Papers on Fire | Adrealm

Academic Papers and Reports for critical Thinking

“There is no one, no matter how wise he is, who has not in his youth said things or done things that are so unpleasant to recall in later life that he would expunge them entirely from his memory if that were possible.” ― Marcel Proust

Last week we introduced our new rubrica, Papers on Fire, to offer some thoughtful readings from the tech & blockchain world.

Why Papers on Fire?

Not only because it is meant to gather academic reports & surveys on blockchain & crypto, but also in regard to the national fiat that cryptos set fire to.

From today on, Papers on Fire will have its own post. Why?

To keep both you and us abreast of scholarly and regulatory developments in the blockchain/cryptocurrency problem-space.

So, hope you’ll enjoy the readings & we’d be happy to read your thoughts in the comments.

This week we start with the paper Liberal Radicalism, the work of six hands — including Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin. A must-read. How old is Mr Butin (who in China is known as V神)?* Only 28, but lacking neither in ambition, intelligence, and seemingly aspirations to wisdom. Together with Glen Weyl and Zoë Hitzig, they designed a philanthropic or publicly-funded seeding “to allow (near) optimal provision of a decentralized, self-organizing ecosystem of public goods”.

* 神 (shen) can be translated as god, demigod, or spirit. It is often tacked onto celebrities, and when appended to a name it is the ultimate compliment.

Ok, not exactly peer-review scholarship, but an insightful essay from a writer we follow.

Being a Bitcoiner implies embracing the risks of fluctuating crypto prices that can quickly swallow up a fatty wallet. Some statistics estimate that around 70% of all Bitcoiners are young, educated males willing to jeopardize their savings, pointing at a generation that could suffer major losses in case the Bitcoin really falls in disgrace.

Are they actually fully aware of the risks? Probably, but “danger is their business.”

Neurobiological or social factors?

Survey by SurveyMonkey.

A study of natural early adopters of a technology, pondering: if the potential early adopters are not allowed to adopt, this can compromise the successful adoption at global scale of a technology. Small factors affecting the initial availability of a technology can disincentivize early adopters to adopt.

A study that proposes a customizable incentivization framework for “the wisdom of the crowd”. Are financial incentives enough to ensure honest answers from surveys participants? This study claims it is not, and it presents “a solution that unites the advantages from classical polling and prediction markets via a customizable incentivization framework.”

Did you find these articles useful? Would you like to read more?

Let us know your thoughts!

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