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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    John Backus‏ @backus Aug 13

    Centralized influence for decentralized projects is good. @VitalikButerin's influence on dev direction is a strength. Leaderless OSS w/ many parties collaborating on improvements becomes design-by-committee. Committees add uncontroversial features, they don't reenvision

    5:45 PM - 13 Aug 2018
    • 13 Retweets
    • 68 Likes
    • Marguerite Brady Kyle Riecker Ty Diamse Daniel E. Kemp Raúl Sánchez Jonathan Van Jason Choi Forrest Browning Joe The Rigolo
    7 replies 13 retweets 68 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. John Backus‏ @backus Aug 13

        Example from p2p era: • Gnutella (protocol for Limewire, BearShare): leaderless • eDonkey: central leader (@JedMcCaleb) Gnutella community made conservative improvements. eDonkey created an entirely new protocol and client ("Overnet") a fully decentralized DHT-based protocolpic.twitter.com/nj4dB4nz7S

        1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
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      3. John Backus‏ @backus Aug 13

        The eDonkey competed with eMule, an open source project started with the goal of being a better client. When Overnet came out, the eMule community made their own DHT-based protocol ("Kad network"). Leaderless community forks seem to focus on incremental improvement and cloning

        0 replies 1 retweet 7 likes
        Show this thread
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Ben DiFrancesco‏ @BenDiFrancesco Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        Putting on my “Sound Money” hat, (not my normal hat, but I wear it from time to time), and I’d say: “for a crypto network, that’s a feature, not a bug. We don’t want to re-envision the base layer. We want to keep it stable and build on top.” *takes off sound money hat*

        1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Aug 14
        Replying to @BenDiFrancesco @VitalikButerin

        Well, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by base layer, but I'd say that scaling issues do mean that we'll need to decide on what tradeoffs are made in the long run and I think that results in deep foundational questions

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Ben DiFrancesco‏ @BenDiFrancesco Aug 14
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        Base layer meaning any given PoW blockchain. As you know, there a quite a few people who believe that for crypto to be money, the right thing to do is to leave said chain slow and non-scaling, and allow all innovation to occur one layer up, e.g. lighting, side chains, etc...

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Joey Miller‏ @joe_miller0 Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        You must not be aware of darknet markets, ransomware, online gambling, or its power to undermine all governments' and banks' controls over the money supply and people's financial activity. Or do you purposely avoid addressing the most important arguments for leaderlessness?

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      3. John Backus‏ @backus Aug 14
        Replying to @joe_miller0 @VitalikButerin

        No, I am. I explicitly write about exactly that. Check out my older tweets or some of the posts I've writtenhttps://medium.com/@jbackus/minimum-viable-decentralization-d813dcf653fc …

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Joey Miller‏ @joe_miller0 Aug 14
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        Weak. Nowhere in there do you argue for or against leaderlessness in a cryptocurrency.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      5. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        But leaderless protocol development via working groups, properly structured, can incorporate the concerns of multiple stakeholders.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @jemenger @backus @VitalikButerin

        Commons are governed by groups. We are social creatures and can work together to create any desired result. Even produce creativity as a group. That is what design thinking does.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      4. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @jemenger @backus @VitalikButerin

        With that said, dictators are sometimes necessary in tech and even in cities. But we should assume no qualities of individualized or group decision-making.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Vitalik Non-giver of Ether‏Verified account @VitalikButerin Aug 13
        Replying to @jemenger @backus

        I think the parent's point is that working groups are better at 1 to N than 0 to 1.

        3 replies 2 retweets 8 likes
      6. John Backus‏ @backus Aug 13
        Replying to @VitalikButerin @jemenger

        Yup

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      7. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        I was considering this the other day, a single person can envision, define, oversee the first impls, but at some point working groups have to form in order to stabilize and incorporate feedback mechanisms.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      8. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @jemenger @backus @VitalikButerin

        But then how to jump ahead of the stabilization. How to get free of the initial decisions and tech debt. Sometimes there has to be breaking changes to progress.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      9. Jamie Pitts‏ @jemenger Aug 13
        Replying to @jemenger @backus @VitalikButerin

        And that is where the BDFL can come into conflict with the early community and its need for stabilization. But how else do we get the Macintosh after the Apple ][? How else do we get Ethereum 2?

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      10. 1 more reply
      1. Jay Graber‏ @arcalinea Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        Benevolent Dictator for Life in OSS is common pattern

        0 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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      1. Stop Groupthink  🌪‏ @Stop_Groupthink Aug 14
        Replying to @backus @antiprosynth @VitalikButerin

        People also forget that decentralization is a process. It takes many years to "push the boat away" if that is the goal. All projects begin centralized and hopefully distribute outward over time.

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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      1.  🤖 Sonya Mann  🎀‏Verified account @sonyaellenmann Aug 13
        Replying to @backus @VitalikButerin

        Well put

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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