►
From YouTube: Can’t Someone Else Do It!? Shifting Behaviors in Ethereum Network Participation by Aqeel Mohammad
Description
Visit the https://archive.devcon.org/ to gain access to the entire library of Devcon talks with the ease of filtering, playlists, personalized suggestions, decentralized access on Swarm, IPFS and more.
https://archive.devcon.org/archive/watch/6/cant-someone-else-do-it-shifting-behaviors-in-ethereum-network-participation/
Decentralization is touted to be at the core of the Ethereum ecosystem and community. Yet we continue to operate in a world of end users trained and programmed not to think about any of the infrastructure services they use, how they run, how secure they are, and how they are managed. The community continues to operate with the mantra of Web 2.0 where someone else can handle it. It is up to us to help shift user behaviors and mental models around what it takes to truly participate in the network.
Speaker(s): Aqeel Mohammad
Skill level: Beginner
Track: Staking & Validator Experience
Keywords: decentralization,validators,network participation
Follow us: https://twitter.com/efdevcon, https://twitter.com/ethereum
Learn more about devcon: https://www.devcon.org/
Learn more about ethereum: https://ethereum.org/
Devcon is the Ethereum conference for developers, researchers, thinkers, and makers.
Devcon 6 was held in Bogotá, Colombia on Oct 11 - 14, 2022.
Devcon is organized and presented by the Ethereum Foundation, with the support of our sponsors. To find out more, please visit https://ethereum.foundation/
A
A
So
Defcon
is
actually
a
perfect
example
of
us
trying
to
expose
the
community
and
the
culture
to
the
needs
in
different
regions
of
the
world,
and
it's
quite
clear
by
the
different
feedback
that
we've
been
getting,
that
their
reactions
that
people
are
really
not
truly
close
to
empathizing
or
understanding
the
needs
of
others
when
it
comes
to
really
benefiting
the
individuals
that
would
be
able
to
make
the
use
of
the
technology
to
the
most
of
their
benefit.
So
I
believe
the
many
of
you
that
are
sitting
in
this
room
have
truly
made
this.
A
What
has
been
happening
in
the
ecosystem
and
how
can
we
look
at
what's
been
going
wrong,
and
why
are
we
really
here
and
where
do
we
need
to
focus
our
energies
and
what
are
we
hoping
to
create
as
an
impact
from
a
Global
Perspective
for
participants
that
come
from
very
disparate
and
unique
backgrounds
and
lived
experiences?
So,
let's
face
it?
We
have
a
problem.
All
of
us
have
this
notion
and
mental
model
of.
A
Can
someone
else
do
it
when
it
comes
to
maintaining
and
running
Services,
when
we
have
to
participate
included
in
this
network
and
in
the
Rondo
about
way.
We've
kind
of
just
adopted
this
same
mentality
that
we
had
coming
into
web
3
from
the
web
ecosystem
as
a
whole,
so
I
wasn't
kidding
when
I
said
this
would
be
somewhat
of
a
therapy
session
and
we'd
look
at
what
is
happening
as
far
as
Behavior
change
inch.
So
in
order
to
do
that,
I
wanted
to
look
at
the
trans
theoretical
model
of
behavior
change.
A
A
A
lot
of
us
kind
of
occupy
at
this
point
is
we're
aware
of
the
problems,
but
we
really
haven't
done
any
preparation
or
are
ready
to
do
any
action
to
change
those
things.
So
the
next
stage
is
basically
preparation
and
that
combines
like
the
intention
of
wanting
to
create
some
change
and
then
looking
at
some
of
the
behavioral
criteria
to
make
that
change
in
the
first
place
and
then
intending
to
take
some
action
in
the
first
place.
A
So
from
there
we
go
to
the
action
stage,
and
this
is
I
think
where
the
biggest
issue
happens
within
the
ecosystem.
Is
that
we
get
prepared,
but
we
just
don't,
have
the
tools
or
the
resources
to
take
any
action
to
create
that
change.
So
this
is
the
stage
where
individuals
actually
have
to
modify
the
behavior.
They
have
to
change
their
experiences
environment
and
have
in
order
to
overcome
their
problems,
and
this
requires
quite
the
overt
behavioral
changes
and
considerable
considerable
amount
of
commitment
and
energy
and
resources.
A
Then,
from
that
we
go
to
the
maintenance.
So
basically,
people
work
to
prevent
relapse
and
the
work
that
had
been
done
in
the
action
phase
and
then
obviously,
there's
relapse
and
I
think
this
is
the
point
of
place
where
we
are
in
the
ecosystem,
where
we've
kind
of
reverted
to
making
decisions
in
the
hopes
of
mass
adoption.
That
kind
of
compromise
the
decisions
when
it
comes
to
decentralization
and
we'll
kind
of
get
into
that
a
little
bit.
A
So
my
objective
today
or
is
to
kind
of
like
help,
some
of
the
individuals
that
are
in
the
room
to
move
from
this
pre-contemplation
phase
to
something
that
is
a
little
bit
more
actionable,
or
at
least
prepared
for
them
to
do
so.
So
decentralization
has
kind
of
been
touted
as
this
core
to
the
ethereum
of
web3
ecosystem.
A
A
Can
someone
else
do
it
that
we
have
been
programmed
to
do
so
within
the
web
2
ecosystem,
but
it's
kind
of
interesting
to
also
look
at
the
different
cohorts
of
people
that
come
into
the
ecosystem.
So,
throughout
the
years
these
individuals
hold
very
different
values
and
their
mode
of
operation
is
quite
distinct
as
well.
So
if
you
really
wanted
to
examine
the
people
that
are
giving
talks
at
Defcon,
you'll
be
able
to
kind
of
guesstimate
where
and
when
in
the
ecosystem
they
kind
of
entered
so
from
like
2010
to
2012
onwards.
A
These
were
individuals
that
were
kind
of
Cypher
punks.
They
were
crypto
punks
and
they
were
crypto
anarchists.
They
wanted
to
take
control
back
from
the
state
as
you
go
towards
the
2014s
2016s.
These
are
individuals
that
are
more
game
theorists.
These
are
system
design
thinkers.
These
are
individuals
that
are
thinking
about
more
mechanism,
designs
and
so
forth
and
then,
as
you
go
into
the
later
years,
these
are
individuals
that
are
more
aligned
with
business
cases
and
user
adoption,
so
the
place
that
I
kind
of
came
into
the
ecosystem
was
around
2016,
where
I
was
sold.
A
This
vision
of
web3
being
my
portal
into
anything
that
I
wanted
to
do
with
privacy,
user
interactions
and
so
forth.
So
the
first
thing
that
I
as
a
PC
user,
wanting
to
interact
with
ethereum,
was
there's
no
Ico
boom.
There's
no
rise
in
token
prices.
At
this
point,
so
all
I
could
do
was
to
interact
with
ethereum
was
try
to
run
a
node,
and
the
first
thing
I
tried
to
do
was
look
at
the
Miss
browser
and
I
was
able
to
get
it
running,
but
the
issue
was
it
wasn't
able
to
sync.
A
A
So
then,
at
the
same
time,
status
and
Jared
were
kind
of
like
evangelizing,
this
ethereum
for
mobile
Vision,
where
you
could
have
no
infrastructure
on
a
mobile
device.
You
can
interact
with
these
Technologies
to
whisper
Etc,
and
this
was
around
2016
and
we're
in
2022
and
I
want
to
interact
with
ethereum.
What
do
I
have
command
line
interfaces?
It's
unfortunate,
but
there's
a
lot
of
infrastructure
work
that
needs
to
be
done.
A
A
So
we
get
into
this
situation
where
we're
kind
of
like
the
the
citizens
of
Springfield,
and
we
just
want
someone
else
to
take
care
of
all
our
problems
and
we
just
kind
of
operate
within
that
mental
framework
and
I.
Think
it's
it's
really
a
disservice
to
the
ecosystem
and
the
the
intended
purpose
of
why
we
are
here
in
the
first
place,
because
we
want
control
over
our
data.
A
We
want
control
over
our
privacy
and
that
we're
in
just
a
position
where
we're
relying
on
intermediate
areas
and
putting
a
lot
of
trust
in
them.
To
give
us
what
we
should
be
optimizing
for,
so
when
we
look
at
who
is
there
to
blame
it,
it
is
the
the
ecosystem
as
a
whole
and
the
key
decisions
that
we
have
made
when
it
comes
to
trying
to
optimize
for
whether
it's
adoption
or
other
consequences
of
Technology
limitations
that
have
been
there.
So
what
does
decentralization
currently
look
like
in
the
ethereum
ecosystem?
It's
it's
it's!
A
You
have
to
be
kind
of
mindful
and
kind
of
step
back
and
actually
evaluate
that
most
of
the
key
ownership
or
individuals
that
actually
invest
in
crypto
tokens
Etc
hold
their
keys
on
centralized
exchanges.
So
there's
there's
a
centralized
party
taking
control
of
this
stuff
in
the
first
place
when
it
comes
to
no
infrastructure,
majority
of
nodes
are
actually
running
on
Amazon
AWS
and
cloud
services,
so
you're
kind
of
back
at
Ground
Zero
again.
A
So
when
you
look
at
like
the
the
participation
of
the
current
POS
validator
nodes
within
the
context
of
the
world,
you
can
see
that
majority
of
individuals
that
are
participating
are
within
the
North,
America
and
Europe
regions,
and
this
is
a
concern
as
far
as
diversity
is
concerned
as
well.
You
can
see
there's
a
bit
of
action
within
the
East
Asian
communities,
but
that
is
still
very
limited
and
it's
quite
interesting
to
kind
of
like
map
this
to
the
participation
from
ethereum
Global
online
hackers.
A
It
kind
of
maps
quite
nicely
aside
from
the
fact
that
there's
a
lot
of
developer
activity
happening
in
India,
but
there
isn't
too
much
staking
happening
there.
So
I
think
it's
good
to
know
that
there
is
a
lot
of
work
that
needs
to
be
done
as
far
as
making
sure
that
we've
created
the
ecosystem
and
the
resources
for
these
Network
participants
to
come
in
from
these
locations.
That
might
not
have
the
resources
to
do
so.
So
32
ether
is
a
lot
of
money
for
individuals
in
Latin,
America
or
Africa
or
Asia.
A
So
how
do
we
get
resources
and
technologies?
That
kind
of
help
them
participate
in
the
network
and
staking
is
not
the
only
way
for
them
to
participate
in
the
network,
so
they
can
run
nodes.
They
can
learn,
run
like
clients,
they
can
run
other
services
and
really
think
about
how
they
can
get
some
sort
of
participation
within
the
network.
A
That
doesn't
rely
them
investing
money,
and
perhaps
we
can
even
look
at
how
can
incentivize
those
individuals
and
monetize
or
compensate
those
individuals
to
be
participants
in
the
first
place
as
well,
which
we
can
talk
about
a
little
bit
later.
So
it's
clear
that
this,
these
things
don't
seem
like
an
issue
until
they
become
an
issue
and
that
at
that
point
it's
just
too
late
for
you
to
do
anything.
A
So
we've
seen
a
little
bit
of
a
glimpse
of
this
when
it
comes
to
web
2,
hacks
Etc,
but
most
recently
when
it
comes
to
tornado
cash.
So
I
said
one
of
the
biggest
issues
or
the
blames
was
on
us,
but
there's
other
factors
and
other
forces
kind
of
functioning
towards
making
some
of
this
a
little
bit
more
difficult
for
us
to
decentralize
and
not
be
functioning
within
the
current
systems
that
do
exist
and
that's
one
of
those
things
is
like
advice,
adversarial,
State
actors.
A
In
addition,
the
third
forcing
factor
is
that
there's
individuals
which
are
kind
of
classifies
mad
adoption
vultures.
These
are
individuals
that
come
in,
take
the
narrative
that
you've
been
working
on
for
the
past
x
amount
of
years
and
then
co-opted
for
their
own
benefit.
So
these
are
the
Elon
musks.
These
are
the
Jack
dorsey's.
These
are
the
mark
zuckerbergs,
who
are
just
waiting
by
the
side
that
once
they
see
their
opportunity,
they're
going
to
jump
on
the
narrative
and
take
it
for
their
own
benefits.
A
So
when
you
see
Elon
Musk
tweeting
these
dot
coins
and
making
people
those
coins,
kind
of
jump
up
in
value,
a
lot
of
people
invest
in
them
kind
of
Follow,
That
Trend
and
when
they
lose
money
that
reflects
adversely
on
the
ecosystem
as
a
whole.
So
all
the
work
that
you've
done
now
gets
marred
by
this
rug,
pull
that
was
kind
of
like
facilitated
by
this
individual
that
this
was
having
fun
creating
memes
on
the
internet.
Similarly,
we've
seen
what
these
social
media
companies
do
when
it
comes
to
feature
releases.
A
One
social
media
company
releases
a
feature
two
weeks
later.
Everyone
has
the
same
features
within
their
applications.
Similarly,
these
individuals
are
just
waiting
for
their
opportunity
to
kind
of
co-opt
what
you're
doing
and
then
utilize
their
fit
for
their
benefit.
You've
seen
this
with
Zuckerberg
kind
of
reframing,
this
his
whole
organization
around
meta,
worse
and
whatnot.
A
Similarly,
with
Jack
Dorsey,
he's
always
pushing
for
Bitcoin
and
decentralization,
but
we
haven't
seen
too
much
come
out
of
that.
So
one
thing
that
I
wanted
to
kind
of
get
into
was
addressing
users
needs.
So
if
you
were
thinking
about
what
needs
to
be
done,
moving
forward
is
that
we
need
to
meet
the
users
halfway
or
where
they
are.
That
means
that
if
people
or
majority
of
the
world
is
using
PCS
and
we
want
individuals
to
stake
or
participate
in
managing
nodes
or
creating
validators
Etc,
maybe
we
create
interfaces
or
documentation.
A
That's
a
little
bit
easier
for
those
individuals
to
understand.
So
this
is
the
ease
of
access
and
then,
as
I
was
mentioning
earlier.
There's
this
part
about
incentive
alignment.
So
what
does
it
look
like
for
people
to
participate
in
the
ethereum
network?
We
kind
of
confuse
it
with
just
staking
at
this
point,
but
there's
other
opportunities
for
individuals
to
actually
a
communicate
and
get
participation,
participation
within
the
network
through
running
nodes,
running
like
clients
and
other
services
that
can
be
of
a
meaningful
manner
but
like
how
do
you
incentivize
them?
A
How
do
you
create
resources
or
infrastructure
for
them
to
even
do
that?
In
the
first
place,
Additionally,
you
have
to
kind
of
like
take
them
through
this
Progressive
disclosure
phase,
where
you
can't
just
check
them
in
the
deep
end
of
decentralization
as
they
start
to
make
those
movements
towards
action.
You
kind
of
help
them
and
guide
them
towards
that
just
movement
as
far
as
decentralization
in
the
first
place
and
that
kind
of
leads
into
the
guided
education
encouragement
of
those
individuals.
A
So,
as
you
start
moving
up
the
the
use
cases,
you
should
make
sure
that
those
individuals
are
provided,
that
sufficient
guidance
and
the
encouragement
to
continue
and
maintain
the
changes
and
behaviors
that
they
have
implemented.
Additionally,
we
need
to
make
sure
that
there's
relevant
context
and
narrative
framing
for
the
individuals
that
we're
speaking
to
so
the
framing
that
you
have
around
web
3
and
the
challenges
that
you
face
with
financial
restrictions
or
censorship.
A
Etc
is
not
the
same
that
the
individuals
in
Bogota
face
or
the
people
that
in
Africa
face
or
the
people
that
face
in
India
and
this
this
is
the
context
that
we
need
to
be
aware
of
to
make
sure
that
the
framing
is
maneuvered
in
a
way
that
they
understand
why
they
should
be
decentralizing
in
the
first
place.
And
what
does
that
mean
for
them?
And
how
does
that
benefit
them
in
their
long
run?
A
So
I
think
one
thing
that
I
would
encourage
for
everyone
to
start
doing
on
their
own
to
if
they
really
value
privacy
or
security
and
want
to
like
reduce
Reliance
on
third-party
servers
and
improve
sensitive
resistance
or
improve
health.
And
do
your
centralization
of
the
network
is
to
take
ownership
and
participate
in
the
network
themselves.
And
this
means
running
a
node
or
whatever
it
may
be.
A
It's
the
uxn
conference,
where
we
have
quite
a
few
interesting
lightning
talks
from
individuals
from
optimism,
from
status
from
different
Clan
teams,
to
kind
of
really
dig
into
these
different
issues
and
think
about
what
we
need
to
be
thinking
about
in
the
short
term
and
to
the
long
term
when
it
comes
to
the
ux
challenges
when
it
comes
to
adoption
and
make
sure
that
decentralizes
at
the
core
decentralization
is
at
the
core
of
any
of
the
issues
that
we
focus
towards.
So
please
be
sure
to
add
this
to
your
schedule.
A
A
Lighthouse
is
working
on
some
of
this
stuff.
I
know
prism
and
lodestar
have
done
some
research
and
development
in
this
regard,
as
well.
Do
check
out
ethereum
on
arm,
which
is
a
small
device
that
you
can
actually
start
running
a
node
on
an
ARM
device
that
nodes
provide
services
or
along
this,
this
regard
as
well
same
ethereum,
so
they're
all
in
the
impact
boot
area
so
be
sure
to
go
check
them
out
as
well.
A
A
I
would
like
to
thank
everyone
for
coming
today,
and
hopefully
you
get
an
opportunity
to
engage
with
the
thousands
of
individuals
that
are
coming
to
Defcon
from
disparate
backgrounds
and
communicate
with
them
and
really
learn
about
the
challenges
that
they
face
when
it
comes
to
some
of
this
stuff.
Why
are
they
here?
Why
did
they
want
to
participate
in
the
ethereum,
whether
it
was
creating
resources,
whether
it's
developing
protocols,
what
really
drives
them,
and
how
do
you
take
that
context
into
the
work
that
you're
doing
I?
A
Think
it's
quite
imperative
and
Community
efforts
like
Defcon
are
amazing
to
see
the
the
consequence
of
what
happens
at
these
events.
So
you
might
see
an
idea
spark
at
one
of
these
talks
that
leads
to
a
huge
impact,
not
only
monetarily
but
just
from
an
ecosystem-wide
perspective
in
the
next
few
years,
so
be
mindful
of
those
conversations.
Take
the
opportunity
to
really
dig
deep
and
think
about
the
the
reason
why
we
were
here
in
the
first
place
and
how
we
can
kind
of
continue
moving
towards
that
decentralized
ecosystem.
Thank
you
very
much.