Vitalik's New Book "Proof of Stake" Close Reading Analysis (3)
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Vitalik's New Book "Proof of Stake" Close Reading Analysis (3)
Part One of the book—Pre-mining.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOriginal Chapter
Part One of the Book – Pre-Mining
Summary
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Vitalik Buterin engaged with diverse communities and insisted on forging his own path.
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At the time of Ethereum's white paper release, it was already stated that the consensus mechanism would transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
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Ethereum’s own fundraising, as well as the amount raised through ICOs on the Ethereum platform, was enormous.
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There were major disagreements within Ethereum's founding team. Vitalik insisted on operating Ethereum through a non-profit foundation, while some early members wanted to run it via a for-profit company.
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If people wish to completely rewrite their social contracts, they need a tool that does not submit to any single ideology.
Translator’s Perspective
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Those who change the world create value for humanity. In pursuing their dreams, they incidentally gain profits.
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On the path toward dreams and ideals, one should not be overly driven by profit. Throughout stock market history, many entrepreneurs who initially had great vision and ambition failed to resist the lure of profit, abandoned their dreams and beliefs midway, became trapped in capital operations, and ultimately met with failure.
Condensed Translation (Order Adjusted, Content Edited)
In a blog post from January 2014, Buterin mentioned that he wrote the Ethereum white paper on a cold November day in San Francisco—a culmination of months of thought, yet also frequently frustrating work.
During those months, while working on Bitcoin Magazine and engaging in builder roles (involving several Bitcoin-related startups), he walked his own path among libertarians in New Hampshire, immigrants in Zurich, programmers in Tel Aviv, and residents of Kalafu—an experimental "post-capitalist colony" housed in a crumbling factory complex near Barcelona.
Bitcoin was originally released via a white paper, and since then cryptographic projects have adopted the same format: releasing a document that serves both as a manifesto and technical specification before launching the software itself.
This format suited Buterin perfectly in 2013, when he was both a writer and a builder. “Ethereum: A Next-Generation Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Application Platform” effectively summarized the full white paper, which appears as an appendix in this book. At that time—still a year and a half before Ethereum’s initial launch in 2015—he was already contemplating Ethereum 2.0 and Proof-of-Stake, features that wouldn’t be realized until 2022.
"Pre-mining" refers to creating tokens before a blockchain launches. By selling pre-mined ETH tokens outlined in the Ethereum white paper, Buterin and his early collaborators raised over $18 million worth of Bitcoin.
This set a record at the time for the largest online crowdfunding campaign—but since then, other projects conducting ICOs on the Ethereum platform have raised even more than Ethereum itself.
Faced with pressure from older, more experienced collaborators who wanted to form a for-profit company, Buterin insisted on establishing Ethereum through a non-profit foundation.
The essays presented later in the book document Buterin’s evolution from a cyber-libertarian idealist to a pragmatic, big-tent infrastructure builder.
Initially, he celebrated the wave of emerging Bitcoin-related projects, though only a few of them still exist today.
Later, however, Buterin became unwilling to find definitive answers in any one of these projects. He believed that if people wished to fundamentally rewrite their social contracts, they needed a tool that remained independent of any single ideology.
Before Ethereum’s release, Buterin asked himself: “Ultimately, what is it actually good for?” He articulated a theory of change rooted not in sweeping disruption, but in solving specific missing pieces. He predicted this belief would inspire the builders of the technology and eventually become embedded in the minds of those using the technology and its products. As he prepared for public launch, his thoughts increasingly turned toward things no one could know or control.
Background Information
What is an Initial Coin Offering (ICO)?
An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the cryptocurrency industry’s equivalent of an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Companies seeking funds to develop a new token, application, or service can launch an ICO as a way to raise capital. Interested investors can purchase the initial batch of issued tokens, which may carry certain utilities related to the product or service offered by the company, or represent shares in the company or project.
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