Original author: Marine, MC² Finance Founder

Original translation: vernacular blockchain

Editor's note: On April 22, former Coinbase CTO and famous angel investor Balaji Srinivasan and Ethereum Unicom Vitalik Buterin attended the offline event of The Network State. They conducted in-depth discussions on many cutting-edge issues such as the evolution of DeFi, security, the relationship between AI and humans, and DeSci. This article comes from a live record by Marine, founder of MC² Finance, who called the conversation “a rare civilisational-level conversation.” The full text is reproduced as follows:

1: Balaji calls Ethereum the center-left wing of cryptocurrency.

· Vitalik is committed to building public products. He pursues programmable equality, decentralized institutions and equitable coordination.

Balaji belongs to the center right. He pursues opt-out and autonomy. Ethereum has become home to the "technocratic left".

2: DeFi is becoming safer, but not yet fully secure.

· Vitalik: "Risk is approaching traditional finance."

· Balaji: "You risk 100% of your losses to get 5% of your gains." The agreement can only be truly safe after a crisis, not just auditing. Time > Total Loss Limit.

3: The dollar is not as safe as you think.

"Invest only the dollars you can afford to lose." This sounds like a meme. But for billions of people in Argentina, Nigeria and Lebanon, this is already true. Stablecoins are now infrastructure (not experiments).

4: The definition of DeFi is changing.

Balaji: "It's the takeover after the system is over." It's not an upgrade, but a replacement. Always online, boundless, combinable. DeFi is more than just a better pipeline. It is of different value to physics. (I received warm applause for this)

5: Cryptocurrency will not weaken the US dollar, but it will expose the US dollar.

Vitalik: 99% of stablecoins support USD. But that will consolidate the dollar's dominance until it no longer does. Once the fiat currency is first launched, it will lose its geographical monopoly. The legal currency will die like a newspaper (slowly, then all die in one go)

6: The prompt will continue to exist.

Balaji: "The prompt is to program in English." This is not a solution, but a skill. Artificial intelligence will not replace humans, but it will amplify the sharpest people. Clarity = leverage.

7: AGI? Not God, just a founder.

· Vitalik: "When AGI builds a profitable company, it's real." This is measurable. Practical.

· Balaji agrees: Artificial intelligence is not goal seeking, but pattern matching. The world still operates on human intentions.

8: DeSci = DeFi in the medical community.

Today’s healthcare systems profit from disease. DeSci subverts this. Truth is supreme. Peer verification. Science is code, not pharmaceutical marketing. Balaji's bet: DeSci is a real alternative to institutional decline.

9: Ethereum needs a North Star. DAU? price? TVL?

· Vitalik: Just let people use it.

· Balaji: DeFi is the post-legal matrix. Once the value is online, everything can be traded. There is no liquidity of banks. A market without borders. (A lot of questions asked, I can't reveal xD)

10: The system will not be reformed. It will be rebuilt.

Balaji believes that the Internet is opposite to DC. Vitalik believes that cryptocurrencies are a more fair-rule system. Both agreed: The old world is collapsing. The next world will not be built on DC. It will be encoded. On the chain.