The Manifesto of Proof-of-Work: An Open Letter to the Ethereum Community
He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you. — Friedrich Nietzsche
8 years into its founding, the almighty Ethereum Foundation (TEF), once a hero and now a Crypto version of the tech behemoth, is abandoning “decentralization” as part of its missions. The hero has become the dragon, and the signs have been many.
The DAO Hack
We never forgot that, in 2016, without the community’s agreement, the “immutable” ledger was rolled back to recoup the financial losses during The DAO Hack.
We refrain from speculating on the motivation that caused the Ethereum elites to temporarily suspend their immutable ledger narrative. Nevertheless, the ideological difference bore the schism that split the community into ETH and ETC.
EIP-1559
EIP-1559 was an attempt to create a bullish narrative at the expense of the miners. As one of the most important pillars of any Proof-of-Work (PoW) network, miners naturally are a political force and should wield some political power and influence, which is important for any inclusive political system to sustain; that is, separation or distribution of powers. However, the executive, narrative, and governance powers were so dangerously centralized that TEF and its friends could coerce miners into cooperating at ease.
If a government could tax half of the income of every productive citizen (in the name of fighting inflation etc.) without suffering any noteworthy political turmoil, would that country be more likely the United States of America or North Korea?
The “Merge”
Now TEF is finally at the stage to completely purge PoW, the only mechanism that ever existed to separate Bitcoin and Ethereum alike, which are truly inclusive, from the current status quo financial and political systems. And TEF is telling us this is fine.
Perhaps it is OK to sacrifice political minorities as long as it is for the public good, or is it just another spinning of public opinion for the benefits and profits of TEF and its friends?
In the biblical story of Exodus, the Hebrews helped build Egypt but were eventually enslaved and slaughtered.
If Ethereum were a nation, is it a republic where power is balanced and checked and the interest of the minority is respected, or a pyramid-shaped hierarchical society where the Pharaohs rule and enslave at will?
The hero who fought the dragon is no more: There is nothing decentralized about the decision-making process; and the community-driven governance is in-name only; ideology and everything else is set aside in favor of higher token prices.
After all, we are all gonna make it. Right?
The Eth-xodus
Like Israelites and Moses, we will journey to the Promised Land, and the Nakamoto Consensus will lead our way.
The people who hold immense wealth and power and have the platform of social media don’t like us because they know, and we know, that we are a truly decentralized community of volunteers who strive to keep Ethereum open and inclusive. As such, we promise the following:
1. No premine or inflation. It will be fair and the true continuation of the Ethereum chain.
2. In the foreseeable future, maintain PoW and the Nakamoto Consensus mechanism, which is the foundation of everything that ever mattered in the Crypto space: A truly robust and inclusive system.
3. Abolition of EIP-1559. In a truly open and inclusive system/society, there is no justification for punishing one group of participants in favor of another.
4. We will never idolize leaders, unlike our predecessor. We strive to be an enlightened society.
5. The network, EthereumPow (to distinguish it from the soon-to-be PoS alternative chain) is to eventually become completely autonomous and self-sustained, devoid of any governance entity. We set the goal to achieve it in 3 years.
