If you spend time with crypto people, you'll hear a lot about decentralization. The word describes a form of governance, but it also stands for much more than that -it's an ideal to which every blockchain project is supposed to achieve and has taken on a near-religious status. The term suggests that nothing is decentralized out of the gate and that the process should take place slowly. '' It's critical for many products to have leadership out of the gate while seeking product-market fit,'' Walden said.
It's refreshing to hear such talk. After years of covering crypto startups, it's been embarrassing to watch projects repeatedly attempt to claim they are decentralized, when obviously they are not-or to spin up decentralization arrangements not because their product would benefit, but because they are trying to check a legal box. The motivations for this are rarely informed by a Satoshi-like ideal, but rather a desire to get rich quickly by dumping some sort of crappy token on the market.
I am also glad to hear Walden say that some projects are simply not fit for decentralization at all, and to acknowledge that historically, this sort of pragmatism and maturity has too often been lacking in an industry where 'decentralization' is too often invoked to justify poor product design and hide ulterior motives.
This doesn't mean, however, that building projects without a central gatekeeper or authority is impossible. Bitcoin proves this long ago, and, as Walden pointed out to me, there are other recent successful examples of decentralization such as the giant DeFi platform Uniswap. Satoshi's vision is very much alive and people are achieving it-despite doing so is a much harder task than most people will admit, and one that shouldn't even be attempted in some blockchain projects where centralized control is the only practical solution.
My conversation with Variant was a welcome reminder that, even as the media digs in for weeks of wall-to-wall coverage of Sam Bankman-Fried's trial, the crypto industry is still evolving. I found time to write a proper review of Michael Lewis's Going Infinite, a book that is poised to tarnish the famous writer's legacy but also contains many new details that are essential reading for anyone who follows this industry closely. Have a great weekend, and thanks for all your support.
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