Vitalik is indifferent to the price of ETH

Recently, Ethereum founder Vitalik published two blog posts in quick succession, sparking speculation about his current thoughts. Although the ETH price continues to decline, many users are calling for "fixing ETH" on his social media, but Vitalik seems not to be particularly concerned about the price performance of ETH.

On March 29, Vitalik published two articles revealing some of his current thoughts:

The Year Wheel Model of Culture and Politics

Vitalik proposed a simple "annual ring model" to explain political and cultural phenomena:

• The mainstream attitudes and incentive mechanisms of an era determine how that culture treats new things.
• Prejudice in the present dominates how culture treats old things.

Each period will add a new annual ring on the "tree", shaping people's attitudes towards new things. These boundaries will quickly become fixed and difficult to change, and then the new annual rings begin to grow, influencing the next wave of topics.

This model can explain many phenomena:

• In the 1990s, the United States indeed had a trend of deregulation, but in the 21st century, it has shifted towards strengthening regulation. The mature things from the 90s, such as the internet (, still retain a lot of freedom.

• Taxation is mainly constrained by budgetary demands such as healthcare benefits, with the basic framework established 50 years ago.

• The law and culture are more vigilant about moderate risk activities in modern technology, while being more tolerant of traditional high-risk activities such as mountaineering.

• Mature social media in the 2010s was regarded as part of the internet, but it also had its own uniqueness, leading to different regulatory attitudes.

• When artificial intelligence matured in the 2020s, the competitive landscape between China and the United States led to the rise of open-source AI, but this open attitude was mainly limited to the field of AI.

![When ETH falls below $1800, Vitalik posts two articles in a row, what is he thinking about?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-19a1418385cdbe7e81af3eadf92c893d.webp(

Vitalik believes that changing cultural attitudes towards existing things is difficult; it's easier to invent new behavioral patterns. This is also the appeal of the crypto space - it provides an independent technological and cultural foundation, not overly constrained by existing biases.

Advocate for Open Source Funding as an Alternative to Public Goods Funding

Vitalik has long been concerned about the issue of funding public goods. However, he pointed out that the concept of "public goods" faces some challenges:

1. Easily confused with "government-produced products"
2. Considered to lack rigor and easily influenced by social games.

As an alternative, Vitalik suggests focusing on the concept of "open source":

• Most digital public goods are open source ) such as blockchain research, documentation, open source software, etc. (
• "Open source" has a clear and widely recognized definition.
• Open-source behavior itself is a public good.

![When ETH falls below $1800, Vitalik posts two articles in a row. What is he thinking about?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-810b94cd63a92d5d3142fb7663ced5c7.webp(

The main difference between "open source" and "public goods" lies in the application of physical space. However, Vitalik pointed out that even for physical infrastructure, the most effective way to promote it globally often involves open source.

Therefore, Vitalik believes that it may be more appropriate to shift the focus from "public goods" to "open source". Open source does not mean "just because it is open source, it is equally noble"; rather, it should be about building and open sourcing what is most valuable to humanity. Distinguishing which projects are worth supporting remains a primary task of the public funding mechanism.

![What is Vitalik thinking about as ETH falls below $1800?])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-f50b49113a8f9b4f556f74164b64e189.webp(