(2020-01-26) Dixon Computers That Can Make Commitments

Chris Dixon: Computers that can make commitments. Blockchains are computers that can make commitments. Traditional computers are ultimately controlled by people, either directly in the case of personal computers or indirectly through organizations. Blockchains invert this power relationship, putting the code in charge. A game theoretic mechanism — a so-called consensus algorithm — makes blockchains resilient to modifications to their underlying physical components, effectively making them resilient to human intervention.

For the first time, a computer system can be truly autonomous: self-governed, by its own code, instead of by people. Autonomous computers can be relied on and trusted in ways that human-governed computers can’t.

Two early applications built on Ethereum are Compound and Maker Dao. Compound makes the commitment that it will act as a neutral, low-fee lending protocol. Maker Dao makes a commitment to maintain the price stability of a currency called Dai that can be used for stable payments and value store.

re-architecting popular internet services like social networks and marketplaces so that they make strong, positive commitments to their communities. For example, users can get commitments baked into the code that their data will be kept private and that they won’t get de-platformed without due process.

Using the financial features of blockchains, users and developers can receive tokens in order to participate in the upside of the network as it grows.