Ethereum 2.0 and the DeFi Bull Run w/ Hashoshi

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Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, and DeFi are both fast-moving and highly innovative. We catch up Blockchain Programmer and fellow content creator Hashoshi about how to deal with the extremely fast pace of th...

AI Analysis

This video features a fascinating chat with Hashoshi, a blockchain programmer and content creator, diving deep into the rapidly evolving crypto space. The discussion covers the current DeFi bull run, the highly anticipated Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, and the future outlook for blockchain technology, emphasizing the importance of community, interoperability, and real-world utility beyond speculative hype.

Here's a breakdown of the key insights and discussions:

* Journey into Crypto: Hashoshi stumbled upon the Bitcoin white paper about 10 years ago and fell in love with its ethos, eventually getting into Ethereum and building applications. My own journey was different, starting in 2012 by mining Bitcoin with gaming PCs to make money, but regretting selling it at $10. This regret led to starting a channel to share ideas and learn with the community, bridging the gap between tech and community perspectives.
* Current Market Sentiment and DeFi Hype: There's a feeling of cautious optimism about the current bull run. Over the past two years, the crypto space has matured significantly in product offerings and user experience, with many projects delivering on their 2017 whitepaper ideas. However, there's also a lot of hype, especially around DeFi and "meme coins" like Yams or Porkchop, where people are investing without fully understanding the underlying value.
* Decentralization and Sovereignty: People are starting to understand the value of decentralized finance and having sovereignty over their capital, especially given current geopolitical tensions and actions like closing bank accounts. This growing awareness is likely to propel the next wave of adoption.
* Ethereum 2.0: A Monumental Undertaking:
* The recent Medalla testnet issue, caused by a centralized time-keeping mechanism, highlights the complexities but was a minor issue blown out of proportion due to the urgency for ETH 2.0.
* Ethereum 2.0 is likely still two years away from being able to host complex applications like Uniswap, so it’s important to set realistic expectations.
* It's considered the most difficult protocol project in crypto to date, like changing the engine of a moving airplane. There have been multiple scrapped attempts to ensure backwards compatibility with the existing rich dApp ecosystem while improving every other aspect.
* The initial deployment of ETH 2.0's beacon chain won't immediately support smart contracts; sharding and coin transfers will follow, adding layers of complexity.
* A significant advantage of Ethereum 2.0 is the decentralized development effort, with multiple labs building their own clients, ensuring robustness and decentralization.
* Its design allows broad participation (anyone with 32 ETH can stake), leveraging Ethereum's strong community to secure the network from day one, unlike many newer protocols.
* The Power of Community vs. Blockchain 3.0: While there's much talk about high-performance "Blockchain 3.0" or "4.0" projects, the lack of migration to these platforms shows the vital importance of a strong, active community (both developers and users/whales) that Ethereum possesses.
* Cooperation Over Competition: The idea of one chain "beating" all others is diminishing. Instead, the focus should be on converting the entire world to blockchain technology through cooperation. Multiple ecosystems are beneficial, with protocols potentially specializing in niches and connecting via interoperability.
* Interoperability and Tokenomics:
* Projects like Polkadot and Cosmos are building complex protocols for interoperability, enabling cross-chain asset swaps and delegated security. This is crucial as different regional networks might emerge.
* There's debate on whether a new token is necessary for every interoperability solution. While the market's tendency to speculate on new tokens is understandable, it's important to be cautious about projects with low market caps and poor distribution.
* DeFi's Revolutionary Impact:
* DeFi has dramatically shifted power dynamics, forcing centralized exchanges (CEXs) to offer cheaper or even free listings to attract projects and users, as projects can now easily list on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap with high liquidity.
* Automated Market Making (AMM) is a game-changer, decentralizing and making transparent what used to be opaque market-making firms. Anyone can now provide liquidity, enabling projects to outsource liquidity provision and significantly boost their market depth.
* The rise of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC, renBTC, sBTC) on Ethereum shows that even Bitcoin maximalists are starting to realize the utility of Bitcoin on other chains, despite early resistance.
* Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: Apple and Egg Analogy: Comparing Bitcoin and Ethereum is like comparing an apple to an egg – they serve fundamentally different purposes. Bitcoin is a store of value and a settlement layer, while Ethereum is a programmable blockchain for dApps. Both have distinct merits and are not comparable, and the time wasted debating which is "better" hinders overall progress.
* Enterprise Adoption and Political Software:
* Hashoshi works on helping enterprises understand and adopt various blockchain protocols, finding that geographical preferences (e.g., Asia preferring VeChain/Tron, US preferring US/Canada-origin projects) influence choices.
* The goal for enterprises should be to move from private test networks to public networks to reap the benefits of security and finality.
* Software is becoming increasingly political (e.g., TikTok bans), but blockchain's unblockable, non-political nature (like Bitcoin's minimal data transfer needs) offers a unique proposition for cross-border and censorship-resistant communication and operations.
* Open-source protocols, where anyone can verify the code, offer a significant advantage over closed-source applications in building trust across borders and entities.
* The Next Crypto Wave:
* The immediate future (2021-2022) might see an "ultimate showdown" or "protocol battle" among smart contract platforms (Elrond, Cardano, Zilliqa, Algorand, Tezos). They will compete to attract developers, secure grants, and build scalable and safe DeFi products. This will likely be a friendly battle among projects, but fierce among their fanbases.
* Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are also a strong contender for the next hype wave, leveraging the human desire to collect. However, for NFTs to be truly impactful beyond simple JPEGs, they need to integrate real functionality, especially in gaming. Game designers must understand how to organically embed trading and ownership into gameplay rather than just tacking it on, making games truly fun with integrated NFT elements.

Ultimately, the discussion highlights a dynamic and maturing space that, despite its hype cycles and tribalism, is relentlessly pushing towards innovative solutions for real-world problems.

Transcript

so hey guys welcome to a special episode today we have a really great talk with one of my good friends forest from hash toshi so i guess we're broadcasting this on both our channels and let's do a little intro so forest can you introduce a little bit about yourself or what you know how you got into this whole crypto thing yeah absolutely and first of all thanks for having me on the channel um but yeah my story that you know about how i got into crypto really started about 10 years ago i was on ...