2020-03-31 · timestamps by Eric Czuleger and ADAtainment
UPD 03/31/2020
- Recaps the first live product update stream (Byron reboot, Daedalus Flight, Hydra) and announces monthly crowdcast Q&A events going forward.
- Explains the split between Cardano 2020 (single-vendor foundation) and CCI (an open, multi-vendor ecosystem), warning against platform monoculture.
- Defends the ITN as effectively already Shelley, rejects demands to rush a launch purely to pump ADA's price, and lays out the Byron-to-Shelley-to-Goguen rollout plan.
- Frames the year-end closing report and community funding vote as proof that Cardano's governance already rests with ADA holders, not IOHK.
- Makes an extended philosophical case for decentralization: crypto as the fix for broken global governance, Cardano's academic roots versus Bitcoin's crypto-anarchist ones, and financial sovereignty as a 21st-century rights fight.
- Closes with personal reflections on his own temperament, gratitude to the community, and optimism for April's shipping pace.
49 entries
Open the broadcast live from a quarantined Colorado farm, noting remote work has kept the company undisrupted by the pandemic.
Recaps the first live product update stream covering the Byron reboot release, Daedalus Flight, and Hydra.
Announces monthly crowdcast Q&A events going forward, with unanswered questions addressed later via AMAs and blog posts.
Revisits yesterday's expectation-management video explaining the original 2015 two-phase plan: broad scientific exploration followed by disciplined execution.
CCI as an endless single-vendor foundation that later opens into a thousand-developer ecosystem, like Apple's App Store.
Warns against platform monoculture, citing Microsoft's 1990s stagnation as the risk of failing to diversify an ecosystem.
Outlines Cardano 2020's scope: a best-in-class cryptocurrency, formally verified ledger rules, a strong network stack, and a polished wallet experience.
Details how the Byron reboot shares about 80 percent of Shelley's codebase and rests on evidence-based software engineering.
Plans a year-end closing report summarizing five years of work, with the community voting on funding another three to five years.
Pushes back on trolls who claimed the CCI and Cardano 2020 split meant IOHK was leaving, stressing a funding source is required to keep working.
IOHK has professionalized from two people to a company of 200, with the community holding final consent over continued funding.
Argues that post-2020 continuity is likely but not guaranteed, rejecting the idea of cults of personality or a beneficent dictator for life.
Insists decentralized systems need checks, balances, and social structures so people can disagree without a demagogue taking over.
Highlights the University of Wyoming lab investment as a model letting independent researchers build CCI without central coordination.
Explains why CCI needs multiple independent builders, not just IOHK, to create healthy debate among infrastructure developers.
Acknowledges livestream chat now needs live moderators because of a small clique of shitposters.
Warns that democracy's weak point is letting a small, loud minority co-opt the system for short-term gain.
Answers the 'ship Shelley tomorrow' criticism, arguing the ITN is effectively already Shelley with thousands of users and stable uptime.
Rejects launching early just to pump the price, citing Stellar's token burn as a cautionary tale that destroyed years of stewardship for a brief price bump.
Calls on community leaders to help moderate speculators as Voltaire approaches, so short-termism cannot steer the project off course.
Predicts ADA becoming a trillion-dollar cryptocurrency through genuine network effects rather than price speculation.
Envisions Cardano as a 30-to-50-year engine built to overtake gov tech, reg tech, fintech, and supply chain technology.
Points to voting systems, supply chain traceability, and municipal bonds as use cases that will seek out a trustworthy decentralized platform.
Uses the Fed's six trillion dollar COVID stimulus to argue that money's power rests on collective belief, not on any inherent value.
Compares Cardano's compounding user growth to a pandemic curve, projecting it becomes the world's financial operating system over decades.
Argues the hardest work is already done: the philosophy is set, the project was incubated academically, and the community is strong.
Admits he'd rather be a mathematician than a politician, preferring the farm and its animals to constant criticism, while insisting the project still needs an 'immune system' against short-term speculators.
Credits the incentivized testnet with sparking a community awakening that gave him certainty Cardano is here to stay permanently.
Argues the world's governance technology isn't ready for globalization, citing medical credentialing and cross-border pollution as unsolved collective-action problems.
Frames crypto as the solution to that governance gap, comparing this moment to the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment's break from theocracy.
Expects many competing crypto philosophies to produce winners and losers, holding up Bitcoin's unbroken 21 million cap as proof that principles endure.
Contrasts Cardano's academic, formal-methods origins with Bitcoin's crypto-anarchist roots and its more exclusive mining-driven consensus.
Declares the reboot means the ship is finally righted, built to last 50 years and ready to carry Shelley and Goguen governance forward.
Contrasts Cardano's fact-based debate culture with the Bitcoin Cash block-size civil war that drove people like Roger Ver out of Bitcoin.
Lays out the rollout plan: the Byron reboot ships today, infrastructure upgrades roll out all month, then a Haskell Shelley testnet folds in nearly 300 community suggestions.
Shelley rewards must be verified and migrated from the ITN before Goguen brings smart contracts and native assets.
Predicts critics will first deny Shelley shipped, then claim it's flawed, only to be answered by stake pool operators and exchanges rather than by himself.
A personal mission to work on Cardano for life while building a company that never pursues patents or a data-harvesting business model.
Argues greed can align with progress, comparing it to how cheaper solar and wind power beat coal on economics alone.
Frames the core mission as giving people control over their identity, data, privacy, money, vote, and property, warning that Hungary's pandemic emergency powers show how crises get exploited.
Argues human institutions can't be trusted to protect absolute rights, so code must serve as that trustless backstop.
Closes the product notes proud of the day, promising April will be the most productive month yet and teasing the hard fork combinator.
Predicts critics will eventually be proven wrong and carry a lasting reputational hit for their attacks.
Thanks the community and reveals plans for a large-scale virtual event to mark the Shelley launch, hoping for tens of thousands of attendees.
Expresses pride in the engineering team's sacrifices, insisting the public code and papers speak for themselves against critics.
Calls 2020 the year to 'ascend' and frames 2021 through 2023 as a philosophical fight over centralized power versus individual empowerment.
Even billionaires in Russia, China, or North Korea remain vulnerable to state power, showing wealth and power are ephemeral without rule of law.
Credits the internet, the open-source movement, and the Enlightenment for making this moment possible, praising the courage of early crypto pioneers.
Signs off committing to the long road ahead and thanks the community for a farewell broadcast from sunny Colorado.