Permissionless Strongest Speech: Rebellion without permission, code is the rule

Original Author | Erik Voorhees

Translation | Odaily 0xAyA

Editor's Note: Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees was invited to deliver the opening statement at the Permissionless II conference, where he expressed his support for the crypto spirit, disdain for public authority, and endorsement and expectations for the establishment of a free economic order. The speech received continuous applause and was filled with emotions and values. Odaily has compiled the essence of the speech as follows.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Erik Voorhees, a lover of freedom and the founder of Shapeshift. Some people call me an elder in the cryptocurrency industry, and my girlfriend likes to refer to me as the oldest person in the cryptocurrency world. Sometimes, I am known for "chasing down those fat, curly-haired scammers who use excessive acronyms, abuse Adderall, and generously donate to Washington" (applause). I have been asked to talk about why we are here, why we are in this industry, why we are in this place, and it is truly an honor to have this opportunity.

But first, I would like to collect some information about all of you here. Please raise your hand to answer the following questions:

If you came here for free coffee, raise your hand - oh, someone is lying, someone raised their hand; if you came here for luxury cars, unfortunately, you might be disappointed this year; if you came here because you love banks, raise your hand - no one; if you came here to have your eyes scanned by Worldcoin, raise your hand; if you came here to celebrate KYC or any other form of wholesale surveillance of innocent people, raise your hand; if you came here to resist, raise your hand - okay, some people raised their hands.

Permissionless Resistance

This is why I am here, I am here for peaceful resistance, but it is also revolutionary. As I was preparing for this speech, I realized that the theme "Permissionless" aligns perfectly with the name of the event. I love this name, it is one of the most capturing terms in our industry, it is radical, rebellious, non-compliant, and a fundamental human right.

Let me remind you, it all started with the invention of Bitcoin about 15 years ago. Why was that moment so important? Why was Bitcoin so significant at that time? It was interesting because it was permissionless.

Bitcoin introduced a permissionless currency, and a few years later, with the invention of Ethereum smart contracts, we had all the tools needed to build a fully permissionless financial system. This attribute is revolutionary and more essential to cryptocurrency than any other attribute. This attribute is present in all outstanding projects in this field - if a project is not permissionless, we can consider it as a step towards permissionlessness at most.

Interestingly, permissionlessness has always been so novel and difficult to achieve.

Before the emergence of cryptocurrencies, all funds' flow in the monetary field required someone's permission. You might say that cash is permissionless, but if you try to send $10,000 across borders, you will quickly realize the limitations imposed on you - although cash has many advantages, it is gradually phasing out.

Therefore, thank God for inventing a form of digital currency that is permissionless just in time, considering that practically all actions in the economic field require money, in a world where most people struggle to meet their basic needs, the economic field is practically the arbiter of life and death for billions of people.

Most people do not have the luxury of pursuing passions; they work, strive, and transact because they need to survive. Consequently, money is crucial to our human existence, and for that reason, we should care about its quality, its nature, and who controls it.

Permissions are often subtle but omnipresent. Every time you make a payment with a credit card, you are granted permission. It may seem like permission is only concerned with whether you have enough money, but in reality, there is another more covert layer of approval happening, even though you will never meet them, they decide every transaction you make - if you need permission to consume and transact, then you also need permission to exist.

So, why should we accept a world where we can only transact under conditional approval from strangers? Certainly, this is not freedom but obedience, although in most cases, these shackles are not heavy, we should not forget about their existence - if we tolerate them, they will become heavier.

Breaking the limitations of the status quo

The restrictions imposed on our transactions often increase rather than decrease. Compared to an ordinary person a hundred years ago, who is more economically free today?120 years ago, there was not even income tax, and the situation was so radical that you were actually allowed to keep the money you earned and freely cross borders without needing something we call a passport.

In the absence of any income tax or immigration restrictions, the United States experienced the largest scale of growth in the world. However, some people like to plunder your retained income and the permission to freely cross borders. Now, half of the money in all the taxes you bear is stolen by the country.

But the country is just a collection of strangers. Half of your money is stolen by another group of strangers. What would you say to yourself to deal with this embarrassment? The permission to build your own life is being revoked by those who plunder you and tell you it's for your own good. So, what prevents this trend from continuing? What stops tomorrow's people from falling into greater bondage? What force resists the increasing existence limited by permission? It's ourselves.

Perhaps you are not aware, but we are building an economic defense in modern society against plunder and state restrictions. We say no to the erosion of permission to exist. The process of operation and political circus cannot save us from the plight of this phenomenon because it is precisely this process that leads to the occurrence of this phenomenon, and our redemption is our own responsibility.

So, not being permitted is like a child in kindergarten going to the bathroom, because if I can only trade with you through intention, then I am economically in a lower position - I exist as an independent person, not a child.

But is even a child an appropriate metaphor? Children are usually cared for by parents. Do you feel that the CIA has the same care for you? Here's a better metaphor: We allow ourselves to be treated like cows and sheep. We eat grass in the fence. We produce, we are harvested, but we can vote - yes, we can vote to choose whether the elephant party or the donkey party will plunder us, and we endlessly debate which color is more preferable to us so that we can give up many privileges.

We must truly respect our leaders, and we must pursue the greatness of these leaders. They must be outstanding talents with noble character. Without them, we cannot survive. Is Trump or Biden such perfect moral models, such incredible examples of humanity, that it is reasonable to submit to them in any situation?

I look at the political class, the bureaucratic corps that feeds on plundering wealth, their smiling hypocrisy can only match their ridiculous ideas. I can't find any reason to submit to their attempts to limit my permission.

That's why we're here, and cryptocurrency is our resistance. (Applause)

Cryptocurrency is our resistance. It is a resistance to a system that is not worthy of authority. It is a resistance to coercion and slavery. It is a resistance to economic ignorance, endless arrogance, and ethical incompetence. It is a noble reclaiming of dignity and elegance, a resistance that serves the freedom and sovereignty of individuals for a peaceful civilization. That's why we're here. We don't need permission from those petty tyrants who have achieved nothing to create great things - the country's permission is just a facade, only those who suffer from Stockholm Syndrome would tolerate it.

Many people in our industry have already seen beyond the veil - today's society doesn't need Washington any more than it needed King George and the British Parliament 250 years ago.

Code is more transparent than law

Encryption is a technology of personal freedom, a declaration of financial independence. We should be optimistic about such an era, at the dawn of this peaceful revolution, where any two individuals on Earth can exchange value without permission. Does this fill you with fear? Or do you rejoice?

As benign skeptics, we should first be skeptical of ourselves and our assumptions. We should ask ourselves regularly: are we agents of good or agents of chaos? How do we know? Are we merely rebellious teenagers helping bring order to a world without it? Are we merely subversive degenerates, too naive and childish to see the value of order and then rebel against it?

Do we not care about society? Do wrongdoers not thrive and corrupt in society? These are strong accusations against us, but easily refutable. When we realize that what we are actually pursuing is not complete freedom from permission and rules, but merely a preference for objectively transparent rules over the currently subjective ambiguous rules, these accusations will be refuted.

We like to say "Code is law," but that is a misconception - code is better than law, and we are showing the world the fundamental differences between human-based law and math-based law. Which is more scientific: a smart contract that has undergone redundant audits and formal verification, or any pile of embarrassing congressional legislation? Which better displays order? The absurdity of most financial regulations is evident, and we should not tolerate it. We should all expect orderly, objective, and transparent markets.

This is our shared position - we all want rules, rules are good, and the most important point I want to emphasize today is that the traditional financial system is built on human rules rather than mathematical rules, and society can do better.

Human rules rely on highly subjective human language and leave extensive room for interpretation when enforcing these ambiguous rules, no one can predict which violations will actually be enforced. Gary Gensler claims that all tokens are securities, well Gary, why hasn't the SEC enforced on all tokens? The most charitable explanation is that they lack resources, but this still demonstrates that financial regulation is subjective and selectively enforced in today's situation. If we care about orderly markets, how do we respect this?

In contrast, the enforcement arm of Uniswap has never lacked resources, and its operating rules are objective and transparent. In the financial field, we no longer need to tolerate subjective rules. However, Uniswap has not received a Nobel Prize for developing orderly markets, but they have faced negative treatment for this development, being persecuted by the very institution responsible for ensuring orderly markets.

We are the only ones who have established 100% enforceable financial rules, and the fact is that code police are better than regular police.

Physics, mathematics, code—these laws make sense, they are powerful and consistent, and they deserve respect. Human laws and regulations from Washington, from the perspective of maintaining consistency, are relatively pathetic and are an inappropriate foundation for building a civilized 21st century—perhaps they were once needed, just like we once needed post offices to send letters, even though post offices and the Securities and Exchange Commission are outdated and embarrassing, I believe their budgets will increase again next year.

Now let's compare the subjective laws of regulatory agencies with the code-based laws. Which one better represents the symbol of an advanced civilization? The Dodd-Frank Act, which is detestable and spans 2,300 pages, resulting in 400 new financial regulations, or the lending contract of AAVE? Comparing the product of 21st century technology with the product of the 20th century, the collaborative nature of encryption with the backroom deals in Washington, which rule-making process is more noble and honorable?

Defining and Establishing a New Order

We are not agents of chaos, but agents of order. Although some may disagree with the order system we are building, it's just like how dinosaurs never agree with a meteorite.

Many of us are here because we see the widespread economic injustice in the world and we want to improve it. We live in society, benefit from it, and should strive to make it better.

So don't let those in positions of power tell you that you don't care about rules or society. Because you are building a superior technology for the construction of rules within society, and it is they—the politicians, regulatory agencies, and parasitic predatory class of Washington, D.C.—who should commend your outstanding work in the field of order and rule-making. Compared to what we are building, they are the agents of chaos.

Of course, we have many enemies. Many dislike the idea of open and permissionless finance because they cannot control what they did not create, and now they are finally unable to control it. As radical as we may be, we will not impose our views on millions of innocent people through force.

How optimistic can we be? The light of opportunity shines brightly for everyone who has discovered this permissionless Prometheus fire. How much brilliant creativity is captured in this room—yes, we have experienced seemingly endless setbacks and struggles, yes, fraudsters are everywhere, yes, we are condemned by the system we are trying to replace, and some of us are persecuted, and all of us from time to time feel pain.

But friends, try to see through these struggles and be grateful for every noble challenge you face, because your work is important. Consider those people in the traditional financial field, those cogs in the regulatory system, who go to work every day with lifeless eyes and weak spirits. Their souls know that what they are involved in is not creative or beautiful. But many of you are. Accept it, cherish it, and build on it.

Wild and romantic, these words still define the core of cryptocurrency. And in a world where bureaucracy crushes the spirit, society seems to be self-destructing, grinding down those who dare to stand as individuals outside of mysterious institutions.

So now we venture into a new realm. In this new realm, we have established an unpermissioned domain that transcends the law. In this new realm, we only acknowledge subjugation to moral virtues, mathematics, open composable and immutable code. In our bold actions, we create things, but we do not impose them on anyone. What we invent is not just something on the pure whiteboard of imagination, but rather, we have built the world's first and only transparent and objective financial system for all of humanity. We have built it without a single penny of tax funding and without permission. Consider what this means for the opposition.

They no longer ignore us. They certainly still mock us. They are evidently starting to fight against us. But we will prevail, regardless of ethical arguments, because humans are profit-seeking creatures, and capital will flow to where it is respected, just as water flows to wherever it may flow. And with the limitations and suffocation of the fiat currency system, open decentralized alternatives are ready to embrace it. True innovation can sometimes become chaotic, sometimes deviate from beneficial directions, and then return to the right path.

But capital will flow to orderly decentralized finance, just as water inevitably flows to the ocean. Both will naturally occur, and both will happen without permission. Thank you! (Applause)