Dieter Shirley  🧀

At the end of the day, us BUIDLers are just making our best guess about what's needed to support the decentralized future we all *know* is coming. But no one can be certain what exactly that will look like, so we're each building something a little bit different… (fin)

But we are afraid of tech that isn’t "good enough" to solve the problems we need it to solve! And so, we've made the choice to "roll our own" solutions to some key problems. (6/7)

There are lots of parts of Flow (https://www.withflow.org/ ) that are inspired or even directly copied from other projects – we’re not afraid of other people’s tech! (5/7)

For example, Solidity let us build CryptoKitties and Cheeze Wizards, but we had to fight with the language and its tools every step of the way. I’m not convinced WASM is “good enough” either; it lacks any facilities for dealing with the particulars of smart contracts. (4/7)

It's a common pattern. It's easy to see what's wrong, but it's hard to know what's right. All of us working in crypto have a strong sense that our current tools and tech haven’t yet crossed the line of “good enough”. We haven’t found our iOS and Android yet! (3/7)

Everyone is building their own thing because there's nothing out there that is "good enough". It’s the same thing we saw with mobile operating systems in the early 2000s: Symbian, PalmOS, BlackBerry, Tizen, Windows Mobile. (2/7)

Someone asked me today: "Why is everyone in crypto rolling their own tech? Can't we just use what already works?" It was expressed in frustration, but I think there's a pretty deep insight there. (1/7)

"A defining feature of a payment rail is the ability to reverse transactions" Well, *cash* doesn't have that "defining feature". I guess it doesn't count as a payment rail... (Snark aside: Blockchains support "reverse transactions", just legally compel the recipient…) (fin)

"[It] depends on several fairly new “wild west” libraries for building experimental cryptosystems…" Mixed feelings: We can't ignore the amazing new crypto primitives that have been developed in the last decade, but we shouldn't be cavalier about deploying them, either… (7/8)

"The claim of the Move language to use of linear types appears to be unsubstantiated by a dive into the compiler." Whoops! In a blockchain, type safety needs to be enforced by the runtime because it's too easy to bypass compiler checks. MoveVM (appropriately) handles this. (6/8)

"In the public blockchains, smart contracts refer to logic deployed on public networks which allows escrowing, laundering money, and the issuance of extralegal securities and gambling products." LOL! Thanks sensational media stories! (4/8)

"Libra has no transaction privacy." A big deal that I don't see getting enough attention. Bitcoin txs are public, but addresses are private. Libra addresses are going to mostly be public, but the txs may only be visible to consortium members. Creepy! (3/8)

"Libra’s byzantine tolerance on a permissioned network is an incoherent design. [...] The overhead from the consensus algorithm serves no purpose." On point: Libra's technical design is permissionless, but governance is permissioned. Libra is WePay in blockchain clothing… (2/8)

Just read this post by @smdielhl. He's not a fan of Libra, but he's not a fan of blockchains in general either! A pretty interesting mix of astute observations and missing the point. I'll quote my favourite examples from each in this thread! (1/8)https://twitter.com/smdiehl/status/1191695056207564801 …

You know how people quip that "the cloud" just means "someone else's computer"? The reason I'm excited about smart contract platforms is because they create a cloud that isn't "someone else's computer". It's *everyone's* computer...

OMG! This is absolutely incredible. Well done Adam! I hope you are having good luck in the tournament! https://twitter.com/adampsyreal/status/1189717394471571456 …

There are no words to express the gratitude I have for @Alanfalcon and his contributions. We built CryptoKitties, but we never really "got it" like he does. Bringing this "outsider" (along with @Poopie_cat!) to manage our creation is the biggest reason why CK remains vibrant…https://twitter.com/CryptoKitties/status/1184281557403463680 …

OMG! Love this story of @tayvano_ using @MyCrypto to save a batch of kitties from a scammer.