Aya Miyaguchi: Teacher, Ethereum Executive Director and her "Infinite Garden"

Picture source: wired.jp

Author: zen, panews

Since the beginning of this year, Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, has become the focus of community discussion. Some opponents called on the foundation to change the leadership, and some even pose a malicious threat to her on the Internet. On the other hand, her supporters believe that since taking office in 2018, Miyaguchi has always promoted the decentralization and long -term development of the foundation.

Regardless of criticism or praise, it is undeniable that Aya Miyaguchi, which has more than ten years of experience in the education and encryption industries, has embarked on a unique path. Her story does not follow the rules: from a high school teacher in Japan, to entering the cryptocurrency industry; from the educator in the class to the evangelist of the encrypted industry, to the leader of the Ethereum Foundation. She keeps crossing the field and transforming her identity.

From "blood teacher" to the "pioneer" of the cryptocurrency industry

Aya Miyaguchi was a Japanese high school teacher. Because she loves to teach and educates people and is full of passion, she is also known as "bloody teacher". She especially likes to design creative teaching methods and stories for students, and stimulates students' independent reflection, criticism and exploration spirit.

"Like many other young teachers, I feel uneasy about entering the teacher industry after graduating from college." After working for more than ten years in the education industry, Miyaguchi was tired of the knowledge of only professors. "Think and learn from independent thinking and learn.

When being a teacher, Miyaguchi often teaches students to experience at least once in their lives. She also realized that as a teacher herself, she also needs to look at the outside world, or try other professional experience. Miyaguchi then resigned from her job and went to the United States to study for a master's degree in business. At that time, Miyaguchi's life began to intersect with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Picture source: wired.jp

Miyaguchi began to contact Bitcoin in 2011. As a non -technical background person, she spent a long time to truly understand the concept of Bitcoin. After understanding the main advantages of Bitcoin, Miyaguchi believes that it has great potential in terms of financial inclusiveness and social influence. When studying MBA, Miyaguchi's research focuses on sustainable business. She personally likes to study micro -finance, especially how to enable women in developing countries to achieve economic independence. Miyaguchi is increasingly believed that Bitcoin can play a great role in this regard.

Jesse Powell, the founder of Kraken, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, is the first "noble" to officially take Miyaguchi to join the industry. In the exchanges between the two, the potential of emerging technologies made her shine, especially the possibility of blockchain's possibility of financial inclusiveness, socio -economic inequality and human coordination made her have a strong interest. In 2013, Miyaguchi joined Kraken. At that time, Kraken had just begun recruitment, and few members of the team. Miyaguchi was originally responsible for Kraken's business in Japan, and later became the managing director of Kraken Japan.

In 2014, just started business in Japan at Miyaguchi and Kraken. Unfortunately, the head exchange MT. GOX collapsed. Once the scandal was known, the news was spreading, and Bitcoin and MT. GOX entered the public vision due to various negative reports. Japan's first impression of Bitcoin was full of panic and distrust.

Therefore, Miyaguchi must take action. She took the initiative to contact the government departments responsible for studying Bitcoin and related regulatory affairs, introduced them to their background, and explained relevant experience in the field. She also collaborated with the Digital Asset Transfer Authority (DATA), which prompted the Japanese government to decide not to supervise the cryptocurrency industry at that time. Related meetings have also become the starting point for regulatory discussions. Miyaguchi also founded the Japan Digital Asset Administration (JAPAN Authority of Digital Assets) with people, and has repeatedly participated in supervision -related discussions after many depths, which eventually promoted the cryptocurrency supervision framework launched by Japan in 2017.

Add Ethereum: Coordinate community, project and fund management

In February 2018, Miyaguchi's career once again ushered in a major turning point. She accepted the invitation of Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, and officially joined the Ethereum Foundation as an executive director. Established in 2015, the Ethereum Foundation is an organization designed to promote the research, development and application of Ethereum, and also supports community activities to promote the development of Ethereum. Miyaguchi is mainly responsible for coordinating and organizing the various activities of the foundation, including internal affairs, including cooperation with community members, such as education and organizing activities.

In fact, Miyaguchi and Vitalik had known each other as early as 2013. After entering Kraken, Miyaguchi met Vitalik, who was only 19 years old at the time, and was writing an article for Bitcoin Magazine and busy pushing the white paper of Ethereum. For Miyaguchi, this encounter was an important turning point. She later realized that the potential of Ethereum far exceeded her imagination.

Ethereum can not only conduct Bitcoin -type financial transactions, but more importantly, it can bring revolutionary changes to the non -financial sector. Through smart contracts and decentralized applications (DAPPS), Ethereum can support new types of governance models, environmental solutions and education systems. These ideas have deeply touched Miyaguchi, and she believes that if Ethereum can realize the idea in the white paper, it will change the world. Therefore, when Vitalik threw an olive branch, Miyaguchi quickly agreed and decided to join Ethereum and become a member of its core team.

Picture source: wired.jp

The open source characteristics of Ethereum means that more and more contributors come from the community, and the rapid increase in these external contributors makes coordination internal and external work becoming more and more difficult. As the largest blockchain ecology, the Ethereum community is very extensive. It can be anyone who does things on Ethereum, including individuals, organizations, enterprises, EEA (Ethereum Enterprise Alliance) and so on.

When Miyaguchi joins, the foundation is in a relatively difficult stage. When I first arrived at the Foundation, Miyaguchi faced a huge challenge. The work of the Ethereum Foundation is not only technology research and development, but also needs to coordinate the community to promote project funding and capital management. Miyaguchi's goal is to communicate with different groups as much as possible to ensure that the development of Ethereum is the result of multi -party cooperation. She once said: "Our character is more like a coordinator, not a manager. Our goal is to promote the overall development of Ethereum, not an exclusive work."

Ethereum and "Infinite Garden"

Perhaps I can't let go of the feelings of being a teacher. Miyaguchi, who had done "gardener" on campus, liked Ethereum as an "unlimited garden", this metaphor comes from James P. CARSE's "Limited and Unlimited Game" 1 Book. In her opinion, Ethereum is not only a technical project, but also a "unlimited game". In "Limited Games", the goal of the player is to win the game; and in "Infinite Games", the player's goal is to continue to play and continue to promote progress. In her heart: "Ethereum's mission is not to quickly obtain short -term returns, but to promote the popularization and development of decentralized concepts in the long run."

The metaphor of "garden" also has further meaning. In Miyaguchi, the Ethereum community is like a national natural park, not a carefully trimmed garden. It is full of diversity and vitality. Although there are some radical voices or strange ideas, these can also become the source of new ideas. Like the ecosystem in nature, the decentralized Ethereum ecology also needs to maintain this diversification and tolerance.

During the development of Ethereum, Miyaguchi always emphasized that decentralization is not only a technical challenge, but also a change of thinking. She believes that the value of decentralization is not only reflected in the financial field, but also all levels of society. Many people have not realized that problems such as privacy risks, data monopolies, and power abuse brought by centralized have penetrated into our lives. The decentralized thinking advocated by Ethereum allows us to fundamentally re -examine the social structure and change our relationship with others and technology.

The decentralized myth of the Ethereum Foundation

In an early interview, Miyaguchi said that the functions of the foundation and the function of the foundation should be discussed internally. But as for the use of technology or how governance should operate, these should not be determined by the foundation or Vitalik. "He also has his own point of view as an individual who has made a lot of contributions to Ethereum. But as I said, this should not be decided by anyone in the foundation. Of course, members of the foundation can have their own opinions, and they can also have their own opinions. It can tend to a certain option, but when it involves governance decision -making, the final decision should not be made by the foundation. "

However, as a decentralized project, the lack of transparency and community participation in the appointment and removal of the Foundation's personnel and such as the Foundation are also long -term criticism. Ming Chan, the executive director of Miyaguchi, was criticized in the Ethereum community. He was accused of being too controlled and opaque, and did not effectively establish an organizational structure. Miyaguchi is directly invited through internal invitations. After "interview" by researchers and developers in the team, he directly took office.

Miyaguchi has also responded to the questioning process of this recruitment process. Her view is that the foundation can certainly adopt an open way and let the community decide. "If members of the community think that this is the best way and make such suggestions, it is also possible." But at the same time, this process involves not only the community, but also the internal organization management of the foundation. They need a candidate with global work experience and long -term experience in the encryption field, and I have told them that I think I meet these conditions. "Therefore, although this process is not public, I think it is a good idea to make the community decision."

A few days ago, in the non -official chain of the Ethereum community members, Danny Ryan, a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, received 99.98 % of the absolute support, and was elected as the head of the Foundation in the next session. Joseph Lubin, co -founder of Ethereum, also suggested that Danny Ryan and ETH France President Jerome de Tychey led EF to enhance technical orientation and vitality.

Danny Ryan was a core researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, which played an important role in key upgrades such as rights and interest certificates (POS) and The Merge. As Miyaguchi fell into the cusp at the beginning of this year, Ryan also came forward to call for stopping her "mobs". Ryan said that he would respect and recognize Miyaguchi's leadership ability in the future of Ethereum, and said that she had a profound strategic vision and pure original intention. "There are many reasons for the booming of Ethereum for many years, and Aya has played an important role in it. My success in Ethereum is always inseparable from her support and guidance." Ryan said in a tweet.

Vitalik Buterin also defended Aya Miyaguchi. He pointed out that there was a translation deviation in the relevant reference and criticized some of the attack remarks on suspected violence as "pure malicious". Vitalik also stated in the tweet that the decision -making power of the current EF new leadership team is controlled by himself. The ongoing reform aims to introduce the official board of directors to the foundation, but before that, the decision -making power still belongs to him.