64 - Legitimacy | Vitalik Buterin
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2021
⏱️ 117 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vitalik is back on Bankless to discuss his recent blog post: The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy.
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Bankless Podcast #64 - Legitimacy
Guest: Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik returns to Bankless – "the greatest Ethereum podcast" – for a deep dive into one of his recent blog posts, titled "The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy." The catalyzing example for Vitalik's discussion of legitimacy comes from Bitcoin and Ethereum, who both have the power to mobilize a tremendous amount of capital but are restricted in how this capital is used. Vitalik posits that legitimacy is the deep and powerful social force behind this.
Legitimacy is a social phenomenon that describes things that are broadly and generally accepted in a coordination system. Without ascribing moral values, legitimacy can be seen as social reality - the status quo. Legitimate things include the de facto norms and collective expectations of groups, whether you like it or not.
According to Vitalik, there are a number of ways to achieve legitimacy: brute force, continuity (inertia), fairness, process, performance, and participation – these are not mutually exclusive. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain ecosystems 'earn' legitimacy by community acceptance and adoption, but the continued legitimacy of these things is dependent on maintaining that which made it legitimate in the first place: promises and proofs of decentralization & security.
Vitalik turns this discussion towards funding public goods. Ethereum can't summon capital for public goods without sacrificing the decentralization and soundness that give it legitimacy. However, these expectations are not carried as strongly in the app layer. This gives the ecosystem flexibility to coordinate and provide for the health of the network beyond base layer security & decentralization. Legitimacy determines our best practices for interacting with the world – understanding and wielding the power of this concept is necessary to maximize the benefits we bring to it.
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Resources:
The Most Important Scarce Resource is Legitimacy:
https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/03/23/legitimacy.html
Vitalik on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin?s=20
Vitalik's Blog:
https://vitalik.ca/
Vitalik's Bankless Appearances:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmkdAgtxf3agqnA5IieA7OkKBjlhx9mn-
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Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Bankless, where we explore the frontier of internet money and internet finance. |
| 0:18.8 | This is how to get started, how to get better, and how to front run the opportunity. |
| 0:23.1 | I'm Ryan Sean Adams, I'm joined by David Hoffman, and we're here to help you become |
| 0:28.1 | more bankless. David, Vitalik on the podcast, again, another cannot miss episode, what did |
| 0:35.6 | we talk about? |
| 0:36.6 | We talked about legitimacy, this invisible force that Vitalik has named as legitimacy, |
| 0:43.2 | that we are exploring in today's podcast, and we go through the ways that the concept |
| 0:48.7 | of legitimacy impacts our lives, our lives as individuals and our lives as part of a greater |
| 0:55.2 | society. |
| 0:56.2 | Vitalik makes the claim that legitimacy is one of the world's most powerful forces, and |
| 1:01.4 | as a society, we don't really talk about it, but it really guides a lot of our day-to-day |
| 1:07.7 | lives, and it's even more true in the cryptocurrency space, and I think the fact that legitimacy |
| 1:14.7 | is one of the most powerful forces in the cryptocurrency space is perhaps why this |
| 1:20.2 | space is so revolutionary. |
| 1:22.3 | It answers the questions as to why this industry is so bottom-up, why this industry is by the |
| 1:27.0 | people for the people, because the people are enabled to bestow legitimacy on the things |
| 1:33.0 | that they see are good. |
| 1:35.5 | We talk about a number of different subjects, both in and outside of the world of cryptocurrency, |
| 1:40.3 | where legitimacy really has the reins as to what is true and how the world moves forward. |
| 1:48.0 | Really enjoy this conversation with Vitalik Buterin, as always. |
| 1:50.7 | Yeah, I guess I'd say a couple of things that's really impressed upon me with this episode. |
| 1:55.4 | I feel like if you don't understand the concept of legitimacy, and if you don't call |
... |
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