I talk about some concerns I have related the direction of the conversation around block production, related to proof-of-work and proof-of-stake systems.

Basically, I think that the discussion centres too strongly around environmentalism and energy usage, often ignoring the actual technical implications of some of the designs which are used. Specifically, this is related to the unavoidable trade-offs of CAP Theorem and the implications of these when applied to a network with an unknown set of participants. Fundamentally, this is about the concerns of high-consistency, low-availability networks and the weaknesses they have when implemented as a public utility with untrusted block-producing nodes.

Some other asides related to the future of public blockchains are mentioned.

(recorded a few weeks ago)