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Silvio Micali

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120
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2021-03-15
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2021-03-15
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  1. “Notions that there are and is a computational notion because the difficulties in a computational sense and is a mathematical notion because we are talking about function and it's so fruitful because that is actually the foundation of all cryptograph And let me tell you, it's an old notion.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Let's leave my work aside. But one powerful Both an old idea in some sense and a very, very modern one. And it might have been on this best idea of a one-way function. So, a function that is easy to evaluate. So give an x, you can compute f of x easily. Given f is very hard to go back to x, think alike. Breaking a glass, easy. Reconstruct the glass harder. Frying an egg easy to go back to the original egg harder. If you want to be extreme, killings are a living being. Unfortunately easy, the other way around very hard. And so the fact that a notion of a function, which you have a recipe that is in front of your eyes to transform an x into f of x, and then from f of x, even though you see the recipe to transform it, you cannot go back to x, that in my opinion is one of the most elegant and momentous.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “It allows a peer to peer interaction among people who don't even know each other and they don't even verify cannot even trust each other just because they never saw each other. So I think it's so powerful that it's going to do. This said, again particular cryptocurrency should develop and cryptocurrency they will all develop but the answer is yes we are going towards a much more unless we have a society a sudden crisis for different reasons which nobody hopes there's no”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Yes. So mind you, as I said, that the notion of cryptocurrency, like any other fundamental human notion has to evolve. But yes, so I think that he has a lot of momentum behind it. It's not only static as this programmable money.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Correct, and the sense of aesthetics that has brought to the daily lives. And very often aesthetic wins in the long end. And these are very elegant design product. And when you say, oh, elegant, very few people care about it, apparently. Millions and millions and millions and millions of people do because we are attacked by beauty and these are beautifully designed products. And they've, in addition to have the technological aspect of the other thing, and I think, yes, that is...”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “So, I think that when you look at the Bitcoin is a piece of work that as it affects, yes, like anything human, but it was captivated the imaginations of millions of people as subverted by the status quo. And I'm saying, you know, whoever this person or people are, he's living in this piece of work. It is Bitcoin.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Very interesting. So, and I think I would say, first of all, it's not me. And I can prove it because if I watch the Toshi Nakamoto, I would have not found that algorithm, which was takes totally different principle to approach to the system. But the other thing, who is the Doshi Nagamoto? You know what the right answer is it's not him or her or them, Satoshi Nagamoro is Bitcoin. Because to me, it's such a coherent proof of work that at the end the creator and the creation identify themselves. So he says, okay, understand Michelangelo. Okay, he did the sistine chapel, fine. He did St. Peter's Dome, fine, he did the mosses of the Pietra statue, fine. But besides this, who was Michelangelo? That's the wrong question. Is his own work? What is Michelangelo?”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “I'm not going to fulfill my needs, let alone one of my kids, of their kids. We are going to have a different world and things will evolve.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “In store of volume? Yes, I think it's a great, you know, it would be a sad world if the world in which we are so anchoring down, so defensive, that we want to store value and hide it under the magazine. I long for a world in which it is open, people want to transact and interact with such a way. And therefore, when you want to store value, perhaps one chain, you want to have transact maybe is another. I'm not saying that one chain cannot be stored of value or everything, but I really believe that. Believe in the ingenuity of people and in the innovation that is intrinsic to the human nature. We want always different things. So how can it be something invented, whatever it is decades ago is going to fulfill the needs of our future generations?”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So, I feel people are smart, and it's going to be very hard for anybody to win. And because people want more and more things. There is an Italian saying that translates well, I think. It goes, the appetite grows while eating. I think you understand what he means. So I'm not hungry. Okay, food. Let me try this and so we want more and more and more. And when you find something like Bitcoin, which are already very good things to say, but it does something very well, but is”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Important thing is going to have enough interoperability of various systems so that you can transfer your assets where you have the best tool to service them, whatever your needs are at the time.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Put the sway, I certainly working very hard with a great team to give the best blockchain with one can demand and enjoy. And that said, I really believe that there is going to be, it's not a winner takes them all. So it's going to be a few blockchains and each one is going to have its own brand and it's going to be great at something and sometimes the scalability, sometimes is your views, sometimes it's a thing. And it's important to have a dialogue between these things. And I'm sure, and I'm working very hard to make sure that God is one of them. But I don't believe that it's even desirable to have a winner takes all. Because we need to express different things.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “We need a much more Educated about the tools we are using. And so I look forward to deploying more and more privacy on the blockchain. But we are not, I will not rush to it until the people understand and are behind whatever we have right now.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Their system they live in. And right now people can understand the blockchain to be something that is cannot be altered and is transparent. And that is good enough. And right now, any way to add, and there is a pseudo-privacy for the fact that who knows if the keys belong, public key belongs to me or to you, right? And I can, when I want to change my money from one public key, I split it through other public keys, go and figure out which one is Silvio, all of them or Silvio or only one of Silvio. Who knows? So you get some vanilla privacy, not the one I cut. And I think it's good enough because, and it's important for now that we absorb that stage. Because the next stage, we must understand the privacy tool rather than taking on faith. When the public starts saying, I believe in the scientist and whatever they say, I swear by them,”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “So, absolutely. The answer is yes. And by the way, I'm a cryptographer. So I really believe in privacy and I believe in, and I have devoted a big chunk of my life. Guarantee privacy, even when it seems almost impossible to have it. And it is possible to have it also in the blockchain too. However, I believe in timing as well. And I believe that the people have the right To understand.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Because we may not think about them and say, oh, of course, a kind of bunch of boring lawyers, but without them, I would say there is no certainty, there is no notion of equality. If there is no notion that you can resolve your disputes, thing, that's what thrives the commerce and things. And so what I really believe that the blockchain If nobody can change a villager. So essentially, it's a way of you cannot solve a legal system reduces to a blockchain. But what I'm saying, a big chunk of it can actually be guaranteed and there is no reason why technology should be antagonistic to legal scholarship. It could be actually coexisting. And one should start to doing the interest things that technology alone cannot do and then you go from there. But I think that is essentially blockchain can affect all kinds of our behavior.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “our view. And then the transparency that you give, because everybody can see what's happening on the blockchain. So transparency is not money, but I believe that transparency actually is a very important ingredient also of finance. Let's put this way. As much as I'm enthusiastic about blockchain and decentralized finance, and we have actually, our expression, we're creating with a future five as much as we want to do, we must agree that the first guarantee of financial growth and prosperity are really the legal system, the courts”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Lot of things are going to be revolutionized is independent of finance. By the way, I really believe that finance is an incredible form of freedom. I mean, if I free to do everything I want, but I don't have the means to do anything, that's a bad idea. So I really think financial freedom is a very, very important. But, you know, but just I can say that against censorship, you write something of the chain and now nobody can take it out. That is a very important way to express.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Said, And then all of a sudden he retired and became a private citizen and 200 change years later we still are with sound effects but we had done a lot of things right and we have been able to evolve. That to me is success in leadership. When instead you contrast our experiment with a lot of experiments. I've done so much, so well that I want another four years. And why shouldn't I be only a four and I have another eight? Why should I be another eight? Give me 16 and I will fix all your problem. And now when is the type in my opinion of failed leadership? Leadership ought to be really lead, ignite. And disappear. And if you don't disappear, the system is going to die with you, and it's not a good idea for everybody else.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Okay, so I really believe if it's another great question, I think I really believe in the power of emotions. I think emotions are of a creative impulse of everybody else. And therefore, it's very easy. For a leader to be a physical person, a real being that interprets our emotions. By the way, this emotion has to resonate. And what is good is that the more intimate our emotions are, the more universal they are. Paradoxically, more personal The more everybody else somehow magically agrees and feels a bit of the same, and so it's very important to have a leader in the initial phase that Generates out or nothing something. That is important leadership. But then the true tested leadership is to disappear after you led the community. So in my opinion, the quintessential leader, according to my vision, is George Washington. It's for one term.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Your wishes, your votes, your things, so that you have a guarantee that whatever vote you express is actually seen by everybody else, so everybody sees really the outcome, call it of a referendum, of a change, and that is, in my opinion, a system that wants to live long, has to adapt”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Way, you need a teal, you need to correct, you need to adjust. And so, by the way, we design algorithm with the idea that the code was evolving as the needs. And of course, however, there is a system in which every time there is an adjustment, you must have essentially a vote that right now is orchestrated at 90% of the stake. They say, okay, we are ready, we agree on the next version, and we pick up this version. So we are able to evolve without losing too many components left and right. But I think without evolving, any system essentially become asphytic and is going to shrivel and die sooner or later. And so that is needed. And what you want to do on the blockchain, you have a perfect platform in which you can log.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Well, the philosophy and the how. Let's start with the philosophy. So I really believe that Nothing fixed lasts very long. And so I really believe that life is about intelligent adaptation. Things change and we have to be nimble and adjust to change. And when I see a lot of a crypto project, actually very proud to say it's fixed in stone, write is law, law is code, a code will never change. Wow, when I'm saying this is a recipe to me of disaster, not immediately, but soon. Just imagine you take a notion liner and you want to go, I don't know, from Lisbon to New York, and you set a course iceberg, no iceberg, tempest, no tempest, you know, it doesn't matter. That is not...”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “On Venice and the other thing. And there was the Ottoman Empire that at that time was an empire and Assadan was very centralized. And he made a political observation that goes roughly to say whenever you have such a centralized thing is very hard to overtake that form of government is centralized. But if you get it, it's so easy to keep the population when instead with other things are much more resilient when the power is distributed is much more, it's going to be lasting for a much longer time.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Strange enough, however, when we design systems, we design them centralized. We ourselves are distributed beings, and when we plan to say, okay, I want to create an architecture, how about I make a pyramid, I put vest on the top and the power flows down. And so again, it's a little bit perhaps of a technology problem, but now the technology is there. So that is a big challenge to rethink how we want to organize power in a very large system. And distribute a system, in my opinion, a much more resilient. Let's put it this way. There was a mine of my Italian compatriots, right? Machiavelli, who looked at that time, there was a big, there was a bunch of small state democratic Republic of Florence.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “The power is diffused, you actually are much more stable. If you look at any... Any leaving, complex living being is distributed. I mean, I don't have somebody, okay, tell Silvia now it's time to eat.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Lack very often that justified having in power because in a way in a society in which even communication, never mind blockchain, which is common knowledge, but even simple unilateral communication is hard, it is much easier to say you do as I say because the alternative is. So there is a little bit of a technological barrier. But I think now to get to this common knowledge that is a totally different story, now we have finally the technology for doing this. So that is one part. But I really believe that by having a distributed system, not only you don't have a, you have actually much more stable and durable system. Because not only for corruption, but even for things that go astray and you give it a long enough time by strange version of Murphy's Law, whatever goes wrong goes wrong. And so”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So there are two things. First of all, power has been centralized for a variety of reasons when you want to get it. It's easier for somebody, even a single person, to grab power. But there is also some kind of a technology.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Well, good question. So, first of all, I believe, by the way, it's a complex question, Lex, like all the rest of your questions. I'm so very sorry. It's okay. I am enjoying it.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Absolutely. Once in power you always never be supplanted by somebody else, but this is your job. Congratulations, you got the job at top job, now everybody wants it.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Both. I think it's NFTs are actually great, right? Are an artist to create a song, or you could be a piece of art. He has many unique representations, a unique piece where there is an artifact of something dreamed up by you. And as unique representation, then now you can trade and allow And the important part is that now you have this not only the NFTs themselves, but the ability to trade them quickly, fast, securely, knowing who owns which rights. And that gives a totally new opportunity for content creators to be remunerator for whatever they do.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Is not there, and the system Is a smart contract in Ethereum is slow and expensive. And I believe it's not enough to satisfy the appetite and the need we have for smart contracts.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Ethereum is another great idea. So they figured out that it was that money and payments are important as they are. There are only the first level, the first stepping stone. The next level are smart contracts and they were at the vision to say the people will need smart contract, which allow me and you to somehow to transact securely without being shopped around by a trusted third party, by a mediator. By the way, because the mediators are hard to find, and in fact maybe even impossible to find if you live in Thailand and I live in New Zealand, maybe we don't have a common person that we know and trust. Even if we find them, guess what? They want to be paid so much so right that 6% of the world GDP goes into financial friction, which is essentially third party. So the headed right of the world needed that. But again, the scalability.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Well, that is difficult to do. So you're talking to somebody that when I decided to throw my heart in the arena and I decided, first of all, as I said before, I much admire my predecessors. I mean, they got it right a lot of things. And I really admire for that. But, you know, I had a choice to make. Either I patch something that holes all over the place or I start from scratch. I just start from scratching because sometimes it's a better”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Subvert and change the ledger to cancel a transaction. It's not impossible, that is very hard. What they did not get right is somehow that is a great story of value Guernsey wise, but money is not only a question that you store it and you put under the mattress. Money wants to be transacted. And the transaction in Bitcoins is very little. So if you want to store value, everybody needs to store value might as well use a Bitcoin. I mean, it's the brand, but if you don't look at that for a moment, at least it's a great store of value. And everybody needs a store of value. But most of the time we want to transact. We want to interact. We don't put the money under the mattress, right? So we want to embed. They didn't get it right. That is too slow to transact. Too few transactions.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Okay, so the first thing that Bitcoin got right is to understand that there was the need of a cryptocurrency. And that, in my opinion, that deserved all the success because they said the time is ripe for this idea. The video is not enough to be right yet to be right at the right time. And somebody got it right there. So hot off to Bitcoin for that. And so what they got to write is hard.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “I want to corrupt the people in the committee so that I can choose the page of the ledger. But I do have a problem. I do not know whom I should corrupt. Should I corrupt this lady in Shanghai, this other guy in Paris? Because I don't know. The winners are random, so I don't know whom I should corrupt. But once the winner come forward and say, here is my winning ticket, and you propagate your winning ticket across the network together with your opinion about the block, now I know who they are. For sure I can corrupt all thousand of them given to my incredible powers, but so what they said they already said, and they're winning tickets and their opinions are virally propagated across the network. And I do not have the power no more than the US government or any government has the power to put back in the bottle a message.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “And when a wise voice scalable, because what do you have to do? Okay, you have to do the lottery. How long the lottery takes, it takes actually one microsecond. Whether you have one token or two tokens or a billion tokens is always one microsecond or computation, which is very fast. We don't hit the planet with one microsecond or computation. And finally, why is this secure? Because even if I were very evil and very, very powerful individual, I'm so powerful that I can corrupt anybody I want instantanous in the world.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “But if you ever win a ticket, people say, oh, wow, this is one of the 1,000 winning tickets, we better pay attention to what he or she says. And that's how it works. And the lottery is a cryptographic lottery, which means that even if I am an entire nation, extremely powerful with incredible computing powers, I don't have the ability to improve even minimally my probability of one my talking winding the lottery. And that's how it happens. So everybody pulls the lever, the 1000 random winner say, oh, here is my winning ticket and here is my opinion up or down about the block. These are the ones that count. And if you think about it while this is distributed, because in the case of Algon, there is 10 billion tokens and you select a dozen of them more distributed than Ves, you cannot get.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Because if I'm a bad person, I'm going to select myself over and over again because I want to be part of the committee every single time. But not so fast. So what do we do in Algond? What does it mean that I select myself? That each one of us in the privacy of our own computer, actually a laptop, what you do is that you execute your own individual lottery. And think about that you pull a lever of a slot machine. you can only pull the lever once not until you win not enough time until you win and when you pull the lever case one either you win in such a case you have a winning ticket You lose, you don't get any winning ticket. So if you don't have a winning ticket, you can say anything you want about the next page in the ledger, nobody pays attention.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Yes, yes. So essentially, what you're going to do is the following and say, say, well, Silvio understood what you're saying, but somebody has to randomly select these tokens. Then I believe you. So then who does this random selection? In algorithm, we do something a little bit unorthodox. Essentially, is the token choose themselves already? And you say, if you think about it, that seems to be a terrible idea. Because if you want to say, choose yourself at random and whoever chooses himself is a fascinating people committee, you choose the page for the rest of us.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Yes, the only difference is the majority of whom. And in some cases, the majority of a club. And in our cases, the majority of the old system.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “That is an excellent equation. By the way, first of all, we should realize that the same thing is for every other system. When you look at proof of work, you rely that the majority of the mining power is in honest hands When you look at delegated proof of stake, you rely that the majority of these 21 people are honest. What is the difference? The difference is that in these other systems, you, so to say, the whole economy is secure. If the majority of the small piece of economy And that is our big question. But instead, in algorithm and our approach, we say, The whole economy is secure if the majority of economy is honest. In other words, who can subvert Algrand? It's not a majority of a small group, but is a majority of the token holders to conspire with each other in order to sink the very economy for which they own the majority of.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “And that is the next page. Okay, so it is clear that nobody has the power. Once in a while, one of your tokens is selected and you are in charge of this committee to select the next page. But this goes around very quickly. So if you look at this, the question really is that it's not really centralized. And because for agreeing on the same page, it is important that the 1000 tokens that you randomly selected are in honest ends, the majority of them. So which, if the majority of the tokens are in honest ends, that is essentially true, because if the majority of the tokens are in honest ends, if you select, I say, 90% of the people are in honest ends. So can you randomly select a thousand in this thousand you find the 501 tokens in bad ants? Very, very improbable.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “And so. We were looking for a different when thinking about algo and for a different approach. And so we have an approach in Vetanob is really, really decentralized because essentially He works as follows You have a bunch of tokens, right? These are the tokens that have equal power and you have say 10 billions of tokens distributed to the entire world. And the owners, each token, A chance to add the ledger equal probability of everybody else. In fact, actually, if you want, here is how it works. So think about, you know, by some magic prographic process, which is not magic, it's mathematics, but think of it as magic, assume that you select a thousand tokens. And so sometimes at random, okay? And you have a guarantee that they're random selected, and then the owners of these 1,000 tokens somehow agree on the next page, they all sign it.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “But now we are going to say is this centralized or decentralized? Well, 21 is better than one. What I have to say is very little. So if you look at when people rebelled to centralized power, I don't know, the French Revolutions, okay? Was a monarch and the Were there 21 nobles? No, there were thousands of them, but there were millions and millions of disempowered citizens. So one is centralized, 21 is also centralized, right?”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Right, it started being decentralized. But the expenses become higher and higher and higher when the cost becomes higher and higher, fewer and fewer people can afford them. And then it becomes de facto centralized. And a different type of approach is instead, for instance, a delegated proof of stake, which is also very easy to explain. Essentially, it boils down to say, well, look at this 21. Don't they look honest? Yes, they do. In fact, I believe if they're going to remain honest for the foreseeable future, so why don't we do ourselves a favor? Let's entrust them. To add the page on behalf of all of us to the ledger”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Can actually compete in order to add to the page. And the problem becomes so crucial that in Bitcoin, depending on which day of the week you look at it, you are going to have two or three mining pools are really the ones capable of controlling the chain.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “And they say, well, why don't we do that? We have a solution. Well, first of all, a page every 10 minutes is not fast enough. It's a question of scalability. And second of all, to ensure that no matter how many people try, you get one page every 10 minutes, one solution to the riddle every 10 minutes. This means that the riddle becomes very, very hard. And to have a chance to solve it within 10 minutes, you must have such an expensive apparatus in terms of specialized computers, not one, not two, but faster and faster of them. And they produce tons of heat, okay? These dissipate heat like maniac. And you need to refrigerate them too. And so then now you have air conditioning galore to add to the thing. It becomes so expensive that fewer and fewer and fewer people.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Because if I solve a puzzle, at the same time you do, it could happen that if it happens once or twice, we can survive this. But if it happens every other page is a double page, then which of the two is the real page, it becomes a problem. So that's why in Bitcoin it is important to have a substantial amount of work so that no many, how many people try on earth to solve the puzzle you have one solution how many people are trying every 10 minutes so that you distantiate these pages and you have the time to propagate through the network the solution and the page attached to it and therefore there is a one page at a time that is added.”

    2021-03-15 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #168 – Silvio Micali: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Algorand, Bitcoin, and Ethereum · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source