Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (V God) recently responded to a tweet on social media platform X, the theme of which was 'What are some things you once believed in unconditionally but changed your mind about as you learned more?'. He admitted, 'One significant change in my way of thinking is that my focus on economics has noticeably decreased compared to ten years ago. This shift primarily stems from my first five years in the crypto space, where I attempted to design a mathematically provable optimal governance mechanism. However, I ultimately encountered some fundamental 'impossibility theorems' that clearly indicated the mechanism I was pursuing was fundamentally unattainable. In reality, the key to the success or failure of a governance system often lies in the degree of coordination among participants, as well as other vague factors we typically summarize as 'culture', which were not even included in my models.'
He further reflected on his experiences: 'In the past, mathematics was a crucial part of my identity. In high school, I was passionate about math competitions, and shortly after entering the crypto field, I immersed myself in a lot of coding work. I was excited about every new development in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto protocols. During that period, economics was a tool for me that combined mathematics and society, allowing me not only to understand social systems but also to envision how to improve the world through these tools. All these parts once fit together perfectly. However, over time, the connections between them have become less tight.'
V God admitted that he still uses mathematics to analyze social mechanisms, but more to roughly predict potentially effective solutions or to mitigate the worst-case scenarios, rather than trying to explain intermediate state behaviors as he did before. He pointed out, 'Behavior in the real world is more likely to be dominated by automated robots rather than humans. Therefore, my current writing and thinking, even though they still support the same ideals as ten years ago, often employ very different arguments.'
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He further reflected on his experiences: 'In the past, mathematics was a crucial part of my identity. In high school, I was passionate about math competitions, and shortly after entering the crypto field, I immersed myself in a lot of coding work. I was excited about every new development in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto protocols. During that period, economics was a tool for me that combined mathematics and society, allowing me not only to understand social systems but also to envision how to improve the world through these tools. All these parts once fit together perfectly. However, over time, the connections between them have become less tight.'
V God admitted that he still uses mathematics to analyze social mechanisms, but more to roughly predict potentially effective solutions or to mitigate the worst-case scenarios, rather than trying to explain intermediate state behaviors as he did before. He pointed out, 'Behavior in the real world is more likely to be dominated by automated robots rather than humans. Therefore, my current writing and thinking, even though they still support the same ideals as ten years ago, often employ very different arguments.'
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