hi everyone this is charles hoskinson broadcasting from colorado i wanted to make a video about ukraine as many of you know input output is a global company and we have people all around the world more than 50 countries one of the countries that we have a fairly high density of employees and contractors and is ukraine about 15. we have had long arc roots there since 2016 uh we have a team called team veritas uh mostly cryptographers uh and now we have a lot of engineers led by in the case of veritas roman olinykov and then engineers working on various products in the portfolio in fact some ukrainians were responsible for the development of plutus they're part of that core team i've been to ukraine many times west and east i've been to odessa and kiev the capital as well as lev and i have nothing but phenomenal memories and friendships there for example i recall years ago going to the bitcoin incredible party that pavel and his then wife lilia uh hosted in odessa and won a kiev and then one in uh levive and i often attended that because i so enjoyed the beauty the food in the people it was just fun to go there and it was just fun to get to know people and it's really heartbreaking to see what's happened war is the failure of diplomacy and ultimately the absence of love for each other and compassion there's nothing good that comes out of what happens with these situations people die families are destroyed infrastructure is ruined uh hopes and dreams are shattered and certainty is replaced with chaos terror and trauma and even after the war ends the trauma seldom recedes quickly if at all the people of ukraine have tasted freedom for the past few decades from a brutal regime the soviet union and have tried their best sometimes succeeding sometimes not to become an independent free democratic nation my own country the united states we've been around for more than 200 years and it hasn't been easy even after we won the revolutionary war we still had to find another one and we endured the indignity of slavery as well as many institutions and practices that today would be considered barbaric and even after the civil war and while colonizing the west terrible things were done to the indigenous populations to become a more tranquil union we've had to go on a long journey and ukraine has had problems and it's going on its own journey but all things considered they were doing a pretty good job given their age and where they came from and the nature of their leadership at that time and today russia revisiting the past and annexing ukraine it tastes of imperialism of a different era of the 19th century when there were kings dictators emperors people who viewed war as the family business as the state of affairs uh if we recall charlemagne there were very few years during his lifetime that he wasn't on a horse or indirectly commanding some battle with some adversary whether it be the lombards or saxon or muslim occupies spain didn't matter there was somebody he had agreements with there was some war to fight this was the standard state of affairs for most of human history the 20th century after world war ii was different we converged to a world order with the promise that we could achieve so much more with peace trade diplomacy we could ever achieve at the end of the barrel of a gun what's happening today is a reversal of that brief window in human history where we tried to do things differently and if it's allowed to fester i can imagine we will see continued aggression not just from russia but from china and other nations ultimately the world will be a less safe place and those who are on the borders of powerful nations led by authoritarians will live in a constant state of paralyzing fear that their time will eventually come and they will become a colony directly or indirectly of a world power whether russia keeps ukraine or not is besides the point because if they don't they're likely going to leave a vichy government and a permanent military presence in the western parts of the country and use that as leverage for whatever demands they have with nato and the united states if the sanctions that have been posed on russia are ineffective then no tool outside of a kinetic operation war will be able to compel them to slow down aggression i'm concerned about georgia and other places and worried that in revisiting the past if this is successful we will see more of it i have friends all throughout the eastern bloc some who grew up under it many of you remember my people of iog interview with dan friedman who grew up in ukraine he was a citizen of the soviet union and his family fled as refugees to europe they had nothing just the clothing on their back and a few effects and had to stay with friends and family and try to claw and scratch their way to the united states there are currently thousands of diaspora now in poland and other places who are replicating the stories of the past i'm concerned that we'll see in asia acts of aggression against taiwan vietnam india and other places that may result in the annexing of territory or vichy governments being installed but ultimately moving the direction of the reduction of freedom people should not have to fear freedom of association commerce and expression we should have the ability to love the people that we love and have the ideas and thoughts that we have and pursue the commercial endeavors that we do authoritarianism does not allow you to do that you are only allowed to operate in whatever space the dictator and his backers mandate and anything outside of that is punished harshly this is antithetical to everything our industry stands for people often say that i shouldn't wait into politics and i keep reminding people the core of who we are as an industry is political because our fight isn't about a particular token having a higher price over another token our fight is ultimately one of liberty and freedom to give people the power to be their own institutions to be their own bank to verify what previously could not be verified whatever that might be and ask what kind of society can exist once trust and faith has been restored in each other and the institutions that we rely upon to navigate the complexity of the world and what kind of a society can exist where there are no more kings and dictators and presidents and leaders just people with the means and tools to work together towards common ends with the wisdom to understand that their actions ripple long beyond today and tomorrow the decades in the centuries putin is an old man he's not going to live 100 more years probably not even 50. so in his old age the actions he is taking today will be remembered in ripple decades from now and will permanently change the world order probably for the worse is it wise that so few can have so much influence and power over the world order especially if they're allowed to maintain that influence and power beyond the age of reason with no checks and balances the point of decentralization isn't just about resilience and reliability and the resistance against malicious actors it's about also reconstruction of institutions so that we no longer have strong leaders who stay in power too long and then start changing things in ways that harm all of us without any oversight or accountability universality of rules i hope that the world wakes up to the promise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and i hope that these types of events if there's any positive outcome to them the one that can be is we can say this was the moment that we realized we had to do things differently this was the moment that we realized that the world order is not in a state to be able to manage technology life and globalism as it is today and either we admit and accept that dictators will just simply take things either directly through force or indirectly through some form of bizarre transnational arrangements which give them enormous unelected influence over our lives or we take our lives back and we do so by just simply adopting the technology of freedom we use that word a lot in america because it's where we came from sometimes we forget how hard the people who came before us had to fight to preserve that and sometimes we forget what it really means freedom doesn't mean you're safe freedom doesn't mean that you're taking care of from cradle to grave freedom means you have the capacity to live out your dreams according to the route you choose yourself and sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't but you have the self-determination to pursue those things your education your destiny you're in charge of that and you're allowed the freedom to fail in addition to the freedom to succeed that's always been at the core of the american way at least what we were sold on the label that if we just let people have these attributes we trust society enough that we can trust our neighbor with the great responsibility of self-governance accepting that they may use that to harm others and the consequences afterwards that ultimately will build a better society for everyone it's been over 200 years last two years in particular been very challenging for people a lot of people were put in poverty governments have fallen trust is an all-time low institutions are not behaving the way that we want them to many challenge the democratic processes that we take for granted but one thing is clear a lot of people have found hope in each other and a renewed sense of community trust and love as well as the capacity to admit that we have to do things differently the wars aren't going to stop they're going to get worse inflation's not going to stop it's going to get worse the world isn't going to magically wake up tomorrow and get better the default mode is to get worse the only way it gets better is if we collectively decide we've had enough and it has to get better so we do the work to get there the only technology that i know of that has the capacity to do that is what we build as an industry so before you say when moon and before you get mired into the politics of a particular token or ecosystem take a moment really take a moment take a step back look at yourself in the mirror ask yourself why are we here what's the point what kind of world do we want to live in do we want to live in a world where one o'clock in the morning you're seeing videos on twitter of aircraft bombing places that you've been to worried about your friends placating people telling them it'll be okay when you really don't know do you want to live in a world where when you're told something you never know if it's really true or not and everything's murky do you want to live in a world where every institution you used to look up to you view with anger cynicism resentment or do you want to live in a world with peace and love and kindness and empathy if you want the latter you don't get it for free just like the people who started my nation had to bleed for the opportunity the chance the freedom that we enjoy today you're gonna have to do the same you're gonna have to fight hard every day you're gonna have to teach people the principles of this industry you're gonna have to show them how this technology works contribute to it build it battery is not included everything is still very hard because we're not just trying to build a product we're trying to rebuild society in a different way and there's no instruction manual there's no magic light switch where we just flip it and it's done every single day from here on forward is a struggle and as we start winning the set of people to try to stop it will just grow and especially people in positions of power because they understand the consequences of success it is some zero in one respect when you give freedom and liberty to all you take authority and power from the kings there's never been a time that wasn't true so the lesson of ukraine if we choose to accept it is we can do better as a society and the only way we can do better is to change the way we think act treat each other and the way that we build institutions the blueprints all there so many people have worked tirelessly for more than a decade and many decades since before to build out the philosophy and the tools of liberty and freedom it's just a matter of whether we accept them or not as for the people of ukraine they're going to be in a very difficult time for a long time now our thoughts and prayers and hearts go out to them we care deeply about them and we hope that they find a way through it i wish i could say the calvary's on the way and that all they have to do is just hold out but unfortunately it doesn't seem like the leadership of europe and the united states care too much about that they think that somehow shutting off some money will solve all the problems so they're just gonna have to find another way and i believe one day they'll get through it until then let's do our part let's build some stuff and let's teach people that there's another option between the past and regression to the dark dark past with kings and emperors thanks everybody good night
