A Letter from V God to Satoshi Nakamoto
Dear Mr. Satoshi Nakamoto:
Sitting here in front of the window in Zug, Switzerland, looking at the street outside after the snow has just cleared, I suddenly want to converse with you, a pioneer I have never met. Ethereum is experiencing the most intense clash of values in its ten-year history, and as the founder, I feel like I am standing at the center of the storm, witnessing the struggle between idealism and utilitarianism.
The rift in the community pains me
When I witnessed foundation members receiving death threats in January, I suddenly understood the wisdom behind your choice to retreat. Those developers who once shouted, "code is law," are now endlessly debating for short-term gains; partners who once built the ecosystem together now see the prosperity of Layer 2 as a threat to the mainnet.
Ironically, when I criticized certain DeFi protocols for devolving into "Ponzi casinos," I was accused of "betraying the original intention"—but isn’t the true original intention to create a world computer that embodies a new paradigm of human collaboration?
Sticking to principles amid technical dilemmas
Your ingenious use of the UTXO model to solve the double-spending problem has always guided my thinking. Now we seek a balance between ZK-Rollup and OP-Rollup, doubling the Blob capacity through the Pectra upgrade, each step feels like building a bridge on the edge of a cliff. Recently, some questioned the foundation's sale of ETH, but do they not see that we are investing the proceeds into DankSharding research?
As the Verkle tree compresses node requirements to below 100GB, and as cross-chain bridge delays shrink from hours to seconds, I believe these silent engineering breakthroughs will eventually speak.
Deeper concerns lie in culture
The Bitcoin community maintains an admirable discipline, while Ethereum seems to have lost its way in the celebration of "financial Legos." Some venture capitalists tout that "KOL casinos" represent the best PMF, which has made me contemplate retreating several times.
But we must not forget that ERC-4337 account abstraction allows African farmers to use fingerprint wallets, and zero-knowledge proofs are protecting journalists' sources—this is what blockchain should look like.
Revisiting the vision in your 2008 white paper at this moment, I suddenly realize we stand at the same crossroads. You built the cornerstone of trust with cryptography, while we are trying to expand collaboration dimensions with smart contracts. Perhaps, as you said, the true revolution lies not in technical parameters, but in the consensus flowing among millions of nodes.
