Cryptokitties and the Tragedy of the Commons

in #ethereum7 years ago

Ethereum has been jumpstarted into resolving an inherent and inevitable problem by the phenomenon that is Cryptokitties. Bandwidth in the ecosystem is being stretched and the naysayers are having a field day touting slow transaction speeds.

I'm delighted we are having to confront this issue now; before mission critical dapps are on the chain. I'm not sure this is just a technical problem; I think it is a human problem. Just as emergency vehicles have priority using highways for the common good, our governance model must include a way to identify or rank a smart contract by its functional necessity for the entire ecosystem and the role the contract plays in the common interest. This won't be easy, but it is important. Ethereum is expanding. More users will emerge that clutter and clog and draw down resources. That is GREAT! But we need to build in protection of our "commons." We can do it. That is why we have a foundation guiding our development agenda.