Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson calls for crypto Constitution
Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson has called for the whole crypto community to pull together and create ‘a Bill of Rights’ for what decentralisation should truly be.
In a rousing keynote speech at the Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, the IOHK supremo warned that the industry was at a crossroads on the path towards true decentralisation, and has reached the critical point where the right destination needs to navigated.
“Blockchain technology at its core is about trust amongst people who don’t trust each other,” he declared.
“As we see the third generation cryptocurrencies become more powerful, more prevalent, more pervasive, we have to start making some uncomfortable and difficult philosophical decisions about how our technology works.
“When you move beyond the comfort of Bitcoin – the homogeneity of it, proof-of-work – to other systems, you start entertaining the idea that not everybody’s going to have a copy of the blockchain. You start entertaining the idea that maybe there are some special nodes, special actors in the system and, when you do that, at what point have you crossed the threshold that you’re no longer decentralised, you’re no longer a cryptocurrency.
“You’re no longer the arbitrator of trust and each and every person is guaranteed equal access.”
The cryptocurrency industry was, he described, in the ‘awkward teens’, and at a point where its players needed to define the core meaning of decentralisation.
“If we’re truly decentralised, if we’re truly an open ecosystem we collectively have to somehow come together and figure this out for ourselves,” he explained.
“We have to write some sort of Constitution for these things, we have to decide what is the Bill of Rights for the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
“If you’re here to just make money, then this technology doesn’t matter – it means nothing and you’ll lose all the things that make it special in the attempt to chase it.
“It’s hard. Integrity is hard, decentralisation is hard, it’s expensive. The protocol complexity is extreme. So many things can go wrong.”
Hoskinson then went on to set out the scale of the challenge of deciding which direction the industry must choose to go.
“It’s frustrating to have to reach consensus. Sit in a room with seven people – six of which you don’t like and the majority have to make a decision. You tell me that’s a fun evening?
“And that is the reality on a scale of millions and billions – that’s truly what’s on the table for cryptocurrencies.
“So having being in this space for almost a decade now and watch it evolve and grow from Bitcoin being at a dollar all the way up over $64,000 to watching nation states embrace it, the reality is the protocols are getting good enough to service the needs of millions and billions. The tech is there – or it’s getting there.
“We have arrived at a point where we have the attention of the world, just like in the nineties when the internet arrived at a point where it too had the attention of the world.
“We must decide as an industry whether we wish to learn from the past, or if we wish to just allow it to happen again.”
The Ethereum co-founder then detailed the two avenues open to the industry.
“There are two paths before us – one, we keep our integrity and we look to decentralisation, find these things, understand these things,” he said.
“Or, two, we ignore it. In which case we’ll have custodians, we’ll have escort keys, highly centralised, highly optimised consensus algorithms that can be reset at any time. The few will be in control of the many.
“This is the decision, and I don’t make that decision – all of you do.
“That’s the true magic of this industry, what makes it so special.
“All of its power, its applications – all these things came from the people in this room and rooms exactly like it. You are the builders, and thus you are the deciders – what you choose to build on, how you choose to build, how you choose to partner. The things you value are ultimately going to decide the character of this industry.
“But, if we solve this problem, here’s the magic of it – we change not just the cryptocurrency space, but we change the world.”
Technology, he added, wasn’t just about moving value around. Instead, it should also be “about your vote, your voice, your identity, your privacy, the water you drink, the winners and losers, the markets you interface with, your credit score”.
“Every single institution we rely upon in some way will be impacted and touched by the things that we build,” he continued.
“Each and every one of you – for the first time in your life – have a say in that.
“The things we build, the principles we have, if it works here in crypto, in ten years, 20 years, 30 years, it will percolate its way throughout society as a whole. Our ability to work together, govern each eachother, our ability to put these pieces together ultimately will decide what the world looks like.
“I for one would like to live in a world of peace and integrity, and a world where we keep the fruits of our labours, and we can listen to eachother and work with eachother.
“But we have to figure that out as an industry if that’s possible. And if we solve it here, we solve it for everyone.
“I believe the future will be decentralised.”