) - Polygon and other Layer 2 technologies (1:34:11) - Merging PoS and PoW chains (1:43:49) - Lessons learned from Ethereum 2.0 failure incidents (1:52:35) - Bitcoin vs Ethereum (1:58:30) - Dogecoin (2:04:38) - Elon Musk (2:07:15) - Chainlink (2:10:35) - Charles Hoskinson and Cardano (2:18:08) - AI safety (2:23:07) - NFTs (2:25:57) - Scams (2:35:34) - Longevity (2:44:55) - Does death give meaning to life? (2:50:38) - Lex and Vitalik speak Russian (2:54:29) - Meaning of life (2:59:48) - Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and WWII
Chapters
The integration of technologies such as smart contracts, layer two technologies, data pools, NFTs, and artificial intelligence has the potential to transform physical and digital life in unprecedented ways, allowing billions of people to participate in the global economy in a more decentralized and resistant way.
00:00 - 02:09 (02:09)
Summary
The integration of technologies such as smart contracts, layer two technologies, data pools, NFTs, and artificial intelligence has the potential to transform physical and digital life in unprecedented ways, allowing billions of people to participate in the global economy in a more decentralized and resistant way. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin continue to experience volatility in their prices.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast speaker mentions two sponsored ads in this segment, one for a job posting upgrade at indeed.com and another for mushroom coffee bundles at foursigmatic.com.
02:09 - 06:42 (04:32)
Summary
The podcast speaker mentions two sponsored ads in this segment, one for a job posting upgrade at indeed.com and another for mushroom coffee bundles at foursigmatic.com. Cereal is also mentioned as a representation of joy for childhood memories.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Dogecoin's price rose from 0.8 cents to 50 cents after Elon Musk's endorsement, reaching a market cap of $50 billion and surpassing Ethereum in popularity.
06:42 - 12:43 (06:00)
Summary
Dogecoin's price rose from 0.8 cents to 50 cents after Elon Musk's endorsement, reaching a market cap of $50 billion and surpassing Ethereum in popularity.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The process of transferring funds involving cryptocurrencies is not an easy feat.
12:43 - 19:30 (06:46)
Summary
The process of transferring funds involving cryptocurrencies is not an easy feat. An Ethereum holder recounts the stressful experience of moving the 325,000 Ether to a new multi-sig wallet for safekeeping, which required setting up a new wallet and finding multi-sig partners.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The concept of public goods needs to be decoupled from the idea that one central organization perfectly understands and can impose their idea of the good.
19:31 - 29:27 (09:55)
Summary
The concept of public goods needs to be decoupled from the idea that one central organization perfectly understands and can impose their idea of the good. The hope is for blockchains to continue to prosper, with scalability figured out so people can start doing amazing things like all the use cases discussed despite current transaction fees being at $5 to $10.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Proof of Stake relies on the holdings of coins within the system rather than the constant use of computers and cranking out hashes like Proof of Work.
29:27 - 40:51 (11:24)
Summary
Proof of Stake relies on the holdings of coins within the system rather than the constant use of computers and cranking out hashes like Proof of Work. This system requires less ongoing resource consumption and has a lower cost of hardware compared to Proof of Work.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The key difference between proof of work and proof of stake is that proof of stake is an automated process that identifies specific participants, whereas proof of work requires human intervention to select specific participants.
40:51 - 48:31 (07:39)
Summary
The key difference between proof of work and proof of stake is that proof of stake is an automated process that identifies specific participants, whereas proof of work requires human intervention to select specific participants. However, a potential drawback is the community's ability to coordinate if an attack occurs that requires choosing one of many minority forks.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Layers two and one will be used to keep blockchain the same while creating protocols to keep blockchain's security.
48:31 - 56:30 (07:59)
Summary
Layers two and one will be used to keep blockchain the same while creating protocols to keep blockchain's security. The marketplace will enable the creation of complex transaction bundles, while layer one will be able to process more transactions.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker discusses the potential difficulties for opposition parties in blockchain due to the lower costs of moving and adds that blockchain technology may prevent serious violations like increasing the supply.
56:30 - 1:04:33 (08:02)
Summary
The speaker discusses the potential difficulties for opposition parties in blockchain due to the lower costs of moving and adds that blockchain technology may prevent serious violations like increasing the supply.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The appeal of Craig Wright can be likened to that of Donald Trump - playing to the resentments and anger of his audience.
1:04:33 - 1:10:05 (05:32)
Summary
The appeal of Craig Wright can be likened to that of Donald Trump - playing to the resentments and anger of his audience. Believing his claims also comes from a lack of understanding in mathematical nuance and being caught up in the rallying effect of a strong, seemingly justifiable cause.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The use of random sampling in proof of stake blockchain networks allows individuals to have confidence that transactions are legitimate without the need for excessive computing power.
1:10:05 - 1:18:38 (08:32)
Summary
The use of random sampling in proof of stake blockchain networks allows individuals to have confidence that transactions are legitimate without the need for excessive computing power. Each individual participant receives a small piece to validate, while the information about what's valid is passed around to maintain integrity.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The two approaches to rollups for scaling in blockchain are called rollup and optimistic rollup.
1:18:38 - 1:26:02 (07:24)
Summary
The two approaches to rollups for scaling in blockchain are called rollup and optimistic rollup. Rollup is about putting most of the work off-chain and then only keeping a little bit of it on-chain, scaling to a factor of 10,000 per second. Meanwhile, the optimistic rollup scheme allows one person to submit a transaction with no proof first, and then someone else can disagree with it later on if it turns out to be invalid.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The possibility of adding more security and becoming a rollup or adding a Polygon chain is open in the future, with a better security model, as opposed to the current quick implementation within 10 days.
1:26:02 - 1:34:11 (08:09)
Summary
The possibility of adding more security and becoming a rollup or adding a Polygon chain is open in the future, with a better security model, as opposed to the current quick implementation within 10 days. A forward compatibility with crappy solutions that can be better over time is a compromise being made within Ethereum.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Ethereum clients will check both the proof of work and proof of stake chains, with the eventual plan being to transition completely to the proof of stake.
1:34:11 - 1:44:02 (09:51)
Summary
Ethereum clients will check both the proof of work and proof of stake chains, with the eventual plan being to transition completely to the proof of stake. The merge transition block will include the Ethereum chain and every proof of stake block will include a block from Ethereum's current chain.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The test network for a cryptocurrency experienced issues due to the lack of urgency on updating client software and differences in how clients interpreted information, causing a delay in resolving problems.
1:44:02 - 1:48:57 (04:55)
Summary
The test network for a cryptocurrency experienced issues due to the lack of urgency on updating client software and differences in how clients interpreted information, causing a delay in resolving problems.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The viability of Bitcoin as a tax solution is examined, including discussions of non-financial applications and scalability.
1:48:58 - 1:58:32 (09:33)
Summary
The viability of Bitcoin as a tax solution is examined, including discussions of non-financial applications and scalability. The potential limitations of Bitcoin are also addressed.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker suggests that Dogecoin could bridge to Ethereum and allow for thousands of transactions a second or utilize ZK roll up to have thousands of transactions on its own chain.
1:58:33 - 2:04:36 (06:03)
Summary
The speaker suggests that Dogecoin could bridge to Ethereum and allow for thousands of transactions a second or utilize ZK roll up to have thousands of transactions on its own chain. Transaction fees in the past made it difficult to maintain usage.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The host questions the future of Tesla and SpaceX in the cryptocurrency space, and speculates that Elon Musk's recent actions surrounding Bitcoin indicate a focus on entertainment value over calculated strategy.
2:04:36 - 2:07:13 (02:36)
Summary
The host questions the future of Tesla and SpaceX in the cryptocurrency space, and speculates that Elon Musk's recent actions surrounding Bitcoin indicate a focus on entertainment value over calculated strategy.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
Host Laura Shin and guest Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, discuss the need for deep rigor in blockchain protocols and the potential dangers of providing too much functionality in the base layer.
2:07:15 - 2:18:08 (10:53)
Summary
Host Laura Shin and guest Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, discuss the need for deep rigor in blockchain protocols and the potential dangers of providing too much functionality in the base layer. They also touch on the growth and evolution of Ethereum and its layer two ecosystem.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
This episode discusses the limits of formal modeling in extracting information from elliptic curves and scaling models like GPT-3, and debates about whether AI can improve its reasoning abilities even with more hardware.
2:18:08 - 2:25:59 (07:50)
Summary
This episode discusses the limits of formal modeling in extracting information from elliptic curves and scaling models like GPT-3, and debates about whether AI can improve its reasoning abilities even with more hardware. Ultimately, the discussion delves into the mathematical reduction of big things to building blocks.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The term "scam" can be applied to cryptocurrencies with intentionally deceptive leaders, as well as those with flawed implementation.
2:25:59 - 2:35:52 (09:53)
Summary
The term "scam" can be applied to cryptocurrencies with intentionally deceptive leaders, as well as those with flawed implementation. However, some people are more conservative with the term, using it only for coins that are legitimately attempting to defraud investors.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast discusses the importance of taking care of the environment and highlights how the philosophy of nature being good and minimizing disruptions from nature has influenced the late 20th century ideology.
2:35:52 - 2:45:37 (09:44)
Summary
The podcast discusses the importance of taking care of the environment and highlights how the philosophy of nature being good and minimizing disruptions from nature has influenced the late 20th century ideology.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The podcast dives into the philosophical implications of uploading your consciousness, including the idea that a person and their uploaded self could become vastly different individuals.
2:45:38 - 2:54:31 (08:53)
Summary
The podcast dives into the philosophical implications of uploading your consciousness, including the idea that a person and their uploaded self could become vastly different individuals. The discussion also touches on the idea that there may be something uniquely different about individuals from different cultures working in cryptocurrency, particularly those of Russian descent.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The use of the government to attack other cryptocurrencies and destroy its purpose goes against the ideals of freedom.
2:54:31 - 3:06:56 (12:25)
Summary
The use of the government to attack other cryptocurrencies and destroy its purpose goes against the ideals of freedom. Responding to obligations such as attending events somewhat hinder the self-directedness in participating in Ethereum.
Episode#188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
PodcastLex Fridman Podcast
The speaker reflects on the capacity for both love and evil in humanity and expresses hope for longevity.
3:06:56 - 3:08:47 (01:50)
Summary
The speaker reflects on the capacity for both love and evil in humanity and expresses hope for longevity. They also thank someone for their technical innovations which inspire many people.