Ethereum is simple. It is a way to agree. First, we must be able to agree on what is true. On Ethereum, the truth is not an opinion, but an observation. A self-evident fact that an event happened, it happened at this time, and it followed the math, a set of logic no one can control. So, if the math checks out, and enough people agree that the math checks out, then we have reached a point of truth.
How we come to that agreement exactly is the hard part. It’s the part where the details are likely to change as technology moves forward and new discoveries are made. It is the part that you do not have to understand fully. But for it to remain an authentic version of Ethereum, it will have to remain true to certain principles.
Ethereum is an aspiration. It tries to be a neutral and fair way for the people of the internet to come to agreements. Having a common source of truth – a common history of events that can’t be faked or corrupted or rewritten – allows us to begin creating shared sets of rules on which we can choose to compete or cooperate.
The internet is made of feudal kingdoms. Each platform contains keys to power held by a small group or a single person. Ethereum cuts through them all with a single thread of truth and from this thread it is possible to weave common laws that can be trusted, not because any one person dictates it to be so, but because logic and reason make it impossible to cheat.
Blockchains are about how we reach consensus on the internet and Ethereum seems to be the best way we’ve discovered so far for how to create an objective reality out of the digital world that is the internet. And by best, I mean, most accessible and most verifiable by the most diverse group of people. In other words, the most decentralized.
Decentralization means no single point of power can dictate how this story is told. This is part of the messiness and confusion of what it all means. No one really knows and no one can give a single answer with full, unquestionable authority. Instead, each person interprets the technology in their own way, through their own perspective, and the culmination of all these different views make up the narrative that is Ethereum.
The Ethereum story will always be subjective because blockchains are something humans do as a collective, and humans are collectively subjective. What you are reading now is an idealized version of the story according to one person who hopes that whatever this is, it is about more than money. That no matter how history unfolds, we can create an enduring source of truth and a refuge where rebellion will always have a home.
By design and by principle, the meaning of Ethereum is not owned by anyone, not even the creators, which means we all have permission to participate.
Whatever the truth is, it needs to be the same for everyone and no one should be able cheat. And it seems the best way to do this is via decentralization. Decentralization is about power: making power slippery to hold and spreading it out as far and as wide as possible. The aim is to maximize participation and minimize privilege. More people contributing to the truth and less people capable of dictating the truth, means we create a more legitimate strain of what is real.
Decentralization is not simply a technical factor. It is a cultural aspiration closely linked to neutrality, fairness, accessibility, and equality. The entire point is you, the individual, can trust the protocol to be honest. Anyone with the proper motivation should be able to follow the chain of logic from beginning to end to verify how a point of truth was reached.
Ideals are where the masses can have influence over the privileged few. It is why governments call themselves democracies or republics or democratic republics even if they are unworthy of the name. It is a standard where even the most powerful must pretend to not reign as monarchs. Don’t forget that only a few generations before, most of us lived in a world where certain families were pre-ordained to rule over others until the end of time. We collectively raised a standard for how power is held over us, and we can raise that standard again.
Money is an important first step because people must trust a blockchain. If you don’t trust a blockchain with money, how could you trust it with any other kind of power? At time of writing, I would argue enough people have crossed the threshold of trusting a blockchain to be a legitimate source of money that the technology is here to stay. It is possible that this is the end of its usefulness, but we can and should go much further. Because if individuals trust a blockchain with their own money, then they should eventually trust it to hold their government’s money. If the technology can be trusted as a legitimate source of money, then it can be trusted to honestly count, which means it can count votes and be used to run legitimate elections. We will have then reached a point where authority and resources are broadly trusted to a neutral set of rules derived from mathematics; a leap in self-governance as big as the one from monarchy to democracy.
An early start meant Ethereum was able to capture and maintain the attention of a committed group of idealistic nerds. This core group of skilled, independent thinkers created the cultural and technical foundations for a long-term commitment to decentralization. This single ideal is why not all blockchains are worthy of our trust and why so many are, in fact, full of false promises. And this standard is something you can check for yourself: find out how many nodes and validators are active in the network, how distributed are these participants, how equal or privileged is one node compared to the next, how easy is it for you to participate?
There are many blockchains, but it is the author’s opinion that Ethereum is the most decentralized. It is the most reliably resistant to tyranny.
But it is not guaranteed. It is a commitment to be renewed through time. It is standard the masses can use to keep the elites accountable. It's why the story matters. Ethereum’s promises and aspirations will be retold and reinterpreted as generations lapse and people inevitable forget. It is why the story you are reading now was written. This is a checkpoint in time of a belief that human progress trends toward a direction where privilege is cut down and the people as a whole – not as a single nation or political party, but as a single race on a single planet – are lifted up. How we march toward this goal will change, but if moral progress does exist, it heads towards this way.
We can use Ethereum to agree on more than just the validity of events. We can take it further. We can agree on rules across the internet. We can create protocols, contracts, and laws capable of interacting with each other, and make it so these rules must be followed, or at least cannot be undone. For example, you can create money from this source by making a rule that there will only ever be 21 million coins. This rule – the limit of 21 million units – is now an objective fact in the world that no one person can corrupt. People may or may not care about your little rule in some random corner of the internet, but they won’t be able to change the fact that this constraint is solid. If they believe that math is a logical system that can’t be cheated, then they also have reason to believe that there will never be any more than 21 million tokens.
Rules can get much more complex and meaningful than this simple example of scarcity. But the idea is that rules can be made with a kind of universal guarantee that has never been quite possible before. An idea that becomes more important as software continues eating the world.
At the gas station, at the airport, post office, and grocery story, more and more we interact with a screen instead of a person. We pay and talk and buy through our screens. Software is everywhere. There is more at stake here than just visiting a website or deciding what is allowed or not allowed on social media. The question is do we always want a person to ultimately be in control or do we want the option to put this power under the control of a set of principles? Do enough people even know there is a choice?
Ethereum lets us set our technologies with intention. We can apply constraints, boundaries, and limitations on our inventions, specifically to the software that shapes our world and our minds in very real, physical ways. This doesn’t make us less free. We become more free; to experiment and explore knowing that we are safe from certain excesses and intrusions that have so far gone unchecked.
Imagine a new land without any people. Imagine every new person who showed up saw that this place was full of wealth and potential. What would happen first? In all likelihood, greed and ruthless fighting for control would dominate the early stages. But eventually, the dust would settle and some kind of order would emerge, and when enough people showed up demanding that things be done in a way that was more fair and with a bit more commitment to the collective good, some ground rules would be put in place for how to cooperate and compete.
This is where we are in the timeline of the internet. We know that this place is not futuristic fantasy. It is a very real part of the everyday lives of everyday people. We all have a stake in this. Our actions, interactions, and creativity are ultimately what power this digital world. This place is active and interesting and makes money because of us.
I have tried to use as much common language and plain arguments as possible, but there is one word that is on the big and fancy side that I think captures why Ethereum matters. Simulacrum. It means the imaginary thing, the copy, is more influential for the real world than the thing it is trying copy. It’s the idea that life imitates art. The internet is like a digital mirror for our physical world. This reflection affects how we see ourselves and behave in our bodies. If you have felt that the mirror has become too distorted, that the image has been manipulated in a way that is not to your benefit and controlled in a way that makes you feel powerless, then Ethereum should make sense to you. It is a way to agree on some rules. Put up some constraints. Choose money no one controls. Very simply, we can put up limits on what is allowed.
Once upon a time, it was written that “the cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.” The idea, radical at the time, was also about power. That the seat of power must be occupied, but that seat did not have to be held by a single man or family. Instead, the new world could be a place where “Law is King.”
The idea of “all mankind” today is much broader than it was in Thomas Paine’s day, and it is more fantasy than fact that an entire continent existed that was empty or new, or that everyone agreed on a single cause being good and just. But history does seem to point to a trend. Once people get the idea in their head that in the hierarchy of power, we could place laws above men, and it was possible that the masses could pressure the few using rules, people start expecting things to be different and pushing for change.
Regardless of how you feel about America’s past or present, and what ideals it is worthy of holding the torch for, we should have a backup plan. And if there is any cause worthy of taking up the mantle for all mankind, I argue that is Ethereum. It is the idea that a layer of neutrality for the world is possible. Where agreements can be reached and enforced via logic. Because there is a place that takes in all and welcomes all and pretty much treats everyone the same and that is the internet. Ethereum is for the people of the internet, the most inclusive place the world has ever seen with a population more numerous than any nation on Earth. In this place, we need options for self-governance, a radical idea that a President, CEO, or Administrator does not need to ultimately sit in the seat of power. A place where Law is King and Code is Law.
Code has an unambiguous functionality to it. There is both less room for misinterpretation and more room for expression. If laws are written using code instead of words, it leaves less to the imagination. You can render entire worlds with words, but that world lives only in the mind of the individual reader. With code, you can render entire worlds in a way that is the same for everyone.
The internet is defined by the language of code. Any attempts to build structure in this place will have to use the same materials that built it.
Frederick Douglas once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” The internet is ruled by tyrants. There are no limitations on how the software that controls our world can be used to control us. But it is possible to choose a different way.
If the digital world is an extension of the physical world, then the universal struggle against tyranny will continue there. Resistance to the divine right of kings is a continuous one that has led us to expect laws be applied to everyone, and wherever we go next, we should proudly take this human tradition with us.
And you can help make all this a reality. First by being aware of what is possible. Then by choosing options that align with how you want the world to be. And finally, you can demand that power be held to a higher standard.
Ethereum is about inviting people to a new world – a new way of doing things. We’re not exactly sure where we are going, but we do know the more people that join us, the more honest this world will be.
Consider this your invitation.