Brendan Eich: evaluation

Transcript context

…In the same way that it's not hard based on a zip code, gender, birth date, or whatever to singly identify you, at some point, someone will be able to just run your wallet or wallets—it already happens today—through some de-anonymizer and be like, oh, I know who this is. Right. Our system with users getting ad revenue share and publishers then getting creators on YouTube getting tips or recurring donations, just 10 of those or so could fingerprint you as a user. If there are a few bits each, that's enough bits to fingerprint you. It's a unique identifier that can count everybody in the world. If you have enough observation points on side channels, you can put things together. We realized that we couldn't go on-chain, not just because it was too costly, but because it would fingerprint the user. The answer in the long run is zero knowledge proof. Our next generation ad system, which is aiming at Solana, is called Themis. It uses a blackbox accumulator in the browser to build up an authentic cryptographically secure ad performance set of numbers that can then be put into a zero knowledge proof system directly on-chain, and the ad buyer can verify for themselves from the terms of the proof that the ad performed. That's the magic of zero knowledge proofs. By verifying it, you can believe the truth claims. We're trying to move on-chain with that very soon with Solana, which is exciting, but we're still burdened by the regulations that require not only the anti-money laundering but also the office of foreign asset controls in the US don't send to a self-custody wallet that's owned by somebody on the FBI's top 10 list. You'll do federal time for that. People get mad at me like, why must I KYC? They think I'm some kind of a crypto hater. No, I love on-chain direct. I've done it. I've paid one of the auditors for our smart contracts. The Basic Attention Token got paid on-chain and it was great, much better than sending a bank wire. But there are problems if you want privacy right now and you want to comply with these regulations, which have pernicious penalties. We're working toward a more decentralized future and we'll have to see how it goes. The great thing about crypto is I see a lot of, now, banks. Jamie Dimon did a hill turn from saying Bitcoin is a Ponzi to, oh, my blockchain is great. Family offices and companies are into crypto. The old big tech guard aren't—though Facebook tried with Libra, now Diem, but really got hurt. Politicians didn't like Facebook, and it wasn't really clear why you'd want it instead of another existing crypto. The initial thing you did was introduce the Basic Attention Token and you could accumulate that without going through any KYC. But if you were going to then send it to a creator, they would need to have a KYC'ed wallet.…

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