Fireside Chat with Aya Miyaguchi

Transcript

welcome everyone uh my name is ysf I am here to uh interview a during this uh half an hour session that we have um and we'll jump straight into it a um we are 10 years into ethereum's uh founding and looking at the last 10 years you know there's been a lot of growth and development in the space but I'm curious to hear here what other the aspects of ethereum do you feel are least understood uh by people who are joining the world as well as people who have been around the space for a long time um maybe first of all let me say I should say something in Japanese

uh I'm I AMU from the foundation uh to answer um your question yourself you brought up um what is the most uh biggest thing that are misunderstood in theum maybe the first one is uh still a lot of people think the ethereum foundation is equal to ethereum which I have to correct many times still keep doing it is um that what's special about etherum compared to most of the rest of things in this space is the etherum foundation does not own no one knows owns ethereum

it's it's uh it's everyone's and um the EF is here to help support ecosystem including core development and research but also other ecosystem um activities and also the participation uh into the different layers including if you want to uh help build platforms of infrastructure ofm it's open um and then it's also open source project and so there are many many uh contributors in the world that are part of this this

work um you can be part of uh doing research you can be part of actually cording uh that part parts of infrastructure but also you can be part of suggesting new IDE ideas you know editing uh the existing ideas and also executing on it so that that open um permissionless participation not just the technology of uh permissionless Technologies the part is is also maybe not not recognized or understood enough yeah yeah and we talk a lot about decentralization as well and it's a

theme that keeps coming up a lot and people might have different interpretations what it means so I'd love to hear your thoughts on what has been the actual application of the that Concept in the development of ethereum so far yes so I think the decentralization is is you know kind of like me and then everyone is is excited about it uh but I think it's at the stage where where we should think about what that means right it it can be different from uh for me and for everyone else but what we what I believe is is decentralization is not just uh um not not just the the technical

part but also uh not just part of technical part meaning if you just use crypto currency or tokenize something that doesn't mean things are decentralized right and but also there are a lot of things also sometimes decentralized systems seems still far from the real real issues but recently what happened with the US sine systems yeah it's the example of the problem of r on one centralized system thousands of uh flights were cancelled because the

system was r on one company's um system right and then so we this Stu happens on a smaller scale and bigger scale every single day and so we have to really understand the deeper systemic issues than just the superficial issue and then a lot of things are it's hard to just by being web three it's me could mean many things now yeah uh so I understand it can be confusing um for new people maybe they can get lost or don't even see why this

mod is part correct and even you know when we use centralized exchanges when say we like people in the real world use centralized exchanges and uh use it for financial services um if we're not decentralized enough that it can be trusted but it's also not regulated or protected then we're actually worse off than using a bank at times because there's no protection that you have behind you and um you know that takes us to also you know 10 years since the M hack uh we're here in Japan and you're very much involved in and helping

clean up that whole process and we just love to hear some of your reflections of that existential period in time in the industry and and sort of how far we've come in the space since then um yes so I haven't really um been following everything recently but uh you know we just got the news the payout of for the Creditor is finally happened from Maybe a lot of people don't know now mon uh the hacking was a little bit ear longer know older than 10 years but um the pupsy happened around 10 years ago and then a lot of people lost back

in those days uh Bitcoins mostly Bitcoin and I think around that time everyone Al including myself I was spending a lot of time I was part of a business but uh spending most of the time uh explaining educating people in in in in in this country also outside of Japan because um it it was scary thing right and then what one thing that's actually well and also ethum within 10 years had you know different challenges

including the do Hawk and I think what's important is we need to uh those TR tragedies happen right especially when you're involved in this a new innovation uh it's what's important is we need to learn from like we the lesson and and then one problem if we look at what's wrong with the m uh hacking is one thing but also a lot of people actually left their assets talk on an exchange on a centralized exchange and that's nothing to do is that part wasn't really decentralized right so you even if you actually you thought it was

your coin and it wasn't actually your coin because you're not really uh it's you know you were not re owning your private key when when you put that in the centralized exchange and then I think a lot of people did that because people are were didn't know how to own coins right and it's still it's a lot scary for a regular person to to own even crypto wet like a lot of um asset on your wallet so so that that is being solved now with the technology of obstruction and so how do we is like looking back learned lessons and then

technical advancements are uh trying to solve that that's I think amazing improvements we're seeing now uh not not we don't see a lot of those yet but I think it's finally connecting to real real issues in the world so with a lot of the infrastructure development now able to uh get us to much better position than where we were with you know in mano's times um what is still missing when it comes to educating I know you have a passion for ethereum in the real world like taking these Technologies and having them being used

by real people so what is still missing in terms of uh how to bridge that gap between real world use cases and the technology infrastructure that that's still in development but has gone way ahead than where we were at the beginning yeah um so I am a believer of Education I think education is the most important thing uh if someone ask me that's most important than anything else I still do it so so any new new thing in new technology new innovation has to come with education I think it's uh

otherwise of course things are not not going to be built but also things are not going to be built in the right way right so a lot of uh technical education such as um how to call solidity like that that type of educations are happening compared to 10 years ago a lot of them are happening uh and then EF doesn't do that on our own um this ethereum.org website that's doing an amazing job we're supporting the the work but it's run by Community people uh and then also uh actual technical ation happening at uh different universities or there are many Community uh organizers

including you know like Japanese Community organizers that just were were on the stage uh giving a lot of great education um I think what's still lacking is is new technical ADV advancements are happening by core researchers or developers uh and then what can be done now is very different from what could have you know what was possible uh 10 years ago and so a lot of people in the world still don't know what's possible with this technology in the first so what's

possible now compared to previous time and then uh it's always a challenge because EF is not a company that owns eum we don't do marketing and B and then going out there and then explain you know we don't really sell etherum uh business as business so we are you know but then there are a lot of community members out there and um so it is happening to some scale but I think uh we need more of that education but what do you what do you think you also I should actually introduce you yph is is is working on uh

also focusing on education in Africa maybe you can share why or what you're doing yeah uh when you started with the concept that no one owns ethereum uh that's a a very different fundamental to start with meaning it's ours it's everyone's so education in that context means what are the things that I need to learn in order to leverage this technology but build things that even the founders didn't imagine were possible to solve problems in different parts of the world and I think when it comes to the African

ecosystem which is where I spend a lot of my time and energy supporting is that the types of applications and and and uses for ethereum web3 in general that we're looking to do is very different from what's Happening Here in Japan or in different parts of the developed world where Banks work generally speaking governments work generally speaking um and so for us the essence of ethereum is not speculation it is actually an infrastructure in which we can build um new forms of Finance new forms of like actually the fundamentals of our economic infrastructures were 1

Point four billion people growing at the fastest Pace that is out there um we're having to redesign what banking means from scratch because you know hundreds of millions of Africans are still unbanked and that's potentially a good thing because you can build these things from scratch from different principles instead of having to unseat existing tools so I think education to me means combining the world that actually has a need for what such an open infrastructure offers um with also the people who are building and doing a lot of the research of that infrastructure

and for us to move together in quote unquote partnership um to solve real world problems at a massive scale that takes us out of these speculative Cycles in in in a world where we might have a whole economy running on ethereum like what would that world look like what would it look like to create new types of money um be it local stable coins or other forms of currencies um and forms of trust that we haven't seen before right so it's creating that foundation for that type of imagination and experimentation to happen instead of just like let's get everyone to use existing dii protocols that we have

because defi at the moment is not built for the real person is built more for people who have been in the crypto as we know it for long period of time yeah it's it's also uh you said about like banking in Africa and then it that to solve that just just for example just giving crypto to to people in Africa that's not it's it looks like a like there are a lot of bit you know um short-term Solutions out there there that's more uh happening now already but then uh that not solving the real

systemic issues that's there's always this you know repeating the loop I assume like you're feeling that watching the problems there right yeah so a lot of times when we talk about emerging economies that have really structural issues we tend to focus on oh okay let's send money or let's support or like let's hire one or two people from that region like those are nice things but they're actually not getting to the roots of the challenges um I know even today earlier we at the coffee shop we talking about how um Ethiopian coffee there's Ethiopian coffee in

every like Japanese coffee shop that I've been to so far and we pay attention to it because ysf is from Ethiopia I'm from Ethiopia yes we went there together last year with it's also balic and others but yeah Ethiopian coffee is very popular everywhere in the world and then why is that the PE the farmers there yeah are not getting benefit uh from this this it's like a yeah you know you if you think about that that bottom of the problem is really it has to be the system something

wrong with the system so it's not just about okay let's just make the price higher because there is a fundamental problem that you know we were talking about how there uh the country is lacking USD now right and and that's also the system issues right and then and that this is exactly how the power of Education when I talk about power of Education we can just talk about here is cryptocurrency here's the tokens that you can just uh airdrop and that type of education I think is not happening enough I think it's a I so

I hope to see that more but also when you educate people like you are doing like a inclus inclusive like how do we include people um who are in the problem or or also I don't think problems like Ethiopian problem is by drinking that coffee in a way I'm part of the problem I don't think I I don't think we should see as oh that's a problem far away in Africa it's actually real part of the problem so it's like a we're the one who is providing solution and they are the one who is in the problem that mindset needs to change and that's why you're trying to include local people to they can build Solutions on their own and

also I think our our side I don't know if it's our side but all like other developed countries or other parts of the world should should take it as our problem everything happening there what's happening in the Ukraine what's happening in Middle Middle East um it's not their problem it's our problem so like that's why we need to include everyone in the different all different uh parts of education and I guess talking about that I'd love to hear from you around some of the most interesting use cases that you're seeing around the world that are just giving us a bit of a hint of what

is possible uh at scale in in the world you know beyond the existing types of applications we've seen what what are some of the real world use cases that are that you're excited about yeah so recently I uh made her uh you can't say tweet anymore how do you say it x uh past asking people what are use cases real world use cases that are you know like a solving problem in the word and and I we did that like five years ago and to the etherum community and back in those days there not many we couldn't

really recognize many that are on eum um applications solving real war issues and then that's you know looking back that's that's that's reasonable because Technologies a lot of technology that are available now uh with theum in eum were not available back then uh uh there scalability Solutions and and uh privacy Solutions so now uh I was reading all their answers to my poast and then the lot and that's and also we've been doing some more research on what are the real world

use cases that are available now and and it is exciting to see a lot of uh this my question was how do we connect problems with technology and then that that showing use cases and real examples is the best way to educate people this is what's possible and so we see a lot of um different use cases and then I specifically ask decentralized ID uh voting registry or those are because public infrastructure

uh system that you know used to be built by governments and and then water water uh out there available so those are something that uh some of the stuff are very exciting and and also a lot of solutions having new governance mechanism that's also there are a lot of great experiments um happening so everything is exciting but I always get excit excited about like for example de centralized ID systems are being uh making a lot of progress in for example in Latin

America um Quirk ID is already being implemented and in uh voses and also other cities in Mexico and and then they're are trying to be more open system meaning it's like Lego blocks you can use part of someone has built uh because all the places have different requirements and different deorations policies and and you can use that and and you know you can for the original idea or then edit adjust it to fit into what you need but but I I hope the core values of original ideas stay um but

that type of activi just not not not just one separate um system in collaboration experimenting together in of the you know like uh with teams in the world that's the excitement and exciting part of eum system I think I couldn't help but notice from that list of answers that almost all the projects were based in emerging economies uh which is very fascinating to see when you kind of touch on what are the real world applications they tend to be in places that haven't gone too far being entrenched with one mode of operating um

that there's room for a lot of types of experiments that can actually scale at a national level or a huge Regional level that would be quite challenging you when we're talking of around trust when we're talking around Identity or even the simplest Financial applications um yeah which is an interesting pattern yeah um so we itan Foundation we also intentionally do a lot of things in uh trying to bring deom for example like in Emerging Market markets economies or last time it was in Boga uh but but I for and then I am passionate about it and then I'm not

really doing it because trying to be a nice person or anything it's just I do think um when there are problems uh people it people need to solve otherwise it's like the survival for their life and that's why a lot of creativities new ideas tend to make a lot more plugless more quickly in those places and I think that's why um what I said about the in Latin America it's it's not an additional nice thing for them it is necessity because their original systems are um have failed collapsed and so they

need they needed new solution long time ago and then now they see oh we can build decentralized ID that's not rely on uh a a government uh 100% And so when something fails people don't lose their identity and that's that's the idea and then they want to make progress on it so that power and creativity and energy and creativity is something um we need ethereum needs so I that's why I'm I'm passionate about like a blinging empowering these people so that they can Empower eum right I really like

what you say that you're not going to these places just to be nice um and that deeply resonates with me because like it's in ethereum ecosystem's best interest to dive deep into some of these complex challenges societal challenges where it's not just about the technology research but it's actually around taking that and helping coordinate Society in a meaningful way um and I think that's where the big prices and even just last point from the African ecosystem like the number one value of crypto so far has been the US

dollar stable coin concept um just purely from helping the African economies integrate with the global economy and you know when we had the last bare Market transaction volume has been growing in Africa while the rest of the world was in a bare market and that's because even US Dollars on centralized exchanges that are not made to be Banks they're made to be trading platforms but we still used that because it was very utility driven so I think there's a lot more utility-driven use cases that are possible uh when we lean towards where the biggest meatest problems are yeah yeah um yeah and it's

I think we yeah yeah last thing you kind of mentioned Defcon yes it's coming to Southeast Asia and we just love to hear from you what are the things you're most excited about and any seeds you want to plant in the minds of both Japanese participants who be flying there but also Global uh ethereum communities who will be showing up yes uh I hope everyone is excited about this upcoming Devcon in Bangkok wooo we are but um it is so we we we are calling it as Devcon southeast Asia instead of just the one city name because uh Bangkok is amazing place and

the community there is amazing but also there are other communities around and this is last time when Decon happened in batad all Latin America communities uh we saw the ownership by them you know they they felt this this is our our thing right so I I want to see that from the Asia like you know that's that's not just limit to to Southeast Asia and I'm already seeing uh some of the activities this group is like uh get getting together all these leaders in Asia and it it is exciting to see I'm also you know Asian yes exciting

to see that normally quieter shy uh humble people are finary taking ownership of different activities ecosystem building and yeah a lot more and and then also they're becoming part of the platform there too so I'm excited to see that uh yeah well also another way to participate in the ecosystem because I have I just saw this announcement this morning e.org is doing this trans okay I can't even pronounce it they're giving the their translations all into all different languages is I

think it's now it's 63 languages is we open source anyone can participate and then contribute to this B sharing knowledge and being a part of Education of with them uh and then they're giving up do doing this this you know translation competition um prize giving out prizes so that might be something anyone can participate and actually good way to learn about d3m amazing uh so ethereum is for everyone it's ours to make with and build our Solutions with thank you so much for the work that you do with ef and thanks for the time to

have this conversation thank you thank you thank you Edom for having me here and uh thank you listeners for listening to our talk and then thank you ysep for joining this conversation today it was thank you guys thank you very much hey give another round of applause for a and ysep yeah now there's are you ready for the slide no she says [Music] no yeah it's it's actually pretty high up

and um usually there's a drum roll and then you go and there's a sound effect for the slide but but oh shoes on oh yeah yeah not Japanese style keep your shoes on but I think I could do a better sound effect a custom sound effect than what they're doing let me do a custom super cool one for a super cool one drum roll please [Applause]

uh all right Joseph do you want a Daniel custom or do you want the sound people I'll go Daniel custom Daniel custom that's what I'm talking about drum roll please oh oh [Music] oh yeah thank you thank you