Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (V神) recently responded to a tweet on social media X, which was about 'what are some things you once believed wholeheartedly but changed your mind about as you learned more.' He admitted, 'One major change in my way of thinking is that my focus on economics has noticeably decreased compared to ten years ago. This shift mainly stems from the fact that during the first five years of my involvement in the crypto space, I attempted to design a mathematically provable optimal governance mechanism. However, I ultimately encountered some fundamental 'impossibility theorems' that clearly indicated that the mechanism I was pursuing was simply unattainable. In reality, the key to the success or failure of a governance system often lies in the level of coordination among participants, as well as other vague factors that we typically refer to as 'culture,' which were not even included in my model.'
He further reflected on his experience: 'In the past, mathematics was an important part of my identity. In high school, I was passionate about math competitions, and shortly after entering the crypto space, 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 time, economics was a tool for me that combined mathematics and society; it not only helped me understand social systems but also allowed me to envision how to improve the world using these tools. All these parts once fit perfectly together. However, over time, the connections between them became less tight.'
V神 admitted that he still uses mathematical analysis to understand social mechanisms today, but more to roughly predict potentially effective solutions or to mitigate the worst-case scenarios, rather than trying to explain the behavior of intermediate states like before. He pointed out, 'In the real world, behavior is more likely to be dominated by automated robots rather than humans. Therefore, my current writing and thinking, even though it still supports the same ideals from ten years ago, often utilize very different arguments.'
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He further reflected on his experience: 'In the past, mathematics was an important part of my identity. In high school, I was passionate about math competitions, and shortly after entering the crypto space, 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 time, economics was a tool for me that combined mathematics and society; it not only helped me understand social systems but also allowed me to envision how to improve the world using these tools. All these parts once fit perfectly together. However, over time, the connections between them became less tight.'
V神 admitted that he still uses mathematical analysis to understand social mechanisms today, but more to roughly predict potentially effective solutions or to mitigate the worst-case scenarios, rather than trying to explain the behavior of intermediate states like before. He pointed out, 'In the real world, behavior is more likely to be dominated by automated robots rather than humans. Therefore, my current writing and thinking, even though it still supports the same ideals from ten years ago, often utilize very different arguments.'
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