During his launch speech at DappCon 2019, Niran Babalola described the Panvala community’s mission to reward the people that create abundance for Ethereum. Here’s a summary.
On Making Ethereum’s Narrative One About Common Wealth
“When you talk to people who are just normal people, when they hear about Ethereum, when they hear about Bitcoin, what they think of is people who got rich quick, people who happen to hold the right token at the right time, and suddenly their financial lives were changed. That’s what people think we’re all about, and today, I’d like to start to change that narrative. I’d like it not to be a narrative about private wealth, but a narrative about common wealth.”
“For me, it’s not about the kind of wealth that you feel when you walk into the grand entryway of a millionaire’s mansion. For me, it’s about the kind of wealth that I feel when I walk through the Brandenburg Gate. It’s the kind of wealth that generations of Germans cooperated to build and maintain, so that the people that came after them could continue to enjoy it. It’s the kind of wealth that endures over time…I’m not after a kind of wealth that’s scarce. I’m after a kind of wealth that’s limitless.”
“I’m not after a kind of wealth that’s scarce. I’m after a kind of wealth that’s limitless.”
“Back in 2015, it wasn’t about what paychecks you could get to do this kind of work. There weren’t that many paychecks to be had. Instead, there was a different justification for working on infrastructure in this ecosystem, and that justification was ether itself. There were people who held ether, and instead of looking for a paycheck, they got to work on things that could make Ethereum better. Instead of looking for a direct award, they expected an indirect reward. They expected that they could increase the utility of Ethereum itself and that would increase the demand of the ether that they held. So people got to work. That’s how this community really got started.”
On the Ethereum Community Splintering Apart
“We’re seeing our community start to splinter, and we’re seeing it start to divide because the incentives that got us so far aren’t the right ones that are going to take us to where we’re going. We’re seeing that same sort of decline in cooperation in so many parts of our society. We’re seeing an economy that’s beginning to stagnate. We’re seeing a decline in civic society.”
“And the reason that we’re seeing that is not a new problem. It’s an old problem. It’s the same problem that was observed by Henry George over a century ago. The problem that he observed was that he saw an economy that was increasing in wealth. But at the same time, he saw poverty increase as well. And if you want to see a modern example of what Henry George saw, you can just look at San Francisco. San Francisco’s one of the wealthiest cities on this planet, but it has an incredible homeless problem. On one single block in San Francisco, you can see progress and poverty at the same time. The cause of that problem and the cause of the problem that we’re seeing in our community is that we systematically reward the people who make prosperity scarce.”
“The cause of that problem and the cause of the problem that we’re seeing in our community is that we systematically reward the people who make prosperity scarce…That’s the problem we need to solve to continue to move forward together, and I think we can solve that problem by changing our culture.”
“We systematically reward the people who bottle up wealth, who try to exclude people. And the people that try to make prosperity abundant, they have a hard time getting rewarded at all. That’s the problem that we need to solve to continue to move forward together, and I think we can solve that problem by changing our culture.”
Changing Ethereum’s Culture To One Of Generosity
“In the Ethereum community, the culture that ether creates is a culture of builders. The whole purpose of Ethereum is to build something on top. Sure, there’s a token that you can hold, but the thing that draws people in is the idea that you can build something new, that the technology provides new opportunities that weren’t there before.
So the people that it attracts get to work. They find other people out there with interesting ideas or useful skills, and they build teams that can actually accomplish goals together. That’s really what’s made this community so great to me.”
“In the Ethereum community, the culture that ether creates is a culture of builders. The whole purpose of Ethereum is to build something on top.”
“With Panvala, and with the PAN token that runs it, I believe we can create a new kind of culture. I believe that we can create a culture of generosity. I believe that we can create a culture where people give so freely and so joyfully because they see the abundance that their system is producing for our community.”
“I believe that we can create a culture of generosity. I believe that we can create a culture where people give so freely and so joyfully because they see the abundance that their system is producing for our community.”
On Playing Panvala
“I’ve seen this culture of generosity play out in real life. I saw it at the ConsenSys retreat in February of last year. ConsenSys, the community that I work for, held a retreat in Portugal, and at that retreat, we played a game that works a lot like Panvala does.
We didn’t have a token that runs on a blockchain. Instead, we used poker chips. And we didn’t have smart contracts to enforce the rules. Instead, we had a game master. But the dynamics of that game were the same as the dynamics of Panvala. What we did is we issued tokens to reward people at that retreat that we’re making our lives better, and to support those people, we bought tokens from them, and we donated it back to the system to complete the cycle that would make the system work.
And the culture of generosity that really emerged around that game was a sight to behold. It was something new. It was something that was familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time.
For me, the closest comparison is to the feeling you get when it’s your first day as a first-year student on a college campus. There’s so many new strangers that you’re going to meet, and the only reason for them to cooperate with you is this idea that they’re part of the same thing. They’re in the same school as you. So that’s the reason that we’re going to move forward together. They’re going to study with you. They’re going to pursue friendships with you. They’re even going to root for the same football team.
It’s that kind of school spirit that reminds me of the Panvala spirit that we felt when we played that game, this idea that we had a new reason to cooperate, that we could move forward together in new ways where opportunity was endless for us.”
“It’s that kind of school spirit that reminds me of the Panvala spirit that we felt when we played that game, this idea that we had a new reason to cooperate, that we could move forward together in new ways where opportunity was endless for us.”
On Culture And Property Rights
“I believe that the cultures that form around these different tokens are really tied to the community’s beliefs about property.
When it comes to Bitcoin and when it comes to ether, the belief about property is really similar to the beliefs of Murray Rothbard. And what he believed is that when it comes to property, it’s really just the business of the owner of that property and his heirs, and the more labor that you put into it, the more value that you’re going to get out of it. But the rest of society, you have no obligation to them. Your property is your business.
But that’s not the only view of property that’s out there. Here in Germany, they believe something different. If you look at the basic law of Germany, Germany’s constitution, it has something to say about property, and what it says is that property entails obligation. Its use must also serve the public good.
“If you look at the basic law of Germany, Germany’s constitution, it has something to say about property, and what it says is that property entails obligation. Its use must also serve the public good.”
When you hold a bitcoin, there’s no obligation. You can buy some bitcoins. You can forget about it for four or five years. You can come back find yourself wealthier than you were before. You didn’t have to do anything to earn it.”
Rethinking Property With PAN
“When you hold PAN, when you hold Panvala’s tokens, that property entails obligations. Your obligation is to serve the public good. Your obligation is to govern our system of grants and issue grants that continue to produce abundance for our community. And if you do it well, that’s what creates the reason to hold PAN in the first place. The reason to hold it is because donors will buy that token from the grant recipients. They’ll donate it back to the system, and they’ll complete the cycle that can continue to produce abundance for our community. Our PAN holders have this obligation to systematically reward the people who produce abundance.
“Our PAN holders have this obligation to systematically reward the people who produce abundance.”
Now when I describe this system to people — a lot of times, it sounds like a perpetual motion, this idea that you could issue grants in your own currency, that you take them in in your own currency. What’s actually making that cycle continue? To really understand how it works, we can take a lesson from the River Spree.
The Spree flows right outside this building. It’s flowed before Berlin was here. It’ll keep flowing long after we’re gone. What makes it flow isn’t a perpetual motion machine. What makes it flow is nature’s cycle. The water starts near the Czech border in the highlands and it flows downhill. When it gets to Berlin, it merges in with another river and heads out to the North sea. And when that water sits in the North Sea, sunlight hits it. It starts to evaporate. It forms clouds, and those clouds take that water back where it started in the highlands. That cycle is not a perpetual motion machine. Sunlight makes it go.
Sunlight isn’t what makes Panvala’s system go. The sun cannot make donations to Panvala. I wish it could. My life would be a lot easier. But since the sun can’t do it, you have to be the light. You have to be the light that collects the PAN that flows to our grant recipients. You have to be the light that takes the PAN back to its source. You have to be the light that completes the cycle that produces abundance for our community.”
“You have to be the light that collects the PAN that flows to our grant recipients. You have to be the light that takes the PAN back to its source. You have to be the light that completes the cycle that produces abundance for our community.”
“I’m not excited about Panvala because of some token or some smart contracts that we wrote. The reason that I’m excited about Panvala is because I’ve seen the light you shine in this community every single day that I’ve been a part of it. And the idea that we can start to harness that light and put it to work to produce the things that we all depend on, that’s what gets me excited.”
“The reason I’m excited about Panvala is because I’ve seen the light you shine in this community every single day that I’ve been a part of it. And the idea that we can harness that light and put it to work to produce the things that we all depend on, that’s what gets me excited.”
“As I speak, my teammate Isaac is sending the final transactions to initialize Panvala on the Ethereum network… In Panvala, what matters is where you plant your heart and where you plant your mind. And what I’m asking you to do today is to plant them firmly with Panvala, plant them firmly with this community. What I’m asking you to do — what I’m asking you to do today is to be the light that completes the cycle that produces abundance for our community. Panvala is now live, and I’m so excited to see what we do with it.”
“In Panvala, what matters is where you plant your heart and where you plant your mind. And what I’m asking you to do today is to plant them firmly with Panvala. Plant them firmly with this community. What I’m asking you to do today is to be the light that completes the cycle that produces abundance for our community. Panvala is now live, and I’m so excited to see what we do with it.”
Watch the entire Panvala launch speech here.
