Vitalik Buterin on ETH & ETC, fragmentation in blockchains

Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum, posted a "grab bag of thoughts" on reddit today, in which he laid out some of his attitudes toward the recent Ethereum split. First, he addresses fragmentation in blockchain markets, underscoring that his position on fragmentation hasn't changed and that "it's inevitable":

> In reality, however, while more cooperation is certainly useful, and this blog post will later describe how and why, desires for extreme consolidation or winner-take-all are to a large degree exactly wrong – not only is fragmentation not all that bad, but rather it’s inevitable, and arguably the only way that this space can reasonably prosper.

Noting that the sum of ETC and ETH prices have been remarkably stable around a $14.30 price, Vitalik says this "suggests that the value of at least the cryptocurrency component of the ecosystem actually isn't a superlinear function that favors monopoly".

Vitalik also states that "using hard forks as a primary paradigm to resolve thefts or to deal with unethical applications is [not] a long-term viable strategy" because the DAO lockup period established serendipitous conditions for a hard fork-based recovery, but in the future slow recovery mechanisms may not be able to keep up with fast-moving hackers. In that case, solutions would require rollbacks, yet

> Casper will make rollbacks infeasible due to its economic finality mechanism

says Vitalik. He also lists a "serious bug" in the Solidity compiler or accidental Ether lockups due to bugs as candidates for legitimate hard fork recoveries in the future, noting that "both possibilities will recede over time".

Vitalik's post was quickly cross-posted to /r/ethereumclassic.

This ETH/ETC trading is epic right now. So much money being traded.

It's too easy :P been missing volatility like this lolol. Hoping for more fun ahead with Kraken about to list ETC.

Thanks for the post! So interesting what is going on with Ethereum the last few months. Now we have ETH and ETC, wow! As I understand it this only affects the roll back of DAO funds or the ETH that the DAO held? So many other questions.... Can I use ETC to fund smart contracts or gas up smart contracts on Mist?? Why hasn't some major mining farm 51% attacked ETC blockchain already?? Maybe they are too busy committing their machines to mining ETH that they can't spare the hashing power, IDK we will have to wait and see. So fascinating.

I very much disagree with the hard fork, however I am so pleased with the fact that everybody has a choice in which Ethereum they want to continue with. Smart money goes on Classic if you ask me, It has much higher left to climb.

That's a hell of a bet without a core development team or any kind of clear fundamentals yet.

Doesn't it just copy everything Ethereum does, without rolling back for losses in the future? If your developing for ethereum, then you're also developing for classic? Or have I gotten that wrong?

I've read that developed Dapps on ETH wont work on classic. Someone correct me if im wrong

wondering what will happen next!

I'm new to Steemit so all this is way over my head at the minute, I am reading and learning.

Vitalik keep up the good work, you are brilliant!