A letter from developers to the Ethereum community: We must improve community cohesion and make the right choice

We only have two weeks left to decide whether to hard fork.

If the community cannot reach a consensus, there will be two results. Either some community members will go against their true wishes and choose to follow the crowd (either fork or not); or the community will split into two, each implementing a different fork protocol. The side with higher support may continue to use the name "Ethereum", while the other side will need to choose a new name.

The above, no matter what the outcome, will seriously affect community morale and will also bring a lot of difficulties to the future decentralized management model.

I really don't want any member of the Ethereum community to feel pain. The community should not ignore or force any member. We can take a peaceful and friendly approach to reduce differences and quell rumors. Learn to listen to others' opinions and see things from their perspectives. I hope the Ethereum community can set a good example for decentralized management.

My opinion

I realize that hard forks are an important part of the development of blockchain technology, so I have always supported them. After the DAO incident, I became more determined that it is sometimes legitimate to directly intervene in the state of Ethereum through forks.

I have studied the worst-case scenarios for blockchain development. I have witnessed the potential consequences of unintended software behavior, but I am most concerned about unethical applications. I have tried to study how decentralized applications and organizations can establish social norms, network effects, and technical countermeasures to minimize the impact of unethical applications of autonomous software. But I have never questioned the autonomy of software.

For more than two years, I have been trying to build a scalable platform for autonomous software. I have always believed that the autonomy of blockchain technology is more important than its public application. However, now I have a new understanding of autonomy. The Ethereum protocol and its platform are autonomous, and they are not subject to any legal or regulatory system in any region. On the other hand, the Ethereum protocol and its platform are inseparable from the Ethereum community.

Social Contracts on Ethereum

The Ethereum community actually has a social contract that is constantly updated. The content of the contract includes changes to the Ethereum protocol and platform. In fact, the choice of hard fork (here refers to hard fork that helps improve the security, availability and scalability of Ethereum) is unquestionable. When the unintentional behavior of distributed applications causes huge losses, a hard fork will be implemented.

This social contract determines the autonomous nature of the Ethereum protocol and its platform and smart contracts. If the social contract insists on not upgrading the protocol, then Ethereum is autonomous (but then the protocol cannot be updated); if the society reaches a consensus that smart contracts should not be subject to human tampering, then Ethereum is autonomous (but then the losses caused by smart contracts cannot be recovered); if the social contract insists on not hard forking in order to prevent Ethereum from falling into the hands of any legal framework, then the hard fork will not be carried out.

Social governance processes, rules or principles determine whether a hard fork is carried out, but it is important that these processes do not develop into institutions. The community should not be influenced by any precedent, should not be influenced by miners' votes, should not be influenced by investors, should not be influenced by developers, and should not be influenced by the principle of majority rule.

If we put community cohesion at the highest point, then in the long run, the so-called "majority" will not hinder us from realizing the core value of the community. But if we put personal values ​​above community cohesion, then the "majority" will take control of the community, or the community will be divided into multiple factions due to irreconcilable contradictions, and the community will eventually split into multiple blockchains.

Summarize

The Ethereum community has a short time to resolve the DAO crisis. We must reach a consensus on the hard fork as soon as possible. If we cannot reach a consensus in time, the "minority" will be led by the "majority" against their own will and the core values ​​of the community, or the community will split into two blockchain factions. If we reach a consensus, what awaits us will be a perfect example of decentralized management.

No matter what, we will make cryptocurrency history!