以太坊：Web3 的“黄埔军校”是怎么炼成的

Web3 如风暴一般，迅猛地席卷全球科技互联网行业。以太坊是这场风暴的正中央，几年来，它掀起了 Web3 世界里一波又一波热潮——从 ICO，NFT，到 Defi、IDO 等概念。甚至就连 Web3 的概念，都是来自于以太坊的一名联合创始人。

以太坊诞生的基石，是理想主义者 Vitalik（V 神）和一群理想主义者建立的对于去中心化的共识。但在社区壮大的过程中，有着太多非共识的部分难以调和，以太坊和 V 神每前进一小步，都伴随社区思想的分裂和团队成员的离开。

当下市值排名靠前的公链和项目的创始人，很多是来自前以太坊社区的成员，他们基于自己的理念推动新的项目，继续壮大 Web3 的发展，也让以太坊成为 Web3 的“黄埔军校”。可以说没有以太坊，便没有现在 Web3 世界的多样与繁荣。

想要真正理解 Web3，以太坊是个绝佳的窗口，而一切，要从 Vitalik 说起。

2021 年，Vitalik Buterin 正以线上视频的形式在极客公园举办的前沿思考论坛上做分享

01 造神

以太坊创始人 Vitalik Buterin，被中国粉丝叫作“V 神”。能被称为“神”的，身上都有传说。

V 神1994年1月31日出生在俄罗斯车臣，6岁时随父母移民加拿大。V 神算是位少年天才，4岁时就开始摆弄他爸的 IBM 电脑，玩 Excel 表格。7岁时，能背100多位的圆周率，无聊时就念叨一些数学方程式当作消遣。12岁开始编程，上大一时，获得了 2012年国际信息学奥林匹克竞赛的铜牌。

Vitalik 在很小的时候开始接触电脑

V 神体型瘦小，像个“小精灵”，走路有些僵硬，但跑得不慢。有一次参加以太坊社区的活动，出了会场就开溜，粉丝们在后面没撵上他。

V 神大部分时间都沉浸在自己的世界里，性格内向，也不花心思打扮，总穿朋友送他的衣服，说话的时候偶尔嘴角抽噎一下，很多传说就是这么来的——“V 神是个自闭症神童”，“V 神有一次在火车上穿了两只图案不一样的 Hello Kitty 袜子”，“V 神把所有财产装在一个手提箱里”，“V 神吃柠檬不去皮”。V 神他爸说，这些都挺胡扯。奈何以太坊社区里的人们，很热衷于为 V 神的神秘形象“添砖加瓦”。

2021年11月8日，当以太坊总市值超过5000亿美元时，V 神坦言，没想到以太坊会成为一个庞然大物，没想到事情会变得如此复杂，“我当初创建以太坊的时候，只是想着在几个月之内完成它，然后回去上大学。”

以太坊这个想法的诞生，最初源自 V 神想要改进比特币。

02 以太坊的诞生：“魔兽世界”与权力下放

2008年，中本聪在一个名为 Slashdot 的科技信息网站上发布了比特币白皮书。白皮书设想了一种去中心化的点对点电子现金交易系统，这个依托于密码学的构想迅速在网站上变成了主流话题。

密码学者 Ron Rivest 解释，密码学是关于如何在敌人存在的环境中通讯。它最早应用于军事，后来被极客们带到了大众信息安全、隐私保护方面。而极客们的实践往往倡导“无政府主义”，本书就蕴含巨大风险。比特币也算是一种“无政府主义”的实践。中本聪至今身份成谜，也是保护自己的最好手段。

2009年1月，基于比特币白皮书的开源项目正式发布，这就是第一代区块链。比特币的源代码用 C++语言开发，完全公开，任何人都可以复制或改进它。2009年11月22日，中本聪创立的比特币社区 bitcointalk 上线，比特币爱好者开始聚集于此，讨论怎么改进比特币。这个时候，上高中的 V 神还沉迷于玩《魔兽争霸》，没有听说过比特币。

直到有一天，暴雪的一次更新，从 V 神心爱的术士的生命虹吸法术中移除了伤害组件，“我在泪水中睡去，那天我意识到中心化服务会带来什么恶梦”，V 神决定彻底放弃这款游戏。

V 神父亲 Dmitry Buterin 有个习惯，他对什么感兴趣，就会把这个东西讲给 V 神。2011年，开软件公司的 Dmitry Buterin 在一个技术播客里听到了比特币，“听起来是很有意思的一项技术，但我也不清楚它会有多大的影响。”

照例，父亲向 Vitalik“推销”了比特币，又给了他一些密码学的书，不过17岁的 V 神觉得比特币没有任何实用价值、注定要失败。

但因为没了《魔兽世界》，又对密码学产生了兴趣，V 神还是决定玩一玩比特币当作消遣。为了买比特币，V 神开始给比特币杂志写一些技术文章来赚钱，每篇文章稿费是5个比特币，当时一个比特币价值3.50美元。后来，2021年11月，比特币曾达到6.89万美元一枚，如果 V 神当初的比特币没有卖出，这可能是历史上最贵的单篇文章作者稿费。

V 神曾经供职的比特币杂志

2013年5月，在接触比特币2年后，V 神以杂志记者的身份报道了在硅谷举行的比特币会议。也正是这次会议彻底改变了他对比特币的看法。

全世界的比特币爱好者飞来参加这次活动，V 神现场感受到了人们的激情，参会者们把区块链视为一次技术革命，谈论着未来可能建立在之上的去中心化应用。“那一刻真的让我明白了，这件事是真实的，值得冒险并投入其中。”

大一还没上完，V 神立刻办了休学。在2013年剩下的6个月里，他用比特币当作路费，去了以色列、伦敦、洛杉矶、旧金山、阿姆斯特丹和拉斯维加斯等地，去拜访那些比特币开发者，想着怎么为区块链技术做些贡献。

走访了一圈，V 神发现，虽然比特币的代码是开源的，基于此代码诞生了其他各种“币种”，但这些区块链开发者依旧是在使用比特币原有的原始代码库和架构。这样的问题是，区块链技术能实现的应用依旧局限于加密货币、支付系统。

V 神觉得，区块链不应该仅仅局限于金融领域，它应该可以运行各种应用程序。于是，他提出了一种新的设想：绕过比特币代码的限制，开发一套新的代码，将区块链视为能够运行“智能合约”（相当于能够自动化运行的应用程序）的分布式计算机。

理论上，依托于区块链技术运行的“智能合约”可以取代传统中介，比如打车的时候，用户可以直接付款给司机，而不再付款给打车平台，经过“不透明”的抽成后再给到司机。另外，基于区块链网络的数据不可篡改的特性，还可以保护用户的数字资产，比如文章不会被平台删除，比如遗嘱等重要声明也可永久存储在区块链网络上。Vitalik 想要通过去中心化技术降低垄断企业和中心化机构的权威。

回到家，用了不到一个月的时间，V 神将这份愿景写成了太坊白皮书。至此，第二代区块链诞生了。后来，这种构想启发了同行，从此开启了公链百花齐放的局面。人们对于区块链技术的想象，也不再局限于用加密货币支付，开始将区块链网络视作下一代互联网，一种重新分配社会资源的底层技术手段。

以太坊联合创始人 Joseph Lubin 评价，“V 神是一个天才的外星人，他来到地球，就是为了将权力下放给平民。”

03 第一次分裂：营利与非营利

2014年1月，V 神在迈阿密举行的北美比特币会议上宣传了以太坊，迅速吸引了一批同好，会议期间以太坊的创始团队初步成立，除 V 神外，有7位联合创始人。

没想到的是，仅仅5个月后，这个日后在加密世界里最耀眼的组织就开始分崩离析。

第一次分裂是因为钱。“他们很多人就想着怎么赚钱，这完全不是我的目标”，V 神说有其他创始人试图利用他的天真，用监管机构来吓唬他，“他们说在法律上做一个营利性实体，比做一个非营利组织简单得多。”

这与 V 神最初的想法背道而驰。他更希望以太坊成为各种社会政治实验的启动平台，而不是赚钱机器，他希望这个平台能够制衡政府，并颠覆硅谷对人们数字生活的束缚——在2014年初，这样的想法颇受极客们的欢迎。

就在2013年6月，一位名叫斯诺登的年轻人，曝光了美国大规模监控本国公民和外国政府的“棱镜计划”，一大批科技和互联网巨头参与其中，西方世界对互联网巨头和中心化的不信任达到了顶点。

在这波对互联网巨头的讨伐与反思中，一个在今天仍被热烈讨论的重要概念诞生了。受“棱镜门”的启发，2014年初，以太坊联合创始人 Gavin Wood 提出了 Web3.0 的概念，他希望这一代互联网人人都能主宰自己的命运，掌控自己的数字身份、数字资产。

左一为 V 神，右一为 Gavin Wood

他觉得，Facebook 和Google等掌控了用户数据的互联网公司定义了 Web2.0 时代，“他们最初也打着赋予个人创作者权力并消除中介的旗号，但他们没兑现这个承诺。”

Gavin Wood 希望从技术层面解决 Web2.0 这个已经腐烂的模型。在他看来，这些互联网巨头是时代的映射——无论是公司还是国家，权力都过度集中了。“你信任某个组织，意味着你将某种权力给予了这个组织，他们便能够随意使用这些权力。”

而 Web3.0 是基于“无信任”模型的理念，不需要信任任何中间机构，任何产品和服务建立在区块链之上，依托公开的底层算法自动化运行。“Web3.0 是一套新的规则，这套规则核心的作用就是系统内没有人可以拥有绝对的权力。Web3.0 更像是一场社会运动。”

区块链是支撑加密货币以及 Web3.0 的底层技术。在今天的舆论里，没有代币（加密货币）的应用似乎就很难算得上是真正的 Web3 产品。但 Gavin Wood 所设想的 Web3.0 的并不会很依赖加密货币。“Web3 成为主流的关键之一，就是人们可以脱离加密货币，去使用去中心化服务。”

另外，虽然是 Web3 的提出者，但 Gavin Wood 并不觉得 Web3 这场社会运动一定会成功。就好像，最初革命的那批人大部分都会成为先烈，但他们遗留下的精神和知识遗产在未来可能会产生深远的影响。

将视线转移回以太坊的第一次分裂。2014 年 6 月，V 神在挣扎后，决定将以太坊做成一个非营利组织。他启动了以太坊基金会的建设，用来推进以太坊的基础设施并资助研发项目。

在这个过程中，一批以太坊的早期成员因为各种原因选择离开。想把以太坊变成一家营利公司的联合创始人 Charles Hoskinson，因为理念不合选择退出，后来创立了公链 Cardano，成为以太坊的死对头。同样，Mihai Alisie 和 Joseph Lubin 各自创办了营利性公司来服务于以太坊生态。

以太坊联合创始人Joseph Lubin 其后来创立的服务于以太坊的技术公司ConsenSys估值达到70亿美元

早期为以太坊的开发、法律顾问等提供资金的联合创始人 Anthony Di Iorio，在以太坊确立了非盈利的运营模式后，也退居二线。

联合创始人 Amir Chetrit 因为缺乏对以太坊的投入，遭到了团队其他联合创始人的不满，选择了辞职。后来，联合创始人、早期核心开发者 Jeffrey Wilcke 也离开了以太坊，转行开了游戏公司。

以太坊传记《无限机器》的作者卡米拉·鲁索说，他们最初就是一群充满斗志的人聚集在了一起，去尝试构建一台世界计算机，“但他们的个性太强烈了，价值观也很不同，很难合作。”

2015年，以太坊上线后，人们对整个区块链有了更多的想象力。对区块链的构建不再是停留在钱包或交易所等基础设施, 而是开始思考如何构建更丰富的协议和应用。在一年多的时间里，以太坊从一个人的梦想发展成为一场充满活力的运动，吸引了生活在世界各地的开发者。

就在2016年初以太坊迅速崛起，如日中天的时候，以太坊的技术领袖、Web3.0 的提出者，以太坊 CTO Gavin Wood 离开了，留下了一句宣言：“不能让以太坊独占这个世界”。

04 三种理想主义之间的碰撞

对于 Gavin Wood，不少以太坊核心开发者认为，“他在以太坊中扮演的角色甚至比 Vitalik 更重要。”

Gavin Wood 在英国长大，大学主修软件工程，从约克大学获得了硕士学位。博士期间，研究了人机交互的音乐可视化。

2013年11月，33岁的 Gavin Wood 认识了正起草以太坊白皮书的 Vitalik。2014年 4月，Gavin Wood 发表了以太坊黄皮书，这是 Vitalik 白皮书的技术规范，后来他又创造了以太坊的原生编程语言 Solidity。

以太坊是 Gavin Wood 第一次在 Web3 的实践。后来，他在采访时提到，对于编写以太坊，自己当时只是当作一种尝试和练习。随着以太坊的壮大，他觉得，围绕以太坊的叙事逐渐变成了“我们只需要一个区块链”，但他并不接受这一理念。

离开后，Gavin Wood 兑现了承诺。他与前以太坊核心开发者 Jutta Steiner，在 2016年11月发布了跨链协议波卡（Polkadot）的第一个版本，简单讲就是让不同的区块链共存，避免一家独大，且不同区块链能互相通信，发挥各自所长。

同样在2016年，发生了一个改写以太坊历史的标志性事件。

搭建在以太坊平台上的投资服务 The DAO 在28天内，募资超过一亿美元。但2016年6月18日，The DAO 项目被黑客攻击，其募集的以太币被窃走。

为了避免投资者蒙受损失，V 神决定进行“硬分叉”。简单讲，无论是比特币还是以太坊，都是由一系列的共识规则决定，“硬分叉”就意味着修改共识规则，修改区块链的原始代码、原始规则。这是以太坊史上第一次硬分叉，它直接分裂了以太坊社区。

这似乎违反了区块链的精神——没有任何一个机构可以凌驾于智能合约之上，行使中心化权力。但如果不修改，那么投资者的损失将无法挽回。

V 神想要挽回损失，写了倡导“硬分叉”的博客文章，发现社区多数人投票支持。V 神觉得这并没有违反区块链的精神，“领导者必须考虑社区的感受并尊重他们”。

一些人反对这些变化，声明“代码就是法律”，是不容更改的，区块链应该保持不变。于是以太坊分裂成了“以太坊”和“以太坊经典”两个版本。而“以太坊经典”最有名的支持者、赞助者，当属 Cardano 创始人、以太坊联合创始人 Charles Hoskinson。

Cardano 创始人、以太坊联合创始人 Charles Hoskinson

Charles Hoskinson 在离开以太坊后，在2015年与前以太坊核心成员 Jeremy Wood 创建了 Cardano，公司的座右铭便是“程序大于人”。

出生于夏威夷的 Charles Hoskinson 在 2011 年成为最早的一批挖矿用户，在加入以太坊之前也做过加密货币的教育项目和交易所。他与以太坊针锋相对，还开发了专门的工具供用户将以太坊上的智能合约等内容迁移到 Cardano 上。

Charles Hoskinson 觉得自己更懂商业，更懂如何与这个世界的规则相处，比如 Cardano 一直在积极地寻找拥抱监管的方式，而这也成为了他经常攻击以太坊不会长远的一个点，“在中心化和无政府状态之间的取舍中，以太坊似乎正在走向无政府状态”。

05 “我想大声疾呼，就像在风中嚎叫。”

2019年2月14日，以太坊核心开发者 Afri Schoedon 在Twitter上发了一条动态，表示波卡 Polkadot 提供了以太坊升级版应有的功能。这迅速引起了愤怒，以太坊社区成员开始围攻他。以太坊社区觉得 Afri Schoedon 背叛了他们，认为他“脚踩两只船”，还有人扬言要弄死他。Afri Schoedon 很冤枉，他的初衷原本是讨论技术，5天后，Afri Schoedon 在压力之下退出了以太坊社区。

加密社区如同宗教一般，有共同的目标和利益，甚至不容异己。V 神说，社区是加密世界的核心。但他想引导社区的发展正变得越来越难。从2019年末起，以太坊开始升级到 2.0 版本，关于升级，V 神发现“最大的挑战不是技术问题，而是与人有关的问题”。比如，如何平衡投资者的利益，团队的利益，项目方的利益，矿工的利益，各方利益交织在一起。

2022年4月，在接受《时代》杂志专访时，V 神也表示了对以太坊现状的担忧

因为是去中心化治理，很多决策都需要社区参与者共同投票决定，V 神没办法直接拍板以太坊下一步要做什么项目，他引导社区发展的方式就是不断地写博客，发表自己的观点，进行呼吁。在他的博客和 Twitter 上，你会找到关于投票系统、分配公共利益的最佳方式、城市建设等相关的观点和论文。

正因为有真正做事情、发展技术的人，才有这些借此炒作概念，牟取暴利的人生存的空间。由于匿名、难监管，区块链很多时候成为了逃税、洗钱和打着 Web3 名号制造骗局的工具。而另一方面，这些以此炒作、制造骗局的人，也在不断给这项技术、极客们带来负面影响——这个赛道，就是在这两股力量的交织下，备受争议地前行着。“如果我们不发声，可能建立起来的就是一些短期逐利的项目。但它们对这个社会没什么好处。”

“人类是一个伟大的、时常带有悲剧性的实验。”V 神清晰地认识到，这个他一手创造的世界，正在混杂着骄傲且恐惧的情绪中前进。原本为了去中心化梦想而发起的项目，可能会因为更多人对短期利益的追逐，可能走向背离他初心的方向。

“2022 年，我宁愿以太坊冒犯一些人，也不愿它变成毫无意义的东西。”当下，V 神不得不开启这场战斗，“我想大声疾呼，就像在风中嚎叫。”

The cornerstone of the birth of Ethernet Square is the consensus on decentralization established by idealist Vitalik (V God) and a group of idealists. However, in the process of community growth, there are too many non-consensus parts that are difficult to reconcile. Every small step forward by Etay Fong and V God is accompanied by the division of community ideas and the departure of team members.

At present, many of the founders of the top public chain and projects by market capitalization are members of the former etheric Fong community, who promote new projects based on their own ideas, continue to expand the development of Web3, and make Etay Fong the “Whampoa military Academy” of Web3.It can be said that without Tai Tai Fong, there would be no diversity and prosperity in the Web3 world.

If you want to really understand Web3, Etay Square is a great window, and everything starts with Vitalik.

In 2021, Vitalik Buterin is sharing in the form of online video at the Frontier thinking Forum held in Geek Park.

01 Creator

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethernet Square, is called “V God” by Chinese fans. Those who can be called “gods” have legends on them.

V God was born on January 31, 1994 in Chechnya, Russia, and emigrated to Canada with his parents at the age of 6. V Shenshu is a young genius who began to play with his father’s IBM computer and Excel forms when he was 4 years old. At the age of 7, he was able to recite more than 100 digits of pi, and when he was bored, he would talk about some mathematical equations as a pastime. He started programming at the age of 12, was a freshman and won a bronze medal in the 2012 International Informatics Olympiad.

Vitalik came into contact with computers when he was very young.

V Shen is thin and small, like an “elf”, walking a little stiff, but not slow. Once he took part in an activity in the Etay Square community and ran away as soon as he left the venue, and the fans failed to catch up with him.

V God is immersed in his own world most of the time. He is introverted and doesn’t bother to dress up. He always wears clothes given to him by friends and occasionally sobs at the corners of his mouth when he speaks. Many legends come from this– “V God is an autistic prodigy”, “V God once wore two Hello Kitty socks with different patterns on a train”, and “V God put all his possessions in one suitcase.” God V eats lemons without peeling them. V God’s father said, all this is nonsense. However, the people in the Yi Tai Fong community are very keen to “contribute” to the mysterious image of God V.

On November 8, 2021, when the total market capitalization of Tai Tai Fong exceeded US $500 billion, God V admitted that he did not expect that Yi Tai Fong would become a behemoth and that things would become so complicated. “when I first founded Tai Fong, I just wanted to finish it in a few months and then go back to college.”

The idea of Etay Fong was originally born when God V wanted to improve Bitcoin.

02 the birth of Tai Fong: world of Warcraft and decentralization

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a bitcoin white paper on a technology information website called Slashdot. The white paper envisioned a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash trading system, an idea based on cryptography that quickly became a mainstream topic on the website.

Cryptographer Ron Rivest explains that cryptography is about how to communicate in an environment where the enemy exists. It was first used in the military, and then brought to the public information security and privacy protection by geeks. The practice of geeks often advocates “anarchism”, and this book contains great risks. Bitcoin is also a practice of anarchism. Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity is still a mystery and is the best way to protect himself.

In January 2009, an open source project based on the Bitcoin white paper was officially released, which is the first generation of blockchain. The source code of Bitcoin is developed in C++ language and is completely public. Anyone can copy or improve it. On November 22nd, bitcointalk, a bitcoin community founded by Satoshi Nakamoto, was launched, and bitcoin enthusiasts began to gather here to discuss how to improve Bitcoin. At this time, V God in high school was still addicted to playing “Warcraft” and had never heard of Bitcoin.

Until one day, Blizzard updated to remove the damage component from the siphon spell of God V’s beloved warlock, “I fell asleep in tears, and that day I realized what nightmares centralized service would bring.” V God decided to give up the game altogether.

Dmitry Buterin, the father of V God, has a habit of telling this thing to V God whatever he is interested in. In 2011, Dmitry Buterin, a software company, heard about Bitcoin in a technology podcast. “it sounds like an interesting technology, but I don’t know how much impact it will have.”

As usual, his father “sold” Bitcoin to Vitalik and gave him some books on cryptography, but the 17-year-old God V felt that Bitcoin had no practical value and was doomed to failure.

But without World of Warcraft and becoming interested in cryptography, God V decided to play Bitcoin as a pastime. In order to buy Bitcoin, V God began to write some technical articles for Bitcoin magazine to make money. The fee for each article was five bitcoins, and one bitcoin was worth $3.50 at the time. Later, in November 2021, the bitcoin reached $68900 each, and if God V’s original bitcoin had not been sold, it would have been the most expensive single article author’s fee in history.

Bitcoin magazine where V God used to work

In May 2013, after two years of exposure to Bitcoin, V God covered the Bitcoin conference in Silicon Valley as a magazine reporter. It was this meeting that revolutionized his view of bitcoin.

Bitcoin enthusiasts from all over the world flew in to attend the event, and V God felt the passion on the spot, and the attendees saw blockchain as a technological revolution, talking about decentralized applications that might be built on it in the future. “it really taught me at that moment that it was real and worth taking risks and putting into it.”

Before he finished his freshman year, God V suspended school immediately. In the remaining six months of 2013, he used Bitcoin as a fare to visit Bitcoin developers in Israel, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Las Vegas to figure out how to contribute to blockchain technology.

After a visit, V God found that although the bitcoin code is open source, based on this code has given birth to a variety of other “currencies”, but these blockchain developers are still using the original bitcoin code base and architecture.The problem is that the application of blockchain technology is still limited to cryptocurrency and payment systems.

V feels that blockchain should not be limited to the financial sector, it should be able to run a variety of applications. So he came up with a new idea: bypass the limitations of bitcoin code and develop a new set of code that treats blockchains as distributed computers capable of running “smart contracts”, the equivalent of applications that can run automatically.

In theory, “smart contracts” based on blockchain technology can replace traditional intermediaries, such as when taking a taxi, users can pay directly to the driver instead of paying to the taxi-hailing platform, and then give it to the driver after an “opaque” cut. In addition, the data based on the block chain network can not be tampered with, but also can protect users’ digital assets, such as articles will not be deleted by the platform, such as wills and other important statements can also be permanently stored on the block chain network. Vitalik wants to reduce the authority of monopolies and centralized institutions through decentralized technology.

When I got home, it took less than a month for God V to write this vision into a Taifang white paper. At this point, the second generation of block chain was born. Later, this idea inspired peers and opened the public chain to let a hundred flowers blossom. People’s imagination of blockchain technology is alsoNo longer limited to payment in encrypted currency, the blockchain network began to be regarded as the next generation Internet, an underlying technical means to reallocate social resources.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Etay Fong, commented, “God V is a gifted alien who came to Earth to devolve power to civilians.”

03 the first split: profit and non-profit

In January 2014, V God promoted ethernet place at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, which quickly attracted a group of friends. During the meeting, the founding team of Ether Fong was initially established, with seven co-founders in addition to V God.

Unexpectedly, just five months later, the brightest organization in the encrypted world began to fall apart.

The first split was because of money. “A lot of them are thinking about how to make money, which is not my goal at all,” V said. Other founders tried to use his naivety to scare him with regulators. “they said it was much easier to be a for-profit entity in law than to be a non-profit organization.”

This runs counter to what God V originally thought. He prefers Taifang to be a platform for social and political experiments rather than a money-making machine, which he hopes will check and balance the government and overturn Silicon Valley’s shackles on people’s digital lives-an idea that was popular with geeks in early 2014.

In June 2013, a young man named Snowden exposed the “Prism Project” of the United States to monitor its citizens and foreign governments on a large scale, involving a large number of technology and Internet giants. Western mistrust of Internet giants and centralization has reached its zenith.

In this wave of crusade and reflection on the Internet giants, an important concept that is still hotly discussed today was born.Inspired by Prism Gate, Gavin Wood, co-founder of Etay Fong, put forward the concept of Web3.0 in early 2014. He hopes that everyone in this generation of Internet can control their own destiny and control their own digital identities and digital assets.

The left one is V, and the right one is Gavin Wood.

He believes that Internet companies such as Facebook and Google, which control user data, define the Web2.0 era. “they also started out under the banner of empowering individual creators and eliminating intermediaries, but they didn’t make good on that promise.”

Gavin Wood hopes to solve the rotten model of Web2.0 from a technical level. In his view, these Internet giants are a reflection of the times-both companies and countries are overly concentrated in power. “if you trust an organization, it means that you give it certain powers, and they can use them at will.”

Web3.0 is based on the concept of “no trust” model, and there is no need to trust any intermediary.Any product or service is built on a block chain and runs automatically based on exposed underlying algorithms. “Web3.0 is a new set of rules, and the core of this set of rules is that no one in the system can have absolute power. Web3.0 is more like a social movement. “

Blockchain is the underlying technology that supports cryptocurrency and Web3.0. In today’s public opinion, it seems that applications without tokens (cryptocurrencies) can hardly be regarded as real Web3 products. But the Web3.0 envisioned by Gavin Wood is not very dependent on cryptocurrencies. “one of the keys to the mainstream of Web3 is that people can move away from cryptocurrencies and use decentralized services.”

In addition, although he is the author of Web3, Gavin Wood does not think that the social movement of Web3 will be successful. For example, most of the people in the initial revolution will become martyrs, but their spiritual and intellectual heritage may have a far-reaching impact in the future.

Turn your attention back to the first split of Etay Fong. In June 2014, after struggling, God V decided to turn Etay Fong into a non-profit organization. He started the construction of the Ethernet Square Foundation to promote the infrastructure of Ethernet Square and fund R & D projects.

In this process, a group of early members of Tai Fong chose to leave for various reasons. Want to turn ethernet into a for-profit company co-founder Charles Hoskinson, because the idea chose to quit, and later founded the public chain Cardano, become etheric Fong’s sworn enemy. Similarly, Mihai Alisie and Joseph Lubin each set up for-profit companies to serve the etheric Fong ecology.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of ethernet, and ConsenSys, the technology company he later founded to serve ethernet, are valued at $7 billion.

Anthony Di Iorio, the co-founder who funded the development and legal counsel of Etay Fong in the early days, also retreated to the second line after establishing a non-profit operation model.

Co-founder Amir Chetrit resigned because he was dissatisfied with the other co-founders of the team because of his lack of investment in Etay Fong. Later, Jeffrey Wilcke, co-founder and early core developer, also left ethernet to start a game company.

Camilla Russo, author of Yi Tai Fang’s biography Infinite Machine, said that they were originally a group of fighting people who gathered together to try to build a world computer, “but their personalities are too strong and their values are very different. It’s hard to work together.”

After the launch of Etay Fong in 2015, people have more imagination about the whole block chain. Building the blockchain is no longer about infrastructure such as wallets or exchanges, but about how to build richer protocols and applications. In more than a year, Etay Square has developed from a person’s dream into a vibrant movement, attracting developers living all over the world.

At the height of the rapid rise of etherland in early 2016, the technical leader of ethernet and the founder of Web3.0, CTO Gavin Wood, left, leaving a manifesto: “etherfong cannot monopolize the world”.

04 collision between three kinds of idealism

As for Gavin Wood, many core developers of Ethernet Fong think“he played an even more important role in Etay Fong than Vitalik.”

Gavin Wood grew up in the UK, majored in software engineering and received a master’s degree from the University of York. During his doctorate, he studied the music visualization of human-computer interaction.

In November 2013, the 33-year-old Gavin Wood met Vitalik, who was drafting a white paper on Ethernet Fong. In April 2014, Gavin Wood published the Yellow Book of ethernet, the technical specification of the Vitalik white paper, and later created ethernet’s native programming language, Solidity.

Etay Fong is the first practice of Gavin Wood in Web3. Later, he mentioned in an interview that he was just trying and practicing writing Ethernet Square at that time. As the company grew, he felt that the narrative around it had gradually become “all we need is a block chain”, but he did not accept the idea.

After leaving, Gavin Wood kept his promise. In November 2016, he and Jutta Steiner, the former core developer of ethernet, released the first version of the cross-chain protocol Boca (Polkadot), which simply allows different blockchains to coexist, avoiding a dominant company, and different blockchains can communicate with each other and give full play to their respective strengths.

Also in 2016, there was a landmark event that rewrote the history of Tai Tai Fong.

The DAO, an investment service based on the Ethernet Square platform, raised more than $100 million in 28 days. But on June 18, 2016, the The DAO project was attacked by hackers and its raised ethernet coins were stolen.

In order to prevent investors from suffering losses, V God decided to carry out “hard bifurcation”. To put it simply, both Bitcoin and ethernet are determined by a series of consensus rules. “hard bifurcation” means to modify the consensus rules and modify the original code and original rules of the blockchain. This is the first hard bifurcation in the history of Ethernet Square, which directly divides the etheric square community.

This seems to violate the spirit of blockchain-no institution can exercise centralised power over smart contracts. But if it is not modified, the losses of investors will be irreparable.

God V wanted to recover the loss, wrote a blog article advocating “hard bifurcation” and found that the majority of people in the community voted for it. V God feels that this does not violate the spirit of blockchain. “leaders must consider the feelings of the community and respect them.”

Some people object to these changes, declaring that “the code is the law” and that the block chain should remain unchanged.As a result, Etay Square was divided into two versions: “Ethernet Square” and “Etay Square Classic”. The most famous supporter and sponsor of Yi Tai Fong Classic is Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and co-founder of Yi Tai Fong.

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and co-founder of Tai Tai Fong

After leaving etherland, Charles Hoskinson founded Cardano in 2015 with Jeremy Wood, a former core member of ethernet. The motto of the company is“programs are bigger than people.”.

Charles Hoskinson, who was born in Hawaii, became one of the first mining users in 2011 and also worked on cryptocurrency education programs and exchanges before joining Ethernet Square. He is tit-for-tat with Ethernet Square and has developed special tools for users to migrate content such as smart contracts from Ethernet Square to Cardano.

Charles Hoskinson feels that he knows more about business and how to get along with the rules of the world. For example, Cardano has been actively looking for ways to embrace regulation, which has become a point where he often attacks that etheric place will not be long-term. “in the trade-off between centralization and anarchy, etheric Fong seems to be moving towards anarchy.”

I want to shout loudly, like howling in the wind. “

On February 14, 2019, Afri Schoedon, the core developer of ethernet, posted a message on Twitter, saying that Boca Polkadot provides the functions that the upgraded version of ethernet should have. This quickly aroused anger and members of the Tai Fong community began to besiege him. The Etay Fong community felt that Afri Schoedon had betrayed them, thinking that he was “stepping on two boats”, and some people threatened to kill him. Afri Schoedon was wronged. His original intention was to discuss technology. Five days later, Afri Schoedon withdrew from the etheric Fong community under pressure.

Encrypted communities, like religions, share common goals and interests, and even tolerate dissent. V God said that the community is the core of the encrypted world. But he wants to guide the development of the community is becoming more and more difficult. From the end of 2019, Etay Fong began to upgrade to version 2.0. With regard to the upgrade, V God found that “the biggest challenge is not technical problems, but people-related problems.” For example, how to balance the interests of investors, the interests of the team, the interests of the project side, the interests of miners, the interests of all parties are intertwined.

In an exclusive interview with time magazine in April 2022, God V also expressed concern about the current situation in Ether Square.

Because it is decentralized governance, many decisions require community participants to vote together to decide. V God cannot directly decide what to do next in Tai Fang. The way he guides the development of the community is to constantly write blogs, express their own views, and make appeals. On his blog and Twitter, you will find ideas and papers on the voting system, the best way to distribute the public interest, urban construction, and so on.

It is precisely because there are people who really do things and develop technology that they have room for survival for those who make exorbitant profits through the hype of concepts. Because of anonymity and difficult to regulate, blockchain has often become a tool for tax evasion, money laundering and scams under the name Web3. On the other hand, these people who hype and create scams continue to have a negative impact on the technology and geeks-this track, intertwined by these two forces, is moving forward controversially. “if we are silent, what may be set up is some short-term profit-seeking projects. But they are not good for this society. “

“Man is a great and often tragic experiment.” V God clearly realized that the world he created was moving forward with a mixture of pride and fear. The project originally launched to decentralize the dream may deviate from his original intention because more people pursue short-term interests.

“2022I would rather offend some people with Taifang than turn it into something meaningless. ” Now, God VHad to start this battle.“I want to shout loudly, like howling in the wind.”