Haven't tweeted in a while, but unsure about Twitter's prospects.
I really value the community on here, so would be sad to lose my connections.
You can find me here. Please do!
@angela_walch@cryptodon.lol
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Angela Walch
@angela_walch
Crypto Realist. My own views.
Mastodon: @angela_walch@cryptodon.lol
On Leave 2022-2023.
Disclosures: Own no crypto.
Angela Walch’s Tweets
🚨 Professional announcement 🚨
Due to a variety of personal circumstances, I'm scaling back HACKYLAWYER and looking for a full-time, in-house legal/policy role focused on #Privacy and #EmergingTech, especially AI/ML or AR/VR/XR (full details below).
Please send leads/repost 🙏
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See also, Blockchain.
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One of the big questions in the Ethics of AI is whether researchers should know what AI is before writing about it
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I gave a talk in 2018 called Critical Thinking for Crypto Counsel. Talked about crypto lawyers needing to press beyond the hype and tell hard truths. Feels relevant now.
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This is why I have been so stunned by crypto lawyer pushback to factually accurate descriptions of crypto systems. To best address your client's risk, you need to understand and make decisions based on facts. Otherwise, you risk a blow-up later.
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This kind of puffery about the characteristics of crypto systems affects people's perception of risks.
Leading to the shock in the Ethereum community about the possibility of OFAC-compliant validators.
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Blockchain advocates and crypto lawyers have told policy makers, regulators, & the public that miners/validators are passive/neutral/lack discretion. This was never true and always misleading. twitter.com/NicerInPerson/…Show this thread
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One other I've seen. Assuming policy makers /regulators wouldn't understand the facts if presented directly and would overreact.
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Sorry, should also add academics to the list in the OP. Don't mean to let them off the hook.
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Adopting the terminology of the space (censorship-resistant/proof; no intermediaries; p2p/direct transfer of value) without deeper questioning
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Seeing the facts but not liking their implications if they are wisely known
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Check out the quotes on slides 2-6 for examples.
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💯
Blockchain advocates and crypto lawyers have told policy makers, regulators, & the public that miners/validators are passive/neutral/lack discretion. This was never true and always misleading. twitter.com/NicerInPerson/
This Tweet is unavailable.
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Wondering if the rules for transaction selection were changed since this.
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Replying to @zooko
Do Zcash miners have to include shielded txns in their blocks or do they have a choice not to? Remembering an instance of a Zcash miner not mining its share of shielded txns a few years ago.
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One more note – it is important to look at *opportunities* that people have to exploit their role in a system. You can’t just look at whether they are already exploiting it.
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But, it is vital to look deep into these systems and see whether power has been eliminated or just shifted. If technologists are able to get to a fully anonymous FIFO for putting txns into blocks, then that would seem to have eliminated an important power of miners.
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A few thoughts on this.
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good thread from @adamscochran rebutting points from @angela_walch
that miners & other ecosystem players have *some* discretion does not make them TradFi-like intermediaries/fiduciaries
miners compete; one miner will gladly get paid to mine a tx censored by another miner twitter.com/adamscochran/s…
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Further, the fact that Marathon announced that it would be a “compliant” mining pool by excluding addresses on the OFAC list (before later backing off of this) is revelatory of the choices inherent in transaction selection.
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Are "block producer" or "record producer" the best general terms for the parties who add new transactions to a #blockchain? (encompassing most if not all consensus mechanisms?)
Others I'm thinking of:
writers
keepers
scribes
memorializers
historians
Pros/cons to each. #crypto
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Can we please get rid of the term "validators" when referring to block/record producers (i.e. miners, stakers, etc.)?
It's confusing as it implies that only miners are validating and verifying transactions. That is not correct at all.
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Replying to
'Unstoppable' is a good one.
I debated whether to put 'censorship-resistant' on there. Decided that the term conveys the spectrum concept rather than an absolute. If someone is using it to mean 'censorship-proof', that is a problem.
'Tamper-evident' is a fair descriptor.
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Is there any such thing as a #Bitcoin miner engaging in 'unacceptable' or 'bad' behavior? Or is everything truly fair game (including things like accepting bribes, bribing core devs, delaying particular parties' txns)? #crypto #blockchain
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Deleting this tweet because people are interpreting it to mean I am endorsing Craig Wright and his actions. That's not the case. twitter.com/angela_walch/s
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Here are slides for my talk on Miners as Intermediaries.
speakerdeck.com/angelawalch/in
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Watching the crypto world wake up to the fact that miners / validators are intermediaries with discretion and that crypto transactions aren't peer to peer.
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Do miners execute consensus-level attack against Ethereum (or other major tokens)❓🤔
The answer is *yes*❗🤯
Read on for full deets 👇
Joint work with Gilad Stern and .
Full paper: dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.
Medium post: medium.com/@aviv.yaish/un
... (1/12)
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Taking a break from my break to talk DeFi and financial stability at the Bank of England. Amazing day!
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You can't have it both ways - claiming important choice/discretion for miners to benefit from 1st amendment protections, while simultaneously claiming no miner discretion to argue that crypto systems lack intermediaries.
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Admitting the agency exercised by miners in creating the content of the blockchain (as would support a 1st amendment claim) reveals their intermediary role.
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And yes, it is true that they exercise choice over block contents rather than being automatons.
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12/ A block's contents is not predetermined, but reflects deliberate choices by miners. This includes messages in the Coinbase data, which often express opinions, both practical and political. The genesis block contains political commentary from Satoshi: mempool.space/block/00000000
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An argument that miners are publishers w/ 1st amendment rights is an argument that they apply judgment/discretion over their speech.
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Bitcoin miners are Publishers protected by the First Amendment. That's why NY's moratorium is unconstitutional.
bitcoinbrief.io/p/bitcoin-mini
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I have been thinking for a long time about what the common fundamental values are that Americans share and I'm struggling to come up with many.
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Could this be managed in some way by agreement, setting a date of separation, facilitating the movement of people to the area they wish to be a part of, perhaps having the state serve as a clearinghouse for property sales so people can take their wealth w/ them?
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What are instances of peaceful separations of countries into smaller parts?
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