A Call to Arms!
Dear Bankless Nation,
Ethereum will succeed (or fail!) because of the community that surrounds it.
Crypto economic networks are only legitimate because of the people that extend legitimacy to them. Without a community of people providing support to these systems, Bitcoin and Ethereum will never change the world.
A network for the people.
Baked into the values of Ethereum is the ability for any individual to participate in securing the network. This is why Ethereum started with the Ethash mining algorithm, which prioritizes computational resources that an average consumer could acquire. Enabling GPU mining meant the average person could participate in the processing of Ethereum, and be able to own a small bit of Ethereum from their own home.
But we’ve always known that the development of ASICs would eventually push out the casual miner in exchange for big companies who use economies of scale and supply chain access to gain asymmetrical advantages over this little guy. This is a major reason why Ethereum has always been committed to migrating to proof of stake.
Ethereum is a network that belongs in the homes of people, not in the warehouses of industrial mining operations. Ethereum is a network by the people, for the people.
A network for the little guy.
A network for…YOU.
If you have:
- A half-decent computer
- A stable internet connection
- 32 ETH (less with options like this)
Then you have everything you need to host your share of the Ethereum protocol from the comfort of your own home. The launch of Ethereum’s PoS Beacon Chain is a significant event for crypto, one that not everyone understands the magnitude of.
If you believe that Bitcoin and Ethereum are massively coordinating infrastructure…
If you believe that the success of these systems is determined by how many people are inspired to participate in the network…
If you believe that the future of humanity will coordinate using crypto-economic protocols…
…don’t you want to be part of this revolution at the genesis?
It Takes a Nation
Good crypto-economic systems inspire good communities.
The better the community that rallies behind a network, the stronger the network becomes. Strong networks are measured by their ability to corral the largest community of stakeholders.
As with all large-scale organizations, the health of the system is defined by the engagement and commitments of its constituents.
- How strongly do the constituents believe in the system?
- How energized are the people behind the movement?
- How much are they willing to sacrifice for it?
In addition to the combined size of the constituents behind the structure, you have a measure of the overall health of the system.
Social Scalability
Proof of Stake is going to turn Ethereum into the world’s largest organizational structure.
Why? Because Ethereum pays you to be a part of it. Other Nations? With Religions you pay tithes, and with Nation-States you pay taxes. In the Ethereum Nation, you are paid ETH for your labor. And your labor is running a validator node.
This is why the Ethereum Nation is going to become the world’s largest coordinating organization. You are rewarded, not taxed, for participating. The barrier to accessing these rewards is a computer with an internet connection and some ETH.
The Bankless thesis is fundamentally bullish ETH—gotta buy ETH to get ETH rewards.
But First, Civic Duty
One lesson I’ve learned in crypto is to not count your chickens before they hatch. Reality isn’t certain. It depends on us.
A Nation is only as strong as its community members, and right now the Ethereum community needs to get this green bar to grow bigger:
Right now is a moment in history where the Ethereum community defines itself. This is the moment where the nation instantiates its values.
Are we a nation of doers? Or are we a nation of ‘somebody else do it’? Are we in the camp of ‘if you want something done, do it yourself’ or are we ‘it’s someone else’s responsibility’?
Civic engagement and social responsibility are the genetic makeup of nations. Is the Ethereum nation a nation of civic participants, or stay-at-home hermits? Right now the Ethereum Nation is calling on YOU to STAKE 32 ETH.
On Wednesday, we’ll release an article that expands on all this. I’m having a blast writing it. It’ll include a set of 🔥 graphics of Ethereum themed WWII propaganda like the above. I want you to buy ETH bonds now!
We need you to spread them! To meme them.
Because this is a call to arms. This is the war effort. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. This is the time to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
Ethereum is defined by the community of people it inspires, and right now, it’s calling on YOU.
So what can you do for the Ethereum nation?
Stake your ETH.
- David
P.S. Ryan’s episode on Real Vision just went free today! Listen to him lay out the bull case for ETH on one of the biggest podcasts in traditional finance.