Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin Explains How Crypto Industry Can Change Political Landscape

On Monday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin joined New York congressional candidate Jonathan Herzog and author and activist Glen Weyl in a live YouTube broadcast to discuss several pressing matters affecting our social settings.

The three talked about the inequalities emanating from American politics resulting in the protests that erupted in different parts of the United States. According to Buterin, the current generation is facing a global crisis of legitimacy that is concerning both the corporations and other types of governments.

“The challenge here is can we create systems that allow some groups of people to cooperate without that downside of a centralized or trusted actor having to be in the middle,” Buterin stated. He strategically mentioned how the Ethereum project can be used to solve some of these emanating challenges in society without leaving anyone behind.

The three urged people to unite during this time of COVID-19 pandemic to solve challenges instead of thinking individually. “More than ever, in the time of COVID-19, the problems we face are collective, not individual. And if we each try to protect ourselves, rather than some notion of the public, it is like trying to replace the military with a bunch of guards protecting individual buildings,” Weyl stated during the live broadcast.

He continued to say that “the key is the distribution mechanism that comes from pre-determined historic hierarchies, aka structural bias”. The blockchain industry is still in the growing phase, whereby there so many use cases it can be applied to solve.

Vitalik Buterin on Quadratic and Ethereum Funding

The three also talked about quadratic funding and also the Ethereum funding. Quadratic funding was proposed by both Buterin and Weyl as a way to allocate the distribution of funds based on quadratic voting.

Quadratic voting is essentially the collective decision making procedure where individuals allocate their votes in order to express their preference. This mechanism is proposed to be used in areas like corporate governance especially in the private sector. It can also be used during the allocation of budget, during elections time and also other times when democracy is needed.

According to the dual, quadratic funding if implemented will allow the optimal production of public goods at the same time eliminating the need for the centralized legislature. One of the earliest adopters of this mechanism is the Gitcoin Grants initiative that is led by Kelvin Owocki, Scott Moore, and Vivek Singh.

During the live broadcast, Buterin also noted that he is focused on ideas like socialism in connection with the crypto industry.