The plant foundation of Ethereum is growing a wooden, stable, and overall network. The denser the mesh network, the higher the woodiness and stability, and the more reliable the DeFi economy.
Written by: David Hoffman, POV Crypto Host and COO of RealT Translator: Lu Jiangfei
The article was first published in the English paid e-magazine “Bankless” focusing on open finance. Bankless and Lianwen jointly released the Chinese version of this article. Bankless’s subscription address is: bankless.substack.com
The most interesting part of the cryptocurrency industry is that it can be associated with many different fields of knowledge: mathematics, cryptography, computer science, game theory, economics, finance, physics, sociology, politics…
But there is one discipline that doesn’t seem to have a connection with cryptocurrency: biology . Today we will study from this perspective: if we compare Ethereum to a “plant” , then the fruit it produces is “trust” . In a world without trust, Ethereum can play an important role.
Chapter 1: Life
Life is a bottom-up phenomenon. Life mechanisms can generate order from chaos. By using the energy of the surrounding world, ” life ” is like a product of an organic algorithm that can input energy from the surrounding world and output commands. Once the initial order foundation is established, life will add more and more order to the initial foundation, and then continue to grow and grow.
This is how life develops from single-celled organisms to multi-celled organisms, and then to complex organs, integrated systems, hormones, brains and consciousness, just like a symphony . Life started from a very small place, and then continuously stratified itself over millions of years, evolving into the vastly different life forms we know today.
The important thing is that every iteration of life evolution is based on every individual motivation. In his book “The Selfish Gene “, Richard Dawkin discussed how each gene of an organism becomes the smallest unit of life. It is this inherent self-interest to preserve and copy itself for the whole life. Foundation.
Good genes can survive, bad genes eventually die. Compared with keeping independent genes, genes combined with other genes do better, because group coordination can improve survival efficiency.
Charlie Munger’s famous saying: “Tell me the motive, and I will tell you the result.” The same applies to life, because life essentially has the motive of ” survival ” and it is also the main driving force that gives life the ability to persist and progress. . Simply put, life is just a combination of life’s desires and the tools needed to realize life.
If there is enough time, we will eventually have a prosperous planet full of various forms of life, because a new form of life will fill all the gaps and niches.
Nature does not like a vacuum state, so new life may appear in every corner of time and space. As long as there is a strong enough foundation and tools to create life, even the most empty area of time and space can carry life.
Chapter 2: Encrypted Economic Life
In the new realm of survival, encrypted economic systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum also represent a form of life , that is , the native life form of the Internet. The reason why cryptocurrency can exist in this realistic alternative plane is mainly It is because they are fundamentally unique.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are not the earliest “ organisms ” that “lived” in the Internet field. Basically, computer viruses are as old as the Internet. As evolution progresses, simple, highly replicable Internet life appears first, and then Reappearance of a complex “body” with internal structure and coordinated work will eventually produce a “object” larger than the sum of its parts.
In this field, my favorite is Brandon Kui Temu (Brandon Quittem) related to work, he was known as “Bitcoin mushroom man” (Bitcoin Mushroom Man), are intended to illustrate Bitcoin and bacteria The connection between the filaments, the mycelium is an underground fungal network that blooms like mushrooms on the ground.
One of the biggest characteristics of the cryptocurrency industry is that it can be associated with knowledge in all fields. In particular, I think the relationship between cryptoeconomics and biology is the most fascinating, but at the same time it has not been fully valued. For crypto-economic systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, if you want a comprehensive and in-depth understanding, you must use some of the views of biology, while also integrating the concepts of complexity and adaptive systems .
When we discuss Ethereum and Ethereum-related applications or concepts, we are often zoomed in too close to see these systems in a holistic way, but when you zoom out Ethereum and treat it as a coherent When it comes to the system, biology will undoubtedly be a very good perspective.
For example, when explaining the operating status of systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the indicator we often use is: the “number of nodes”, or the “number of instances” that each system can replicate itself. A good encryption economy system is easy to replicate, and “downloading the chain” can be easy, such as Bitcoin. However, there are also some encryption economies that are not easy to replicate, such as Ripple and EOS. In fact, systems with good replication capabilities are resistant to fragility and are easy to survive .
This is that cryptocurrency systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum can develop like a “virus”, because when you want to eliminate nodes, you will find that the amount of feasible coordination labor required is greater, that is, to create Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes are faster than eliminating nodes!
There is no doubt that Bitcoin and Ethereum want to survive. They have their own internal motivation and unique strategies to achieve their goals. Like all life, Bitcoin and Ethereum are goal-oriented systems with a desire to survive and prosper for a long time.
Ethereum applications are constantly exploring product/market fit. It is officially because of these Ethereum applications that Ethereum continues to develop new structures and help Ethereum achieve its goals. When a new protocol is developed on Ethereum, it is just like a new appendage sprouted from Ethereum. This is a new tool that allows Ethereum to survive and prosper for a long time.
Humans evolved from quadrupeds to bipeds, freeing the hands and prefrontal cortex. We use these structures (tools) to achieve our goals and wishes. Similarly, Ethereum has evolved ” Currency Lego Building Blocks ” and stitched and combined these structures to produce a functional, input-sensitive structure, thereby giving it a competitive advantage over other rivals.
In this regard, I wrote an article before , “Ethereum is an Emergent Structure” (Ethereum is an Emergent Structure). Some of the ideas in this article can make it easier for everyone to understand Ethereum. structure:
The ” Currency Lego Blocks ” of the DeFi application is the basis of the independent collective DeFi structure;
The independent DeFi structure constructed by many different independent components is what we call “Ethereum”;
The application on Ethereum creates a new surface for other applications. DeFi protocols such as MakerDAO, Uniswap, and Compound all represent Ethereum applications . These protocols have generated a large number of orders and created a new stage of stability. Can be used by other applications;
The application of order generation is growing linearly, and the promotion of stability indicates that the area is also growing exponentially;
The number of potential combinations of applications can quickly approach infinity. Two concepts are introduced here: Complex Adaptation and Chaordic Organization. You can read the related links of these two concepts to understand this in depth.
Chain smell note:
” Don’t worry, Ethereum is an organic system with life, self-evolution and expansion ”
Chapter 3: Ethereum is a plant that generates trust
Many plants in the world are trying all kinds of ways to attract human attention. The agricultural revolution is an era. Plants “persuade” humans to put down their bows and spears and use them as beneficial products: people’s desire for food also promotes the persistence of plants. Being able to survive is also an incentive.
In fact, the reason why plants can survive is because it produces what humans want. Humans almost gave up all these creatures in order to cultivate them, because the life and prosperity of crops means life and prosperity for farmers.
Wheat, coffee, tobacco, corn-any crop is an organic matter, and the things called “plants” produced by this organic matter are extremely valuable to humans. Because plants are very precious, humans need to work hard to create an ideal condition to ensure that plants can flourish. For example, we ensure that plants can get enough water (but not too much!), enough sunlight (but not too much!) and enough nutrients (but not too much!). We even innovated and developed pesticides that are only effective against pests but harmless to plant leaves. We bought more land and planted more plants on it, and then we found a way to grow more plants on less land. Then, we buy more land and repeat the above steps.
From the perspective of evolutionary success, plants have become one of the most successful creatures in the world because they have given humans what they need. In fact, plants have “outsourced” replication and heavy work to humans. Plants have no brains, but they have “convinced” generations of humans to use their intelligence to study how to best grow and reproduce these creatures. Plants can spread and copy their DNA without doing any work, because humans will help them do this. Plants that create value for humans inspire humans to work continuously to help this species reproduce and multiply. Very good plant, there is a set!
Wheat produces carbohydrates. Coffee produces caffeine. Sugar cane produces sugar. Tobacco produces nicotine.
Ethereum generates trust .
The essence of the encryption economy system is actually to produce a trustless coordination infrastructure, whose goal is to serve as a foundation for trust construction between two or more participants.
Trust is the most ideal ” compound ” produced by the “factory” of Ethereum.
Just as food and cash crops “convince” all mankind to work for their survival, Ethereum is slowly recruiting all mankind to help them grow and protect, because the fruit of the Ethereum “plant” is so precious: trust. Just like how the agricultural revolution exploded in population growth and human specialization, the trust revolution will bring incredible improvements to human health and proliferation.
The trust revolution started with cultivating the trust tree of Ethereum .
Chapter 4: My Christmas Cactus
One of my favorite plants is my Christmas cactus . This cactus only blooms during Christmas time of the year, but its growth method is really cool, and it illustrates the concept of complex adaptation and tissue organization— – the emergence of Ethernet Square is a structure (emergent structure).
The new leaves of the Christmas cactus will protrude from the older leaves and form a chain that extends to the root of the plant. Sometimes, two to three leaves will extend from a single leaf and move in their own direction, branching into a new leaf chain.
The first new leaves are fragile and soft, and if you are not careful, they can easily be broken!
If such new leaves fall weakly, you must wait for the new leaves to reappear.
If the Christmas cactus encounters difficulties (not enough water and sunlight and suffering from harsh weather conditions), it will drop all the extra, newly formed leaves on its own! You will find that all plants are actually performing such operations in some way. If there are difficult conditions, organisms need to become more efficient and do this by reducing costs and expenditures. The new leaves farthest from the base of the plant require the most energy to transport nutrients, so they fall first during difficult times.
This is no different from a company that ” pruned backwards ” during a recession, or a company that shrank its business during a market downturn. This model is also part of our universe, and it is exactly what you want to resist fragility and have a lasting Seen in living creatures. For longevity and prosperity, the most important thing is to be able to adapt to the surrounding environmental conditions. When things get tough, you can keep your resources scarce without having to risk expensive new investments.
However, as long as there are sufficient growth conditions, the new leaves can produce more energy for the plant than it needs for its production and maintenance, thus becoming a more permanent part of the plant structure.
For plants, if there are leaves that have been stuck for a long time, these leaves will gradually become ” woody “.
“Wood” is a real but not technical term that describes the structure of plants composed of highly durable cellulose and lignin. Cellulose provides the carbon lattice structure, making wood exceptionally strong, and lignin is like the internal circulation system of plants. Cellulose provides structure and lignin provides nutrient circulation, similar to human bones and blood.
Becoming “woody” is a slow, iterative process that requires adding layers of cellulose to the cellulose structure and hardening into stems over time. Due to its resistance to severe weather and temperature, the woody parts of the plant perform well in winter conditions.
In human biology, we use the term ” calcification ” to describe the stratification of calcium and phosphate into the bone matrix. We also use the term “calcification” in the cryptocurrency world to describe the ability of these systems to continuously strengthen and optimize themselves. Bitcoin is considered “calcification” due to its resistance to protocol changes.
The opposite of “woody” plants are ” turf ” plants. They have no woody nature, so they can only grow on the ground briefly. In winter, ground growth ceases because the roots of “turf” plants will enter a dormant state and cannot grow until the conditions become more favorable. The “turf” plant strategy is to let the surface growth disappear every year, and then grow later. This is an interesting survival strategy, which means that the survival of plants does not depend on the growth on the ground, so they can survive under extreme conditions .
However, the inability to grow on the ground for a long time limits the development potential of “turf” plants in general. Woody plant growth system can make plants ” lock in ” the growth of each growing season. Without this ability, the “turf” plant has to start over once a year.
Every growing season, plants will add many fresh new leaves . Since there are sufficient nutrients and favorable conditions during the growing season, and because new and sustainable energy capture is possible throughout the year, plants can bear the risk of expensive new growth.
At the same time, in order to support and maintain any new “leaf”, all old leaves on the Christmas cactus will be lignified . The internal structure of the old leaves begins to harden, changing from soft, soft, and delicate to woody, strong and durable. These older leaves form a sturdy rod-like structure inside, which helps to generate stable and reliable branches, which can establish new growth resources . In the next growth cycle, some fresh new leaves will grow from these old leaves.
New leaves can capture new resources, and old leaves can better circulate these new resources. This positive feedback loop is how life spreads. Not all leaves can become woody and stable, but by doing so, the possibility of leaves becoming permanent structures in the entire plant will be greatly increased. The more woody and firm the Christmas cactus, the more likely it is that new leaves will grow from its stable base.
Chapter 5: What is a trust plant?
After reading this, you may be thinking: “After talking about so many plants, what are they for?”
In fact, the growth method of plants is exactly the growth method of Ethereum as an ecosystem .
The original foundation of Ethereum has been established in the early days, and new extensions have appeared over time. If extended well, they will be retained by the system. If the expansion is not good, they will be ignored and eliminated.
The ERC-20 token standard is an extension of the earliest structure based on Ethereum, and this structure has become an indispensable and key support for Ethereum. In 2017, many initial coin offering (ICO) projects emerged on Ethereum, just like thousands of new leaves were born from a relatively young plant. The reason why these new leaves can grow quickly is because 2017 The bull market in the year provided Ethereum with a lot of resources , just as plants have seemingly unlimited sunlight, water, and nutrients. As a result, thousands of new leaves appeared in the Ethereum protocol.
In 2018, sunlight, water, and nutrients were all depleted , and 95% of the leaves born in the 2017 growing season died and fell from the “plant” of Ethereum. Ethereum has not yet established a stable enough foundation to accommodate all these new leaves, and many new leaves have been deformed and have not added enough value to the base plant (Ethereum).
In this case, anti-fragile creatures like Ethereum will play their best role.
Ethereum started pruning branches and leaves, hoarding fat and hardening in winter .
For Ethereum, 2018 and 2019 are long winters, with almost no resources entering the Ethereum ecosystem, resulting in the continued reduction of “leaves” and closer and closer to the core of the plant. Just like a body experiencing hypothermia, plants will shrink resources closer to the plant core. Long-term lack of resources means that Ethereum has to continue to consolidate itself and become more efficient .
No one is immune to the abyss of the bear market. Due to lack of funds, even high-quality projects like Nexus Mutual are close to “closing.” Without sufficient resources, even the most resilient plants will die, because organisms will choose to “cut” until new resources come, or until they die completely.
Fortunately, the DeFi boom has brought new energy to the Ethereum system . With the emergence of new energy, a new wave of growth has also appeared in the Ethereum “plant”. Funds flow into the economic system, and new projects can be established! Most importantly, the projects that succeeded in the 2018-2019 bear market have become the basis for supporting all these new growth. After learning to survive under famine conditions, Ethereum has survived the extremely barren motivation, but it has changed because of this. It is more robust and efficient , which can maximize the value of new nutrients injected into the ecosystem.
Uniswap first appeared in 2018, and it is also one of the few “leaves” that can keep growing in the 2018-2019 crypto winter: If a new structure can grow in times of difficulty and lack of new resources, imagine it in the growing season What can be done.
Ethereum “plants” ushered in the spring, and Uniswap’s transaction volume has surpassed Coinbase.
As a structure that can carry new growth “leaves” outside of the agreement, Uniswap has become one of the most efficient leaves of Ethereum because it creates a huge resource area and can grow further from it. Uniswap quickly became the most stable ” wood ” circulation system in Ethereum, and many new leaves can rely on it to continue to grow. Although Uniswap is built on the reliable and stable structure of ERC-20 tokens, it has actually produced a reliable and stable structure of its own. This structure is currently carrying a variety of new growth in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Chapter 6: Modular Structure
When studying the decentralized financial ecosystem, people have seen a variety of application scenarios, these applications have different levels of attack vector (attack vector) and protocol hardness/security (protocol hardness/security). Uniswap, MakerDAO, Compound, Aave, Curve, Synthetix, Balancer, and Year are all similar to reliable plant surfaces of varying degrees and can be used for other “leaves”.
It is worth noting that many people worry that MakerDAO is growing too much and DAI is increasingly supported by centralized assets, so the leaves of MakerDAO may be more vulnerable than ideal. If the MakerDAO leaf on the Ethereum plant dies, it will also kill all other leaves on it. If the plant foundation collapses, everything above it will die. This is bad for plants. However, even the most up-to-date horticulturist knows that even if plant leaves sometimes fall, they can always grow back over time.
We have seen this in Aave and Compound -similar to two redundant copies of plant roots. While MakerDAO is leading the decentralized stablecoin market, a new batch of startups are building their own foundations to help support the growth of “plants”, such as RAI, Empty Set Dollar and Dynamic Set Dollar.
Remember this picture:
Anti-fragile redundancy is the core of all life, and creating a diverse ecosystem of DeFi applications will produce a healthy network of interdependent and independent products. The plant foundation of Ethereum is growing a wooden, stable, and overall network . The denser the mesh network, the higher the woodiness and stability, and the more reliable the DeFi economy.
Chapter 7: Ethereum is the root, DeFi is the leaf
Chinese bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world. Bamboo can grow 80 feet in just six weeks!
How can this be? But it does. The answer is because it seems that the bamboo that grows 80 feet in six weeks is only the “surface”. These six weeks are actually only a small part of the long growth process of Chinese bamboo. The bamboo foundation needs to grow underground for five years before you can finally see the Impressive growth on the ground at high speed.
The five-year dormancy period is because Chinese bamboo is unwilling to develop its nutrient collection and recycling system. Then, under the right conditions, Chinese bamboo only needs to make up for its five-year dormancy period in just six weeks, and “instantly” grow to 80 feet tall. This scenario is very similar to the “crypto bear market”-starting in 2018 and ending in early 2020, the winter in the cryptocurrency industry is very long. For a full 30 months, the crypto economy system has been constantly pruning itself to maintain life.
The miners got out of the car. The capital plate went bankrupt. The project party went bankrupt.
However, one thing has never happened: Ethereum 2.0 is constantly improving and developing, and the structure of Ethereum 1.x is also constantly improving and optimizing . In the cryptocurrency winter, the foundation of Ethereum does not seem to be affected by harsh ground conditions, and it has developed into an extensive parallel growth network (see the Ethereum development roadmap released by Vitalik Buterin).
With the smooth launch of Ethereum 2.0 “Phase 0”, the emergence of EIP-1559 and the continuous integration of the aggregation ecosystem, the resulting economic foundation of Ethereum does not seem to be as fragile as we once thought, but is becoming more and more reliable. . At the same time, ground conditions have begun to improve, the market has generated new interest in Ethereum, and new resources are entering the Ethereum ecosystem at an unprecedented speed.
Now, Ethereum is entering the development stage . From what we can see, market conditions are extremely favorable. The growth rate of the new leaves of the Ethereum “plant” will be incredible.
Chapter 8: The “wood” of Ethereum is its value
In fact, Ethereum is designed entirely around a set of specific values. More importantly, Ethereum is still learning how to express these values to the greatest extent. Place Value and Ethernet protocol sinking theory (Protocol Sink Thesis) have similarities, such as:
License-free, open
Boycott of censorship
Credible and neutral
Decentralization
Link Wen’s Note: For the protocol sinking theory, please refer to
” Ethereum is a protocol basin, DeFi is a river of global public goods “
These characteristics distinguish private products from public products, and the whole reason for the existence of the cryptocurrency industry is to produce globally accessible public goods in monetary and financial methods. Simply put, the development of the cryptocurrency industry can be summarized as the following formula:
Resistance to censorship + openness + neutrality + decentralization + [application] = extremely valuable global public goods.
To simplify the operation, we merge the equations into:
To trust + [application] = ???
The following figure shows the development status of cryptocurrencies so far based on the above formula:
If you build an application to a trust, it is already in (Protocol Sink) to build a dense and things resonate with Ethernet value Square “Agreement sank” when over Ethernet and Ethernet Square Square applications When the design is consistent, there is a synergy.
When Ethereum applications find themselves at the bottom of the “protocol sinking”, they will tend to get closer to the Ethereum protocol. At this time, these applications will naturally be praised by others in the Ethereum ecosystem. The trustless application is located at the core of the Ethereum “plant”, and can get the privilege of accessing the resources produced by the “plant”, and it will be easier to cultivate the “biology” in the core part of the Ethereum “plant”.
When the application is trustless, requesting resources from Ethereum will also become easy.
At this time, when Ethereum users access these applications, they may ask: “Can I recover the investment money in the way I expect?”. The trustless application will always answer: “Yes”.
Trustless applications often receive ample funds , and sufficient capital is also received within the contract. The resources needed for wood growth come from these trustless applications. Ethereum expands itself from the foundation to its own application layer through trustless applications.
Uniswap is an important application in the application layer of Ethereum , and it is also a manifestation of the high fidelity of Ethereum itself. There is a ” consistency ” connection between Uniswap and Ethereum. This is the main reason why Uniswap can still thrive in the crypto winter. At the same time, Uniswap can quickly become one of the most stable ” wood plants ” in the early stages of Ethereum’s life. . Undoubtedly, just like Chinese bamboo, Uniswap based on the core of Ethereum has developed rapidly.
Ethereum hopes to express itself through the application layer, and the medium of expression in the real world is to trust the application. After all, Ethereum 2.0 developers have spent many years perfecting the network’s ability to express trustlessness. The reason why “ trustlessness ” is so important is that in the past, applications can only express trustlessness that the basic layer of Ethereum can support.
I had also written some articles, such as “Uniswap is the infrastructure, Ethernet Square is the emergence of structure” (Uniswap is Infrastructure, Ethereum is an Emergent Structure), ” global public goods and protocols sinking theory” (Global Public Goods and the Protocol Sink Thesis), which elaborated on the existence of reliable and trustless structures in the cryptocurrency industry (such as Uniswap), and there are also feedback loops between Ethereum applications.
DeFi is an independent super structure of financial applications. DeFi applications are “currency Lego blocks”. All applications have this inseparable attraction, so they can be integrated with each other-but they have independence. What is the meaning of “Lego bricks”? For Ethereum developers, the two most interesting aspects are:
- Generate new applications;
- Stitch other applications together (actually this is only a subset of the first point).
Therefore, all DeFi are moving towards the structure stand-alone application, I call this structure is called “Ethernet Square” (Ethereum).
When applications such as Uniswap are added to this structure, it makes the rest of the structure full of trustlessness. Afterwards, if applications such as Uniswap exist, it can help other applications to enhance their own trust, because if the application needs a token exchange function, it only needs to be connected to Uniswap.
As more and more applications on Ethereum continue to develop in a trustless state, it will become easier to build more available trustless tools and more trustless applications. If the idea of “plants” is used as a metaphor, trustlessness is actually the “ wood ” of plants. As the Ethereum superstructure continues to grow in a trustless state, the wood of ethereum plants will become stronger, live longer, and more efficient. Higher, and then able to hold more leaves!
When the sun finally breaks through the clouds, Ethereum will establish a cyclic structure where all leaves can get the energy needed to produce and sustain life.
Chapter 9: All-round value
One of the best features of Ethereum is that it can host any form of financial activities . The Ethereum protocol itself aims to express financial activities to the greatest extent, so a complete classification of potential activities can be realized on the network.
Some people want to build things on Ethereum that cannot maximize trust, such as tokenized securities, real-world assets, and permission fenced gardens.
Whether it is trust or distrust, it is a useful product .
Although we believe that similar things will not fall into the argument of the protocol sinking theory, there are no rules that require you to build something on Ethereum. The protocol sinking theory just shows that things that build trust are more likely to be ” organically favored ” by the Ethereum ecosystem, and tend to tend to “sink” to the bottom.
With this in mind, the agreement sinking theory does not rule out the possibility of finding great value outside of “sinking.”
Adaptive plants like Christmas cacti can also use protocol sinking theory! The closer you are to the foundation, the easier it is to wood and get more reliable structural support . Healthy plants need green, sunny leaves! Woody plants have the ability to provide nutrients to the structure, while the lush branches can provide valuable “foliage”. Compared with trustless projects, centralized projects on Ethereum are easier to build, and from the perspective of plants, all growth is benign . Only a few trustless projects can support many centralized products. In other words, I hope that centralized products can provide the largest “leaf surface” outside of Ethereum.
In this regard, some of the Ethereum applications have done a great job, and they have also performed well in the field of centralized licensing, thus bringing a lot of value to the entire ecosystem, such as:
- USDC, a stablecoin project from Circle
- Gods Unchained from Immutable
- NFT trading market Rarible
- dYdX
- Monolith ‘s cryptocurrency Visa card
All these are Ethereum applications, which bring economic activity to the network through centralized products and services, and are also gaining value for the entire Ethereum ecosystem. The important thing is that users can freely exit these applications and then return to the trustless part of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Over time, centralized entities will gain the ability to further strengthen themselves, because this is a good strategy for inserting attack vectors through trustless applications, or when trustless applications are available, they can When sinking, build trust and density while maintaining a certain degree of centralization.
After all, plants do not only grow in one direction, but in all directions !
Chapter 10: Cultivate trust
In the world we live in, people’s trust in institutions does not seem to be very high. It can be said that Ethereum is a newly discovered form of life and can produce a product, namely: trust.
I think Brandon Kui Temu (Brandon Quittem) had written the article “Bitcoin and fourth turning” (Bitcoin and the Forth Turning) content is very important, he explained, “the fourth turning angle from Bitcoin “The theory and the role it plays in the cycle of generations, I quote one paragraph as follows:
Two amateur historians, Neil Howe and William Strauss, put forward the ” Generational Theory ” (Generational Theory) in the 1990s, which is also called the Fourth Turn Theory. Describes the repetitive generational cycle. Historical events are associated with recurring generational roles. Each generational role releases a new era in which there is a new social, political and economic atmosphere (emotion). They are part of a larger periodic “grass” (human life span usually only spans 80 to 100 years). After each generation, there will be another crisis in American history and subsequent recovery. In the recovery process, the values of the institution and the community are strong. In the end, the successful offspring prototypes attacked and weakened the system in the name of autonomy and individualism, but in the end it would create a turbulent political environment and set the conditions for the next crisis.
在下面这张图表中，第四转向理论由两个不同步的正弦波表示，一个代表秩序的「供应」，另一个代表秩序的「需求」。
根据第四转向理论，我们当前正处于秩序「供应」较低、秩序「需求」不断增长的时代。
或许你们和我一样，都对美国民主能够「投票」进入更美好世界的方式感到悲观，历史轨迹似乎并不能证明这一点。但对我个人来说，更乐观的是通过建立独立于当前人类治理体系的替代机构来满足人们对健康秩序的需求。
但是，除了可以帮助人们找到世界秩序和社会稳定之外，还有哪些其他机构能做到这一点呢？靠硅谷那些科技巨头？似乎有点反乌托邦了……
市场将如何满足我们生活中的秩序需求？又该如何满足这种需求呢？
in conclusion
以太坊是一种产生信任的加密货币经济系统，以太坊被「培养」的越多、获取的营养越多，对世界产生的信任就越多。
到目前为止，以太坊只有短短六年历史，现在有可能从以太坊2.0 的「种子」中破土而出，生长为一个成熟的「植物」，然后就能把信任延伸到互联网的各个角落。就像植物「巧妙」地让农民不断增产农作物一样，以太坊也在世界范围内招募更多人来完成自己的使命，帮助它生长，为它提供营养并提供阳光。人们之所以愿意这样做，是因为以太坊越健康，产生的信任就越多，而在如今的世界里，信任正处于一种「低供给和高需求」的状态。
以太坊拥有我们想要的：信任。
利用人类对信任的需求，以太坊将会茁壮成长，并最终成为我们所知的、最大的单一生命形式。
感谢阅读！
