Happy Birthday

First, happy birthday. The past years with you have been a wonderful gift and have become a big part of me. You are my best friend who traveled with me all over the world. You are a mentor who taught me how to code (in Rust, yay) and about engineering, motivated me to learn cryptography and got me interested in incentives. You are the community through which I learned to be open to new people and new ideas, to view things from different perspectives and, especially, to stay curious about the unknown unknown.

You always bring such interesting interdisciplinary questions. It’s about philosophy but also considers the market; it’s about technology but not just about performance; it’s money but can be designed and programmable. Yes, you were truly a cypherpunk, who believes we can change the world!

Just as you changed a lot, so did I. At first, I just liked playing on the new playground of technology and ideas you gave me—and also wanted to change the world. Yes, I dreamed of making a fully on-chain community. Yes, I dreamed of a privacy-preserving, fully on-chain payroll service. But then, something wasn’t working. I thought it was because I didn’t know enough about the core technology. So I focused on unboxing it, the whole infrastructure, nodes, protocols, and the open-source culture around it. We’re such a niche group of devs who just try things out because it’s all so cool. Then I found that many of the new research ideas and core concepts explored in cryptography were interesting. Maybe this blockchain environment could be seen as a playground for new cryptographic primitives.

Just as you changed a lot, so did I. At some point, I wondered: so why do we need to change the world? What’s the problem we are solving not from solution? Can we actually change the world through new design, or was it always only about economic value from the start? or just need to be patient?

You are becoming mature. Mature enough not to just play for fun, not to waste time and money on useless things just because it’s cool. You seem to blend well with the society that all the adults have built; you’re not a rebellious kid anymore. I know—or is it really?—that one day all children have to become adults. I don’t know, but I still try pursue something wonderful.

Anyway, although I sometimes miss when we were young, I’m really excited for your growth and future ahead. I believe some of our childhood dreams could eventually come true. Happy to be part of your journey and grateful for the pieces where you colored my life.

Anyway, happy 10th birthday, Ethereum.