Dialogue Ethereum EIP Editor Victor: Silicon Valley Engineer's Crypto Multiverse

Source: Sunny & Min, Deep Tide TechFlow

Silicon Valley's South Bay, sunny weather.

You may not be familiar with the name Victor Zhou, but protocols like ERC1202 and ERC5750 might ring a bell. Victor Zhou is the author of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and the first Chinese EIP editor globally. He has a rich and diverse identity, spanning both Web2 and Web3.

He is a senior engineer in Silicon Valley, having joined Google in 2012 and worked there for ten years. He is the founder of the Silicon Valley high-tech Chinese community "Singing in the Valley," which hosts an overseas Spring Festival Gala each year, hailed as the "New Year's Eve dinner for Chinese in the Bay Area."

He is a builder in the Ethereum community, having developed EIP protocols like ERC1202 and ERC5750, and has been the first Chinese EIP editor in the Ethereum community, promoting the standardization of Ethereum's application layer for over five years.

He is also an investor, having initiated the crypto investment fund AlephCrypto.

Now, he has taken on a new identity: entrepreneur. In 2023, after leaving Google, Victor Zhou embarked on his own Web3 entrepreneurial journey.

With many curiosities and questions, Sunny from Deep Tide TechFlow conducted an offline interview with Victor Zhou at a café in Silicon Valley, discussing his diverse perspectives on the Ethereum community, crypto investment, and entrepreneurship. Throughout the conversation, Victor often used engineering language and thought processes to explain his understanding of the crypto industry. Although the abstract engineering language was initially obscure, it profoundly and objectively reflected the essence of things as the discussion deepened.

About Himself and the Ethereum Community

Deep Tide TechFlow: Please briefly introduce yourself, Victor. How did you jump into the crypto rabbit hole while working at a major Web2 company and get involved in the development of Ethereum?

Victor Zhou: During my ten years at Google, I worked in advertising, search, YouTube, and the blockchain department. In addition to my 9-to-5 job, I dedicated my time after work to participating in and building "open contribution communities," such as Wikipedia and the Ethereum community. I became actively involved in Ethereum protocol design in 2017. I have always loved open-source development, and I guess that’s what ultimately drew me into the crypto industry.

Deep Tide TechFlow: As the first Chinese EIP editor in the Ethereum community and the author of protocols like ERC1202 and ERC5750, you are responsible for reviewing all EIP proposals submitted to the ETH community. As an editor, what kind of "Ethereum Improvement Proposal" (EIP) is more likely to be approved and become a true representative standard? What are the key points and standards you focus on during the review?

Victor Zhou: As a decentralized community, Ethereum's governance is very different from traditional enterprises and mainly relies on a series of governance mechanisms.

EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposal. EIPs are a core part of Ethereum governance, and many important community decisions rely on EIPs. For example, all hard forks require an EIP to be proposed. Notable execution layer EIPs include the EIP-1559 fee update, while notable application layer EIPs include ERC20 and ERC721. EIP Editors are responsible for reviewing and approving EIPs, acting as "gatekeepers" and being one of the key roles in Ethereum governance. Many people mistakenly believe that founders like Vitalik can give "instructions" to the Ethereum community and developers or make decisions on their behalf. In fact, this is a way of thinking that has carried over from centralized enterprises. In Ethereum, collective thinking relies on proposing ideas, garnering support from other community members, and ultimately achieving decision-making effects.

I personally hold two roles: I am both an EIP Author and an EIP Editor. Although the role of EIP Editor is very key in community governance and there are only seven globally, the number of EIP Authors is numerous, with potentially dozens being active. However, in terms of my identity, I primarily see myself as an "Author" (EIP Author) first, and then as an "Editor" (EIP Editor).

An author is the proposer and "driver" of a proposal. Their role is to draft new protocol standards and revise the draft based on public feedback, especially from developers, ultimately pushing for the finalization of the draft.

The role of an editor is to ensure that the EIP complies with rules and formats, possesses clarity, readability, and standardization, and is technically feasible (not necessarily optimal). Additionally, editors need to promote peer technical reviews of the draft for final approval.

The core of Ethereum governance relies on this group of authors and editors proposing and validating proposals, along with the broader developer and user community "voting with their feet."

Deep Tide TechFlow: During the last bull market cycle, new public chains surged, and Ethereum faced criticism for its inefficiency. However, after traversing the cycle, it became clear that Ethereum remains the king of public chains. From your experience and observations, what do you think is the competitive edge of the Ethereum community? What has it done right?

Victor Zhou: First of all, I won’t comment on prices and markets, as that’s not my expertise, so I’ll leave that to the experts. From a technical and application standpoint, I believe Ethereum (and its compatible chains) has a level of technical maturity superior to other types of public chains. The EVM has achieved significant network effects, with a large number of DeFi and other applications' smart contracts developed according to ERC protocol standards, with representatives like ERC20's USDT and USDC having a market cap of over $110 billion. Nearly $50 billion of various ERC20 tokens are locked in DeFi. Additionally, the NFT market is approximately $10 billion.

In summary, Ethereum's core competitiveness mainly comes from three aspects:

1. Active Ecosystem and Leading Technology

The rapid and leading technological development of Ethereum mainly stems from a large number of excellent builders and projects coexisting in the community, fostering rapid iteration of Ethereum products. For example, Ethereum has a community principle called client diversity. While most public chains only need to write one version of node code for their ecosystem, Ethereum's foundation promoted the development of node teams in three different programming languages: Python, Go, and C++, ensuring that Ethereum's protocol is "protocol-based" rather than "implementation-based." Each node's development code cannot monopolize the interpretation of the protocol. Later, versions based on JavaScript, Rust, and others emerged. This technical diversity greatly enriches and secures Ethereum while also diversifying its developer talent pool. Similarly, Ethereum initially promoted several different wallet implementations, such as MyEthereumWallet (MEW) and Mist, allowing other wallets to join in. This logic is akin to Tencent's "horse racing mechanism."

Ethereum also strives to avoid "official" attributes; the foundation itself is small and mainly promotes the ecosystem through grants to support projects. In public, it aims to minimize its official attributes to maintain an open and humble neutral stance. This decentralized community interaction model has fostered many organic results, which is a significant difference from many other public chains operating as companies.

2. Strong Standard Development and Interoperability

Ethereum has many excellent open standards, from the execution layer to the smart contract layer, enabling large-scale interoperability of developed smart contracts and DApps. For example, one project can develop an ERC20, while another project, like the DeFi project UniSwap, can directly integrate all tokens that meet the ERC20 standard. A third project can develop a UI that interacts with protocols like UniSwap, allowing immediate interoperability with UniSwap and its forks, as well as other public chains' UniSwaps.

3. Network Effects Have Formed a Moat

Since the development of the Ethereum public chain, many applications have emerged on-chain, and the interoperability gained from Ethereum's open standards has exponentially accumulated network effects on the chain. First, we can estimate the network effects achievable in Web3 based on those in Web2.

The network effect in Web2 is:

Benefit = N(user) × N(merchant) (approximately N(2))

In traditional internet, merchants and merchants are isolated independent islands, and each merchant's users can only interact with one merchant at a time, generating corresponding value.

The network effect in Web3 is:

Benefit = N(user) × N(merchant) × N(merchant1) × N(user1) × … × N(merchantn) × N(usern) (can be N(4), N(5), …, N(n))

In Web3, merchants are connected through the blockchain, no longer isolated independent islands, but interdependent, interconnected archipelagos. Each user can interact with multiple merchants at a time, which not only reverses the subject but also upgrades the dimension of network effects, giving the internet depth. The development standards and interoperability of the Ethereum protocol further enhance the dimensions created by this technology, equivalent to increasing the base of tetra by 10(6). Such network effects are beyond imagination.

About Investment

Deep Tide TechFlow: Besides being an engineer, we also learned that you previously worked at an investment institution and later founded your own crypto investment fund, AlephCrypto. As an investor in the crypto space, what is your investment methodology?

Victor Zhou: I am a Builder, a standard developer. We bet on Builders, believing that the current stage of blockchain development is similar to the early days of the internet, being "technology-intensive." The founding teams we prefer should have a technical background or a strong understanding of blockchain products. We believe we have entered a next-generation industrial revolution comparable to information technology (IT): the trust industry (TT: Trust Technology).

Blockchain fundamentally changes the way humans live through digital trust, digital assets, and digital rights. Just as the "digital information" generated by computer networks has far surpassed knowledge on paper, we believe that non-digital contracts will soon be replaced by "digital contracts" that can be reliably executed by machines.

About Entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley

Deep Tide TechFlow: From your LinkedIn profile, we found that you left Google in April 2023 and founded your own company (in stealth mode). What drove you to start a business at this time?

Victor Zhou: I am glad to have the opportunity to share my recent career decision here. I know many friends may wonder why I would voluntarily resign from a stable job at Google during such a global economic winter to start a new company. This decision may seem a bit risky, but I believe that it is precisely in such moments that true great innovations are most likely to be born.

Looking back in history, we find that many great companies were born during economic winters. For example, during the financial crisis of 2009, we saw a series of quality companies rise. AirBnB was founded in 2008, while Uber, Slack, Square, and Pinterest emerged in 2009, and Google rose during the 2001 internet bubble. Armies often launch offensives in winter because every day that follows becomes warmer.

One of the biggest challenges during this period is securing funding. I am fortunate to have already gained the trust and support of investors before my departure. Conversely, the current talent market has an oversupply, forcing many excellent talents to seek new opportunities, which provides us with the chance to recruit top talent. For technology barrier-type entrepreneurial projects, the external bubble and noise are less during the winter, making it easier to attract investments from long-term vision and technically savvy investors and team members.

The field I chose to dive into is smart contracts as a service. I believe that the infrastructure in this area is about to mature, and it has enormous potential to change our lives. I look forward to our company making truly meaningful contributions in this field.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Can you reveal what your entrepreneurial project specifically is? Why did you choose this direction?

Victor Zhou: The "trust technology revolution" brought about by blockchain is the largest technological revolution since the information revolution. Its revolutionary nature lies in its ability to significantly improve the efficiency of generating, transferring, and storing trust in human collaboration. Smart contracts are the main carriers of trust generation, transfer, and storage, representing the next generation of software industry. Based on this concept, I founded D3Serve, which stands for "Decentralized Serve" and embodies the meaning of Web3. We aspire to become a leader in the smart contract as a service (SCaaS) field, building the infrastructure for the next generation of trust technology, significantly enhancing the efficiency of trust transmission in collaboration between enterprises and individuals by providing reliable and highly scalable smart contract services.

As one of the founders, I am a standardization expert in smart contracts, possessing deep industry knowledge and rich experience. I actively participate in the formulation of smart contract standards and have achieved significant accomplishments in this field. With this expertise and experience, I firmly believe that our team can develop innovative products that meet user needs.

Currently, our company is developing our first product in stealth mode, focusing on domain name and account abstraction. While I cannot disclose specific product details, I am confident in this direction and look forward to showcasing our early products.

We firmly believe that through our smart contract services, enterprises and individuals will be able to build trust relationships, establish cooperation agreements, and achieve efficient and secure collaboration more conveniently. We are committed to providing advanced technical infrastructure, offering users a simple and reliable environment for smart contract development and deployment. We will continuously innovate and improve to meet the evolving market demands.

Finally, I am passionate about the standardization and promotion of smart contracts, hoping that through D3Serve's efforts, we can drive the widespread application of smart contracts across various industries and contribute to the development of the trust technology revolution.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Whether in China or the United States, many employees from major internet companies are venturing into Web3 entrepreneurship. In terms of business models, thinking, user experience, and other aspects, what do you think is the biggest difference between starting a business in Web2 and Web3?

Victor Zhou: This question is very broad and involves multiple levels. If given the opportunity, I could write a separate article to explore it in depth. In short, the biggest differences between entrepreneurship in Web2 and Web3 can be viewed from the following three aspects.

First, in Web3, account and payment functions are built-in, meaning that in terms of commercialization, Web2 tends to adopt a combination of free and paid business models, while Web3 users are more likely to have a natural habit of paying.

Second, the boundaries between creators and fans in Web2 are clear, while in Web3, the boundaries between audiences and creators may become blurred, with many enthusiastic fans actively participating in co-creation, and creators also becoming fans of each other.

Third, the community boundaries in Web2 and Web3 are also likely to be blurred, with many decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) or other new organizational forms emerging, crossing the boundaries of single platforms.

Currently, Web3 still faces many user experience challenges, such as high fees, long delays, and low throughput, which are reminiscent of the early internet situation. However, we are confident in the development of Web3, believing that as technology advances and the community works hard, these challenges will gradually be resolved. The development of Web3 will bring users a more open and inclusive internet experience, stimulate innovation and collaboration, and further promote technological evolution and social development.

Deep Tide TechFlow: Recently, the SEC's policy direction regarding cryptocurrencies has been unfriendly. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong even stated that if regulatory clarity in the crypto industry does not improve, Coinbase may relocate from the U.S. In your view, will Silicon Valley or the U.S. still be a fertile ground for Web3 entrepreneurship? In the future, would you consider moving to Singapore or Hong Kong to start a business?

Victor Zhou: For entrepreneurs, a clear and legal regulatory environment is undoubtedly crucial. A stable, transparent, and fair regulatory framework will help promote the prosperity of entrepreneurs and the entire industry. Recently, companies in the blockchain industry, represented by Coinbase, have fiercely criticized the SEC's regulatory policies, even stating that they may have to move their operations out of the U.S. Notably, this viewpoint has also garnered support from many U.S. congressional members.

As a highly influential and innovative field, the trust technology industry indeed presents new challenges for regulatory agencies in various countries and regions. At the same time, it also provides development opportunities for many countries and regions that aim to surpass the U.S. in global competition. Some jurisdictions and regulatory bodies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America view the development of this field as a new opportunity and are actively researching and formulating corresponding policies, resulting in a diverse and prosperous landscape.

For example, the Law Commission of the UK has invited me and other open-source community members to provide advice on DAO governance regulation to better understand the dynamics of cryptocurrency development more quickly and deeply. We are optimistic about the attitude of regulatory innovation across jurisdictions and believe that future developments will be even better.

As for whether Silicon Valley and the U.S. will still be a fertile ground for Web3 entrepreneurship, there is no definitive answer. The current situation may pose certain challenges for the U.S., but it also provides development opportunities for other countries and regions. Around the world, efforts are being made to create environments conducive to innovation and development to attract entrepreneurs and investors. Whether to relocate to Singapore or Hong Kong for entrepreneurship will depend on specific business needs and development strategies. We will closely monitor changes in the global regulatory environment to ensure that we advance our endeavors in the most suitable environment for our growth.