Growing the Infinite Garden - Ethereum

Transcript

ethereum is infinite garden this is part of the message that i sent to people at the ethereum foundation as they earned end message last december the expression came to my mind when i felt the need of clarifying the image of ethereum what is special about ethereum it can be different for you and it's meant to be open for anyone to define but today ethereum's as you know growing very quickly bigger we felt like this like in 2017 but it's way faster than what is how it was back then and i thought it was time to remember

what this was all about and i started with what this has been all about for myself for me it was never just about the technology yes the technology is great and the ethereum's technical architects have been incorporating all your ideas um what you want in a solution and that is why ethereum has a huge potential to make all your dreams come true but i think what's most unique about this is how you and all of us have played in this infinite garden of ethereum my idea was inspired by this book

finite and infinite games by james cars unfortunately we lost him last year this book was recommended by our dear friend stuart bland when i joined the ethereum foundation the in the year that i joined the interim foundation as you know stuart is one of the most iconic and the biggest influencers of the world of internet and you may remember his amazing talk at devcon plug well if you haven't watched it you can watch it on devcon archive website so since then stewart has been a fan of

ethereum and do you know what he said to a tweet criticizing the crypto space he said the ethereum crowd is cool so even for him it is not just about technology and that was about people the book explains that there are two types of games that we play in life finite games and infinite games a finite game is played for the purpose of winning an infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing the play in an infinite game there is always a

winner there can be more than one winners but it is always predetermined how many are supposed to win and there are set of rules that do not change the time flame is predetermined and there is always a definite ending players and participants are selected or fixed on the other hand in an infinite game there are no limitations the objective is not to win but to keep playing the game because we want to keep playing and there is no win and there are rules

but rules and players can change and actually most of the cases the rules must change in order for the game to be infinite if you imagine kids playing football or soccer on the street not the type that um that forced by their parents more like more spontaneous ones they play it because they love it and you know some don't wear shoes some do and some come in and join and then some just decide to take a break the rules can change if there is a total beginner

they might pause the play and then start teaching the kid because if the beginner gets better playing at the football the game gets more exciting that's great for everyone so you can see how excitement and passion are the source of motivation for them and you can also understand why it gets boring the moment when everything is becomes about winning when the goal is winning you can change the rules because that would mess up your play plans and strategy to win you might select specific players for your team to score

as quickly as possible you also get very disappointed if you don't win i want ethereum to stay interesting and for us to remember the excitement of playing together to play to continue the game so i'm not saying playing a sport competitively or competing with each other is all wrong the book also explains finite games can exist within an infinite game while the opposite cannot happen there are competitions and debates within ethereum as you see but

that those are for ethereum as a whole to be better to improve not for one of the players to win you can bring your competitiveness while seeking the balance and the competitiveness is is for you to be stronger not for one of us to be more powerful what do i mean by garden the garden is the ethereum ecosystem that we play all kinds of games i call it a garden because just like nature the ethereum ecosystem wasn't designed this has evolved there were gardeners

who seized the first seas originally but that didn't just create one one tree there have been more trees different types of uh plants and creatures who joined to make the garden more vibrant and diverse and it's also important to mention the power of climate mother nature teaches us lessons by giving us harsh weather sometimes which makes us more stronger more creative to come up with our solutions and the participants in the garden can change

but the garden keeps growing and stays infinite i think i cannot think of a better way to describe what is special about ethereum ethereum is not just a superior technology but what makes it special is the ecosystem the infinite garden and the way you shape the garden driven by curiosity excitement and desires to improve the garden for the good of everyone so how do we maintain this garden stay infinite this is a question that keeps me up at night lately as much as i'm excited about ethereum as

you do um i'm also aware the unique nest of ethereum how we have this infinite garden can change if you're not conscious if what is the most special about ethereum is not just technology we can't just rely on the technology to solve all the challenges we have i believe this requires the wisdom of human beings we use the word smart for technologies smartphones smart contracts but notice that we don't use the word wise for technologies

that's because only humans can be wise we need that wisdom to keep technology developing in the good healthy direction and that's how we can make even smart contracts wise if i'm puzzling you i might be doing a job if i sound like a damn monk that's because i agree with them monks that answers can only come from within they ask you question they don't answer to your questions they give you more questions for you to come up with your own answers in the right direction so today for your inspiration

i want to introduce some people who i believe are showing how we can keep our garden infinite these are fellows of the first cohort of the ef ethereum foundation fellowship program i explained in an ef blog the importance of looking at opportunities in emerging economies for the next billion users of ethereum the experiments they are doing are all created by simply looking at how to improve um the people's life around them and their work will not only empower

and help local communities but also inspire others in even in developed countries to learn from and even copy again not to win the game but to keep playing the game together one of the fellows naruwa on the right is working on a project called giga this was founded by unicef originally and now bringing in many other supporters this project's mission is to provide connectivity connect schools with the internet which helps to improve the digital divide and gives children an equal access to

education in many countries in developing countries in the in the world that government doesn't even know how many schools exist so they started with mapping the scores that exist with ai and then then check the connectivity here's a map of latin america if you zoom in to colombia it shows the map with green arrow and red dots green dots shows um where

the schools that are connected and the yellow shows that the spotty internet and rep means there's no internet so why is it not easy for these schools to be connected other than the physical infrastructure issues in rural areas there are always coordination issues like coordination of governance payments and financing that actually block schools to be connected this is where ethereum can add values i have great news today we have narowar actually here coming all the way from mexico to join me on the stage and i believe she is one of the ethereum

gardeners working to bring internet connectivities to tens of thousands of schools millions of kids and their communities around um using the power of ethereum okay yeah let's sit down wait yeah thanks so much thanks so much for watching thank you thanks for inviting me here and also for inviting me for becoming part of this garden and playing this infinite game so thanks this wasn't um to be honest this wasn't easy to bring her up here because there's a lot of things we need to coordinate

because she's from orange country and during the coffee okay anyway um i want you to um share first will you maybe first share how and why you decided to join the giga team and what is your role there yeah thanks thanks for that um i'm the technology lead for giga where i lead our data and technology work including the the blockchain work and actually i was already part of unicef's office of innovation when giga started and i was part of the team that started it so rather than a decision i would say that it was more

of an organic transition if that makes sense i see so um as i mentioned right in this in this talk um like i explained where ethereum can add values for coordination issues for payments and governance and also even financing can you elaborate and explain how that works actually yeah you are right giga is looking into how ethereum and blockchain can add value through the entire initiative and how can it help us create a system to efficiently deliver connectivity to communities in particular remote and vulnerable

communities so within within that context i'd like to mention three things that we are working on first of all and as usual being in that map we are building a live map of school connectivity where we are able to see in real time whether a school is connected to the internet or not and this data recorded on a public blockchain gives us a record that you can then use to create smart contracts automate payments to providers based on their performance so meaning that if a school is green in the map it's connected to the internet and therefore the payment to the provider would happen whereas if the school it's red we could hold payments until the school turns

green again this accounting platform helps us to make sure that the money that we're investing in connectivity is actually rich in every school and it also helps us build other things on top of that the the other example that i wanted to talk about is a giga connectivity credit similar to carbon credits giga is a building an incentive system where providers and other tech companies would be incentivized to extend their networks to more difficult rich areas or places that might be most costly to reach so basically each school would be granted a credit based on

how difficult it is to connect and then providers if they connect the school then they would be able to collect the credits and redeem them for things such as tax exemptions and other other incentives and we are actually right now looking for companies to help us prototype this concept of connectivity token we have a call for proposals open so if there is anyone in this room that it's working in this space and that might be interested happy to to discuss more later and then finally the other area of work that i wanted to mention are nfts and rewards for things such as fundraising increasing engagement as well as creating value

through activities such as crowdsourcing and again we have few ideas that we are planning to prototype and build over the next few months so once more if there is anyone in the room that would like to talk more happy to do that later yeah i've seen like your team that's been constantly adding new things and uh you know we try to work together because you're a fellow and then help you but it's like proactively adding moving very quickly and supplies that's you know like coming from unicef that the team is very quick and they make friends and they move forward and then it's it's been amazing yeah so

oh yeah and then maybe you can explain like i have participated in some of the meetings with governments in africa and that's this this is also like a was a new addition that you started exploring like how to let them participate in easter's taking well i shouldn't call it stupid staking so how how how how is that maybe you can explain like you describe how the conversation is going yeah yeah sure so actually one of the most exciting things and probably also the most challenging things about this project is that in order to do all the things that i was describing we need to work very closely

with governments and that means that we need to work with them to both build local capacity and also to set up the right regulatory frameworks to help them be prepared for the future of the digital money and digital economy and over the meeting that you were talking about it's it's a good example we are working with few african countries to stay keep and use their rewards to pay for the ongoing school connectivity fees and for that i think it was last week also it was great to have you in that meeting i think that your participation was really helpful in that meeting we held a workshop with different stakeholders of one of these

countries and we had both ministers of the of education ict as well as the central bank and it was really exciting to see their engagement and willingness to to move this forward yeah so i think like you might think like a staking rewards how much that would help like uh in in a regular developed country way but it's not just financially i think it's very great to really like let them be involved and then be able to be part of it and then that actually creates this whole like a transparency and uh like the right type of governance which i think that was very amazing to see i've spoken with different governments and then that was the best uh enthusiasm that i felt in

the conversation um okay so since our time is limited i think maybe it's like how you you are you you are the first fellow of our fellowship program what's your experience of being um it's been a great experience so far i must say it's really exciting to be part of this first cohort and of this community as well because i guess that for me even if the technical support that we are getting it's really helpful and a great the most unique thing about the fellowship is that you become part of the community that's behind it and that community includes both the the other fellows as well as members of the broader ethereum community

so that's really exciting and really really great awesome yeah um and yeah i don't know if i could also ask you maybe all the way around what do you think about the fellowship so far and your vision or its role moving forward yeah so literally you know that i have almost cried many times participating in the fellows conversation because i felt i mean oh wow this is the reason why i've been in the crypto space for a long time um but thank you for asking and maybe lastly one one more thing because this this is very important i have to um because you you probably you came all the way here you have requests and maybe questions to the

community members maybe the list of things that you said you're looking for experts on in what what types and maybe you can share that so that people can come to you yeah exactly as i said earlier lots of the work that we do we do it with collaborators and one thing maybe that i didn't mention earlier is that everything that we build it's open and it's open source so that different members different groups can contribute can also take the solutions that we will and adapt them so if there is anyone in this room that is willing to collaborate with us build something together would love to hear more about you okay thank you so much and thank you again for joining us today on the stage okay i'm sure you have a lot more to

talk uh talk about with her and please come up to her she's here for the rest of the event and thank you very much for listening