by Anaïs Ofranc
Are you disappointed that you were unable to attend EthDenver 2023? Don’t worry, most sessions were recorded and are now available online for your convenience on the EthDenver Youtube channel ! As someone who couldn’t be physically present at the event, I’ve gone through some of the recordings and picked out my top 5 favorite sessions. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing why these sessions stood out to me and why you should definitely make time to watch them. So sit back and let us guide you through my top picks.
This talk is interesting because it highlights a major challenge faced by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which are designed to operate without central authority or control. Specifically, David Ehrlichman discusses the difficulty of delegating roles and responsibilities in a revocable way within DAOs, which limits their potential to get things done efficiently. This is a significant issue because DAOs have been touted as a potential soluti on for a wide range of problems, from improving governance to creating decentralized financial systems. Ehrlichman argues that operational delegation is key to getting things done efficiently. Currently, only hierarchical structures are good at this, and non-hierarchical structures like DAOs struggle with consistency and cohesiveness. Ehrlichman provides a framework for how to think about and solve this problem.
In this presentation, Reuben Youngblom discusses the need to develop an ethical framework for the decentralized world. Youngblom argues that responsible development and ethical considerations are crucial for the success of the technology and reducing negative externalities. He also emphasizes the importance of developing ethics for blockchain, as it raises novel ethical issues that do not have historical precedents, and traditional ethics may not apply to this new world. They propose modeling blockchain ethics after bioethics, which has developed a framework of four ethical principles that can guide decision-making in the field: trustlessness, objectivity, respect for autonomy, and permissionlessness. Youngblom focuses on the importance of objectivity in the Ethereum and Web3 context and highlights the danger of biases and incentives.
If you are interested in learning more about MEV (miner-extracted value) relays and want to have a good overview of how it all works, you might want to check out this talk by Alex Nathan.
It provides insights into various aspects of MEV relays in the Ethereum network and into the MEV supply chain which has become increasingly important in the post-merge world. Nathan explains the role of various players in the supply chain, including Searchers, Block Builders, Validators, and Relays, and highlights the importance of monitoring and ensuring the trustworthiness of MEV relays. The talk also touches on controversial topics such as OFAC Compliance and censorship in the MEV supply chain.
