Autism Is All You Need

In this issue:

• Introducing zkPoW: Our core thesis on the ZK market
• Decentralization, Ideology, and Accountable Monarchy
• Nock App Framework Update
• The Political Psychology of Crypto

Introducing Zero-Knowledge Proof of Work (zkPow)

In a new post at Zorp.io, we present our core technical/market thesis.

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) were initially focused on scaling Ethereum, but they represent a much more general-purpose technology. It is now clear that ZK rollups will not do the trick.

As ZK-compute commoditizes, the key question is which ZKP algorithms will become standards. We believe Zero-Knowledge Proof-of-Work (zkPow) is the most promising approach, where a Proof-of-Work blockchain subsidizes and bootstraps ZKPs as a new computational commodity, akin to how Bitcoin standardized SHA-256 hashes.

Nockchain will create a permanent Schelling point that coordinates open-source software with hardware-based competition.

Decentralization, Ideology, and Accountable Monarchy

The popular term "decentralized" is misleading. It's overly celebrated and unscrupulously applied because it sounds like "democracy" and Democracy is the secular religion of the progressive West.

A Proof of Work chain is arguably centralized around a single point of authority for the state of the ledger. Every time a miner hits a block, they win the election to be the authority for that 10-minute period.

The ledger itself is centralized (a monarchy), while the decentralized aspect is the network, which functions as an accountability mechanism. Proof of Work is really an accountable monarchy.

If you love democracy, you could perhaps describe Proof of Work as an "incorruptible hyper-meritocratic democracy with extremely short term limits."

It's a very strange democracy where only the truth is allowed to be elected!

Nock App Framework Updates

The Nock App repo now includes an example HTTP server and Hoon compiler.

NockApps are pure-functional state machines with automatic persistence and modular IO. This update introduces a composable IO driver framework.

Key benefits for developers:

• Simple IO integration
• Automatic persistence
• Unified environment
• Pure functional programming

Example code:

import HTTP;
import LibP2P;
import NockchainRPC;

async fn main() {
  let napp = new NockApp(my_kernel);
  napp.add_io(HTTP);
  napp.add_io(LibP2P);
  napp.add_io(NockchainRPC);
  napp.start().await()
}

This framework simplifies the development of complex applications like orderbook DEXs, allowing easy integration with Nockchain nodes, Libp2p networks, and HTTP REST APIs.

Offering development power 50x cheaper than anywhere else, the Nock Stack will be home to the most elegant, cutting-edge networks and protocols of the future. GitHub Repo here. Twitter thread here.

The Political Psychology of Crypto

A recent study polling 2,001 American adults in 2022 found that cryptocurrency ownership correlates with some interesting traits:

• Belief in "conspiracy theories"
• "Dark" personality characteristics (e.g., the "Dark Tetrad" of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism)
• More frequent use of alternative and fringe social media platforms

The variables that most strongly predict crypto ownership are:

1. Being male
2. Relying on alternative media as one's primary news source
3. Argumentativeness
4. An aversion to authoritarianism

While previous studies have suggested similar findings, they typically used small, non-representative samples and only examined a limited number of variables.

We're building Nockchain, a ZK-Proof of Work blockchain. If you received this from a friend, subscribe for yourself.