Infinite Garden: Ethereums Vision

Original translation: Elsa

On September 18, 2024, the documentary Vitalik: An Ethereum Story was released. The original name of this documentary was Ethereum: The Infinite Garden, which was derived from the concept of the Ethereum Foundation. However, since this film is an independent film (not produced by the Ethereum Foundation), in order to avoid confusion in the community, the team eventually abandoned this name with regret [1]. So, what is the connection between the Ethereum Foundation and Infinite Garden?

Content

“The aim of a finite game is to win; the aim of an infinite game is to continue playing.” [2] —James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

Competition and the desire to win have always been deeply rooted in human nature. We are obsessed with success and failure. In zero-sum games, there are always winners and losers. The gains of the winners are accompanied by the losses of the losers. The failure of the losers also makes us cherish our success more.

However, zero-sum game is a one-way growth model. People often think: I have to work harder and faster to surpass X and win X. In this model, development is driven by the desire to surpass others.

But imagine if there is no next game? This means there is no clear final outcome, and there are no winners or losers in the traditional sense. We are just participants in the game. In this case, the logic of zero-sum game loses its meaning, and we no longer rely on the failure of others to prove our success.

Ultimately, what we have is a collaborative, open learning and working environment [ 3 ].

This is exactly the vision of Ethereum, as Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, outlined in her 2021 EthCC speech “Growing the Infinite Garden - Ethereum”[4], which she calls the “Infinite Garden.”

Screenshot of Aya Miyaguchis speech Cultivating Infinite Gardens - Ethereum

This concept was inspired by the book Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse, an American scholar. In the book, there is a thought-provoking sentence: The purpose of a finite game is to win, while the purpose of an infinite game is to continue the game.

James P. Carse shows us in this book that there are two different types of games in the world: finite games and infinite games. Finite games have clear rules, strict time limits and clear criteria for winning and losing, with winning as the ultimate goal. In this kind of game, the relationship between players is often antagonistic.

In contrast, in an infinite game, there are no fixed rules or clear time limits, and the goal is not to win, but to bring more people into the game to keep the game going. In an infinite game, the players philosophy is to cooperate, innovate, and adapt to change.

In her speech, Aya Miyaguchi gave an example of children playing football on the street: these children are not forced by their parents, but because they really like this sport. Some of them are not wearing shoes, some join in at any time, and some temporarily quit, but these do not affect their happy play. If a novice joins, they will stop the game and teach the novice. Because the better the novice performs, the more exciting the game will be, which is a good thing for everyone.

Screenshot of Aya Miyaguchis speech Cultivating Infinite Gardens - Ethereum

But when the goal becomes winning, things are very different. Focusing on winning can disrupt your plans and strategies, mess with your mind, and keep you from fully engaging in the game. If you dont win in the end, you may feel frustrated and disappointed.

Aya Miyaguchi believes that keeping Ethereum interesting is to let us remember the excitement of playing games together and continue playing. In the process of infinite games, finite games can appear, but finite games cannot contain infinite games. For example, the competition and debate within Ethereum is not for a certain player to win, but to continuously improve Ethereum and make it more perfect.

The Ethereum ecosystem is like a thriving garden in a natural setting. Here, we can play all kinds of games. The first gardener planted the first seed, and over time, trees and various plants grew, making the garden vibrant and diverse. This ecosystem evolved naturally, not designed by a single individual or organization, but cultivated by a group of curious, passionate people who are eager to improve the garden.

What role does the Ethereum Foundation play in this infinite game?

The Ethereum Foundation’s mission is to “cultivate an infinite garden” and it likens itself to a “gardener” that focuses on nurturing and promoting the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem rather than controlling it.

At the Ethereum Developer Conference Devcon 6 event in October 2022, Aya Miyaguchi once again gave a speech on Ethereums Infinite Garden titled Executing with Subtraction in the Infinite Garden [5]. In this speech, she elaborated on the role and function of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) in Ethereums Infinite Garden.

In the early days, the Ethereum Foundation was not a formal organization, but a group of developers and researchers. There was no financial team, no funding team, and the internal collaboration system of Ethereum was not perfect. When Aya Miyaguchi first took office, she faced two choices: one was to implement addition, that is, to build a powerful EF empire. This idea was completely possible at the time, which was not difficult to achieve technically, and the price of Ethereum was already quite good at the time; the other was subtraction, that is, to reduce power. In the end, the foundation chose subtraction, which transformed its role into a supporter of the entire ecosystem and supported this infinite garden. Because Ethereum was already a huge open source community at the time, there were many things that needed to be improved. The Ethereum Foundation needed to focus on things that only it could do and that others would not do. This gave birth to the Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) and some other funding programs. In addition, the Ethereum Foundation also gives priority to supporting as many third-party funding programs as possible, such as Gitcoin, Clr.fund, Protocol Guild, and MolochDAO. The support of the Ethereum Foundation is not limited to a specific team, but focuses on the long-term development and prosperity of the entire ecosystem.

Screenshot of Aya Miyaguchis speech Subtraction in the Infinite Garden

The Ethereum Foundation knows that for this ecosystem to continue to thrive and grow, it must foster innovation and growth through diversity and collaboration. Remember the Ethereum.org website? The maintenance and translation of this website is done by volunteers and developers in the Ethereum community. The translation of the website is done thanks to about 5,000 volunteers from all over the world, who together have completed translations into up to 48 languages.

In the collaborative system of Ethereum, although cooperation is advocated, it does not mean excluding competition. On the contrary, the Ethereum community encourages open participation and competition, because this is all for the better improvement of Ethereum. Here, zero-sum games do not exist, and the success of one person does not mean the failure of others, but the prosperity of the entire community.

In June 2024, Juan David, co-founder of Ethkipu.org, gave an in-depth interpretation of the concept of the “infinite garden” from the perspective of plant growth. In his article “Why Ethereum Evolves Like a Garden?” [6], he quoted a sentence from Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso in The Plant Kingdom: “The plant kingdom does not recognize the animal hierarchy based on command centers and centralization, but rather cultivates a decentralized and decentralized plant democracy.” This sentence means that the plant kingdom does not rely on a strict hierarchy or centralized model like the animal world. Plants in nature share and exchange resources through the “Wood Wide Web” and support each other.

Ethereum, like the plant world, relies on decentralization to achieve innovation and collaboration. Because of the diversity of the garden, Ethereum is able to accommodate different projects, such as Optimistic Rollups and ZK-Rollups. The diverse approach ensures Ethereums adaptability and sustainable growth.

Image source: https://typeshare.co/juandaveth/posts/why-ethereum-evolves-like-a-garden

Whether it is the infinite game concept emphasized by Aya Miyaguchi or the decentralized principle explained by Juan David from the perspective of plant growth wisdom, they all show us the unique charm of Ethereum. As time goes by and Ethereum continues to develop, our understanding of these concepts will become deeper, and everyone will become an active participant and witness in this process.

Ethereums garden welcomes everyone to play and explore. This garden is open and infinite. In the Ethereum ecosystem full of possibilities, everyone can become a participant and guardian. It is precisely because of this open cooperation and decentralization that Ethereums garden can achieve infinity.

References

[1] Crypto documentary Vitalik: The Story of Ethereum is coming soon, and the trailer will be released on July 23. https://www.chaincatcher.com/article/2134211

[2] James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games. Translated by Ma Xiaowu and Yu Qian, China Industry and Information Technology Press, Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2019.

[3] Team Gitcoin, August 29, 2022, The Infinite Garden Relies on the Infinite Game. https://www.gitcoin.co/blog/infinite-gardens

[4] Aya Miyaguchi: Growing the Infinite Garden - Ethereum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny83XarlecEt=404s

[5] Executing with Subtraction in the Infinite Garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noXPewi5qOk

[6] Why Ethereum Evolves Like a Garden?. https://typeshare.co/juandaveth/posts/why-ethereum-evolves-like-a-garden

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