Charles Hoskinson (pictured) took the opportunity on Sunday to poke fun at his fellow crypto big-wigs. Photo By Piaras Mdheach/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images. Sportsfile Collection.

Charles Hoskinson has taken an opportunity to laugh at a well-known crypto industry Most Influential list. The Cardano founder made a comical reference to the correlation between being influential in the crypto industry and ending up behind bars.

Unfortunately for the Cardano founder, Hoskinson was not featured on the 2023 edition of the list, with Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, also failing to make the cut. Although, Hoskinsons comments were made before the latest (2023) version of the list was published.

In a post on X, Hoskinson remarked: Fast Fact: appearing on Coindesks Most Influential list carries an 18 percent chance of a prison sentence. The blockchain veteran was referencing a preview post by the digital magazine which referenced its top entrants over the years.

CoinDesk, a leading news source in the crypto world, has been compiling its Most Influential List annually since 2014. This list reflects those who have made a significant impact on the crypto, blockchain, and Web3 spaces over the year. The 2022 edition of the list, like its predecessors, includes a diverse array of individuals from innovators and thought leaders to controversial figures.

Ethereums founder, Vitalik Buterin, leads with four appearances. Following closely are Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, and the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, both making it three times. Notably, Andre Conje, Andreas Antonopoulos, Brian Armstrong, CZ Zhao, Cynthia Lummis, Do Kwon, Gary Gensler, Gavin Andresen, Jack Dorsey, Jeremy Allaire, Jerome Powell, Pieter Wuille, and Sam Bankman-Fried have each appeared twice

On the list are convicted felons Sam Bankman-Fried, whose FTX exchange collapsed in spectacular fashion last year, and Do Kwon, whose TerraUSD stablecoin implosion kicked-off 2022s bear market. Changpeng CZ Zhao is currently looking at potential prison time after admitting serious wrongdoing to the U.S. Department of Justice for his time at the top of Binance.

This year the list includes Caroline Ellison (31) whose testimony helped put FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, behind bars, and Larry Fink (13), the CEO of BlackRock, whose application for a spot Bitcoin ETF helped kick off a new wave of institutional interest in the cryptocurrency. Top of the list this year was Casey Rodarmar, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals.

The CoinDesk list acknowledges the influence of its listed individuals without necessarily endorsing their actions. As it noted in its 2022 edition, We make no claim that this is a list of the most admirable or admired.

Hoskinsons latest remarks follow weeks of industry insights that have garnered significant attention. Last week, he criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its inconsistent treatment of cryptocurrencies. He pointed to Bitcoins preferential status as one of the few cryptocurrencies not labeled a security.

However, he faced backlash for allegedly supporting the SECs decisions when they benefited Cardanos ADA, but not similarly defending XRP. Hoskinson refuted conspiracy theories involving Ethereum (so-called #EthGate) and demanded evidence for accusations of bribery, which have plagued Ethereums non-designation as a security.

Then, a few days later, Hoskinson developed his remarks on Bitcoin in a further AMA video.

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Charles Hoskinson Mocks Crypto Influencer List as Vitalik Buterin Fails to Make the Cut - CCN.com

On Monday, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin reflected on his own take on techno-optimism, inspired by Marc Andreessen, who opined about AI in his Techno-Optimist Manifesto in October. While Buterin agreed with Andreessens positive outlook, Buterin also noted the importance of how AI is developed and the technology's future direction.

Buterin acknowledged the existential risk of artificial intelligence, including causing the extinction of the human race.

This is an extreme claim: as much harm as the worst-case scenario of climate change, or an artificial pandemic or a nuclear war, might cause, there are many islands of civilization that would remain intact to pick up the pieces, he said.

But a superintelligent AI, if it decides to turn against us, may well leave no survivors and end humanity for good, Buterin said. Even Mars may not be safe.

Buterin pointed to a 2022 survey by AI Impacts, which said between 5% and 10% of participants believe humans face extinction from AI or from humans' failure to control AI, respectively. He said that a security-focused open-source movement is ideal for leading AI development rather than closed and proprietary corporations and venture capital funds.

If we want a future that is both superintelligent and "humanone where human beings are not just pets, but actually retain meaningful agency over the worldthen it feels like something like this is the most natural option," he said.

Whats needed, Buterin continued, is the active human intention to choose its direction and outcome. The formula of 'maximize profit' will not arrive at them automatically, he said.

Buterin said he loves technology because it expands human potential, pointing to the history of innovations from hand tools to smartphones.

I believe that these things are deeply good, and that expanding humanity's reach even further to the planets and stars is deeply good, because I believe humanity is deeply good, Buterin said.

Buterin said that while he believes transformative technology will lead to a brighter future for humanity, he rejects the notion that the world should stay how it is today, only with less greed and more public healthcare.

There are certain types of technology that much more reliably make the world better than other types of technology, Buterin said. There are certain types of technology that could, if developed, mitigate the negative impacts of other types of technology.

Buterin cautioned about a rise in digital authoritarianism and surveillance technology used against those who defy or dissent against the government, controlled by a small cabal of technocrats. He said the majority of people would rather see highly advanced AI delayed by a decade rather than be monopolized by a single group.

My basic fear is that the same kinds of managerial technologies that allow OpenAI to serve over a hundred million customers with 500 employees will also allow a 500-person political elite, or even a 5-person board, to maintain an iron fist over an entire country, he said.

While Buterin said he is sympathetic to the effective acceleration (also known as "e/acc") movement, he has mixed feelings about its enthusiasm for military technology.

Enthusiasm about modern military technology as a force for good seems to require believing that the dominant technological power will reliably be one of the good guys in most conflicts, now and in the future, he said, citing the idea that military technology is good because it's being built and controlled by America and America is good.

Does being an e/acc require being an America maximalist, betting everything on both the government's present and future morals and the country's future success? he said.

Buterin cautioned against giving extreme and opaque power to a small group of people with the hope they will use it wisely, preferring instead a philosophy of "d/acc"or defense, decentralization, democracy, and differential. This mindset, he said, could adapt to effective altruists, libertarians, pluralists, blockchain advocates, and solar and lunar punks.

A defense-favoring world is a better world, for many reasons, Buterin said. First of course is the direct benefit of safety: fewer people die, less economic value gets destroyed, less time is wasted on conflict.

"What is less appreciated though is that a defense-favoring world makes it easier for healthier, more open and more freedom-respecting forms of governance to thrive," he concluded.

While he emphasized the need to build and accelerate, Buterin said society should regularly ask what we are accelerating towards. Buterin suggested that the 21st century may be "the pivotal century" for humanity that could decide the fate of humanity for millennia.

These are challenging problems, Buterin said. But I look forward to watching and participating in our species' grand collective effort to find the answers.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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Ethereums Vitalik Buterin: If AI Turns on Us 'Even Mars May Not Be Safe' - Decrypt

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterins blog post highlighting the threats he seesartificial intelligence (AI) could pose to humanity has attracted many fiery responses from AI and blockchain community members.

On Nov. 27, Buterin published a blog post titled My techno-optimism, which discussed how AI is fundamentally different from other inventions like guns, airplanes, and social media. Furthermore, Buterin explained that it could develop a new form of mind, which could work against humans and become the new apex species.

The blog post attracted discussions on various fronts and sparked different sentiments on X (formerly Twitter). Some voiced their agreement with the Ethereum founder, while others shared their criticisms of the post.

An X account called Emergent Perspective, which focuses on events in the internet age, replied that they agree with Buterins thoughts on the blog post. According to the X user, people who argue that positive intentions can guarantee that AI cannot harm scare them. That has been true of absolutely nothing in human history, and this will not be the first exception, they added.

Another X user expressedother worries about AI. A community member who goes as Wei Dai on X said that one of their concerns is that AI may inherently disfavor defense, decentralization, and democracy. According to the user, AI could accelerate the wrong intellectual fields, and humans pushing against it may not be enough.

Related: How decentralization can mitigate dystopic artificial intelligence risks SingularityNET exec

Not everyone agreed with Buterins sentiment. Another community member criticized Buterin and claimed that technology specialists like Buterin seem to have a complete disregard or immature view of human psychology. The community member argued that the motivation behind building morally poor human experiences is always money. The X user urged the community to understand both things and people and not just one or the other.

Meanwhile, a community member also argued on X that one of the problems with the blog post is Buterins predefined idea of humanitarian values. The community member explained that these should not be predefined and must come after and with the technology.

While many expressed their agreement and disagreements, others simply sat on the fence, saying they look forward to participating in humanitys collective effort to find the answers.

Magazine: Real AI use cases in crypto, No. 1: The best money for AI is crypto

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Vitalik Buterin thinks AI may surpass humans, community responds - Cointelegraph

In a new essay, Ethereums creator splits the difference between Effective Altruism and Effective Accelerationism with a reiteration of crypto principles of both independence and democracy.

Posted November 28, 2023 at 12:52 pm EST.

For a crypto veteran like me, the bull market between 2020 and 2022 was most notable for what was missing: Vitalik Buterin. The thoughtful, unassuming creator and intellectual figurehead of the Ethereum ecosystem was largely pushed out of headlines by bombastic, performative (and fraudulent) caricatures like Do Kwon and Sam Bankman-Fried.

But with such charlatans and their allies now discredited well beyond crypto circles, Buterin is back in a big way with a lengthy essay he published on Monday entitled My techno-optimism. Though the message is broad, it arrives as a specific response to the recent public rift at OpenAI. That fight was broadly driven by a split between Effective Altruists, or EAs the group Sam Bankman-Fried allied with and helped fund and Effective Accelerationists, or (e/acc), a far more free-market oriented faction that includes people like Marc Andreessen.

In the recent OpenAI leadership fight, the EAs seemingly took the role of techno-pessimists, trying to slow the spread of AI tools, while the e/acc faction backed Sam Altmans focus on growth. But Buterin sees both sides as having far too many plans to save the world that involve giving a small group of people extreme and opaque power and hoping that they use it wisely. As Ive written elsewhere, the two factions are branches of the same underlying Silicon Valley ideology, and both have deep conceptual flaws that ultimately sum out to authoritarianism.

Buterins response appears in many ways far more nuanced than the positions he is reacting to. He calls it d/acc, or defensive accelerationism.

Buterins counterpoint leans most of all on decentralization and democratic decision-making in the management of human progress. Buterin says that The d stands for defensive acceleration, or perhaps decentralized, or differential acceleration. It could just as easily, based on Buterins ideas, stand for democratic accelerationism.

Vitalik argues that those various Ds are linked. A society that develops in a defensive way is a more just and fair one, because its decentralization discourages attacking others, in turn leaving democracy free to flourish at the local or small-group level specifically. He uses the example of Switzerland, whose mountainous terrain historically helped it maintain a more horizontal and localized system of political power, since the various sub-national polities cant easily attack each other, or be attacked.

In more contemporary technological terms, Buterin specifically emphasizes privacy and autonomy, as well as cybersecurity and infosecurity as key principles of development on d/acc lines. He fully endorses a security-focused open-source movement, rather than closed and proprietary corporations and venture capital funds. This seems a specific knock on the EAs, who have been resistant to making AI tech more accessible.

On a related note, Buterin seems viscerally repulsed by the enthusiasm for military technology among the effective accelerationist crowd. On this point, he accuses the e/accs of making the same egotistical mistake as the EAs: Supporting the advancement of military tech, Buterin writes, requires believing that the dominant technological power will reliably be one of the good guys in most conflicts, now and in the future.

The essay also explores other important topics, like pandemic preparedness, and lays out decentralized approaches. At a very high level, Buterin praises systems like prediction markets and X/Twitters community notes feature, specifically because theyre structured to usefully integrate feedback from any member of the public. No surprise, Buterin also emphasizes the value of blockchains and cryptocurrency in his notion of digital defensive infrastructure, for instance for their ability to prevent centralized chokepoints for data.

Buterins D does not, crucially, stand for deceleration. He opens the essay with a strong argument for technological progress as a boon to human well-being, and explicitly connects that to the beneficial potential of artificial intelligence. And though he also accepts the risk of superintelligence dominating human life, he thankfully gives short shrift to the sci-fi fantasies of destructive AI that seem to haunt the Effective Altruists and their AI Doomer allies. Hes far more concerned with the realistic, here-and-now threat of AI turning humans into passive pets, simply because the AIs will make objectively better decisions.

But even given such risks, Buterin rejects the idea that any small group like the OpenAI board should control technological progress. Notably, this echoes close to a decade of Buterins own proactive efforts to reduce his own power over Ethereum. He rightly identifies reliance on central authority as an implicit element of contemporary Effective Altruism, and generally he seems to have the least affection for that set of ideas.

Buterin is more clearly allied with the effective accelerationists, and calls d/acc a subspecies of e/acc just one that is much more selective and intentional. But he rightly pushes back against their most extremist tendency, too their belief that unstructured free markets in themselves lead to human progress. Buterins objections here include the uncontroversial fact that many markets have proven to be natural monopolies. Following the e/acc free-market doctrine, he writes, seems likely to lead to a monopoly on artificial intelligence specifically, with disastrous implications for human freedom and flourishing.

Theres much more breadth and subtlety to Buterins dense disquisition for instance, he includes transhumanist ideas like brain-computer interfaces in his idea of defensive technological development. But its not hard to see d/acc as a rebranding of the left-wing libertarianism that has come to define the political ethos of the Ethereum community. Buterins pitch also reflects the same basic optimism and openness that defines the actually-existing Ethereum community today.

I believe humanity is deeply good, Vitalik writes in closing. Yes, human beings are often mean, but we much more often show kindness and mercy, and work together for our common benefit.

Two billion years from now, if the Earth or any part of the universe still bears the beauty of Earthly life, it will be human artifices like space travel and geoengineering that will have made it happen, Buterin continues.

We need to build, and accelerate.

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Vitalik Buterin's 'Defensive Accelerationism' Fits Squarely Into the ... - Unchained

Digital-asset markets are heating up, especially for blockchain tokens. In this week's issue, we highlight November's 19% jump in the CoinDesk Smart Contract Platforms Index (SMT), the biggest gain in 10 months.

Hype is creeping back in too. Our Sam Kessler takes a look at the drama surrounding Blast, the latest entry to the growing competition among Ethereum layer-2 blockchain networks.

We're also covering BanklessDAO's "education" proposal, Vitalik Buterin's verbosity, Wormhole's $225 million raise and Bitcoin "mempool sniping."

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

BANKLESS BRAND-LASH: In crypto it's never too early to call a trend. And lately, based on a grand total of two data points, various research and educational outlets are trying to get millions of dollars from the layer-2 blockchain project Arbitrum's treasury. So far, they're face-planting. The latest effort came courtesy of BanklessDAO, which submitted a proposal to Arbitrum's affiliated DAO for about $1.8 million in ARB tokens to fund a year-long education initiative, according to a CoinDesk report this week. The cost of the proposal sparked criticism on social media, but also led to aspersions against Bankless HQ, a crypto media outlet whose co-founders started the DAO though now claim to be "hands off." Damage control ensued. The episode bears an uncanny resemblance to The Protocol's account just a couple weeks ago of a separate attempt led by the research arm of crypto media firm Blockworks to get more than $2 million in ARB. That proposed expense was compared with the fees that might be paid to "Harvard lawyers." It was later shot down by Arbitrum community voters. As to the BanklessDAO fracas, Bankless HQ's leaders are now seeking to "clarify branding separation."

The prolific Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin penned a dissertation about his "warm but nuanced" feelings about "techno-optimism." The Defiant's Cami Russo summarized Buterin's philosophy as advocating for a "deliberate and balanced path in technological development." CoinDesk's Daniel Kuhn noted that the essay was "extremely aphoristic, and only slightly repetitive." Here's a sample of the 10,000-plus-word piece: "There are certain types of technology that much more reliably make the world better than other types of technology. The world over-indexes on some directions of tech development, and under-indexes on others."

Avalanche's Emin Gn Sirer teases "sneak peak" of AvalancheGo performance optimizations, including "optimistic probabilistic sampling" and "Warp Messaging."

Highlighting blockchain tech upgrades and developments.

1. BNB Chain developers are looking to more than double the transaction speed and slash network fees by 90% as part of a new technical roadmap for layer-2 network opBNB, a representative shared with CoinDesk over email.

2. ARPA Network's random number generator (RNG), Randcast, has launched on Base, the layer-2 chain created by Coinbase, according to the team: "Following a recent integration with Optimism, Randcast is expanding its reach by adding new blockchains to reach a wider number of users and developers in an effort to create immersive online experiences."

3. Chainlink, the biggest blockchain oracle project, announced that the "v0.2" upgrade of its native staking mechanism is now live. According to a press release: "V0.2 features an expanded pool size of 45 million LINK in total, representing 8% of the current circulating supply, increasing the accessibility of Chainlink Staking to a more diverse audience of LINK token holders."

4. Pimlico, a ERC-4337 infrastructure provider, which recently closed a $4.2 million seed funding round led by a16z crypto, is integrating Safe accounts via the newly launched ERC-4337 module from Safe, the smart account infrastructure provider.

5. Movement Labs announced the launch of M2, "the first Move Virtual Machine L2 for Ethereum, scaled with Celestia as modular DA," according to the team.

Regulatory, Policy, and Legal

(Tracy Stephens/CoinDesk Indices)

At least in the eyes of digital-asset traders, crypto winter appears to be over, and crypto spring in full bloom. Bitcoin (BTC) has climbed 11% in November, its third straight monthly gain, and native tokens from major blockchain projects are now pumping as well. The CoinDesk Smart Contract Platform Index (SMT) is up 19% on the month, the biggest jump since January. The leaders were Sei's SEI and Axelar's AXL, each doubling in price. Ethereum's ether (ETH) rose 13%, the most in seven months. All but one of the SMT's 47 members were in the green for the month; Qtum's QTUM was the laggard, losing 2.7%.

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The Protocol: It's Crypto Spring, as Smart Contract Platform Index Jumps Most in 10 Months - CoinDesk