Vivid. Authentic. Gripping. How Does that Apply to Blockchain Writing?
Let’s face the music: silver-tongued technical authors are rarely met. However, there are some who manage to catch the reader’s attention. One of them is Vitalik Buterin, the founder of the Ethereum blockchain, who is not only a revolutioniser of the crypto industry but also a decent writer. He is the author of books, articles, and even concepts that merge technology and society.
This article’s purpose is to regard Vitaliy’s writing specialties by the example of one of his pieces of work — and I invite you to walk this path alongside me.
Brief Introduction
The concept Vitalik speaks about in his article is Soulbound — a cutting-edge novelty in the crypto world whose idea is to ensure the non-transferability and unchangeability of the data, that is embedded into the blockchain. In fact, soulbound goes as an integral element of Decentralized Society, or DeSoc — an idea envisaging the full integration of Souls — digital wallets, storing the vital information on personality, namely credentials, qualifications, and medical and academical data. In other words, all the documentation, which is not attributed to being altered in any way, can be shaped into its blockchain representation. Besides, Soulbound is the basis for another technology — soulbound tokens (SBT), basically NFTs, but without the ability to be sold or exchanged.
Remarkably, soulbound is just taking up leaving the papers, so the prospects of it are promising yet not fully known. Still, many crypto entities have focused on integrating the technology of souls. Namely, one of the largest European exchanges, WhiteBIT recently announced a contribution to their Network’s Testnet — WB Soul ecosystem, which is reported to become the digital representation of any user in the exchange’s blockchain, as stated in WhiteBIT Blog. To be more specific, the company went even further and created two types of Souls: soul attributes, which are linked to variables, i.e. balance, and soulbound tokens — non-transferable, unchangeable characteristics for event passes and achievements. What is more, the technology enhances KYC verification and prevents the creation of multi-accounts and other manipulations.
So far, we have regarded the two variants of how being soulbound is explained ordinarily, briefly. Now, let’s take a look at how Vitalik does it.
The Pillars of Buterin’s Writing
The quality and decency of Vitalik’s pieces of work can be characterized by four hallmarks: gripping storytelling, vivid narration, authentic disclosure of the topic, and optimal article length. Let’s heed each of these separately.
Gripping Storytelling
Vitalik is clearly keen on implementing storytelling strategies in his articles. In fact, it is really challenging and rarely met in technological content due to the complexity of the basis. Still, Vitalik successfully overcomes this obstacle.
It is worth pointing out that soulbound technology is inspired by the World of Warcraft gaming item. This fact unlocked the possibility of wrapping trivial information into an encouraging narrative.
Case in point:
“One feature of World of Warcraft that is second nature to its players, but goes mostly undiscussed outside of gaming circles is the concept of soulbound items. A soulbound item, once picked up, cannot be transferred or sold to another player.”
And thereafter, Vitalik raises an intriguing question:
“What if NFTs Could Be Soulbound?”,
masterfully referring to his concept with the attributes of in-game design.
Nevertheless, storytelling is not confined to a catchy introduction — this strategy also highlights the sequence and logic of the material. Thus, Vitalik in his article regards the aspects of the topic consistently, step-by-step, until the conclusion is reached: he analyzes the points about soulbound and DAO governance rights, practical usage of the technology, and then “non-transferability and privacy concerns”.
Such a flow of narration not only makes the article more interesting, but also ensures the adaptiveness of information perception.
Vivid Narration
As can be concluded from Vitaliy’s article, the pacing of his writing is pretty eclectic: although it is simple and unpretentious, it is also rich with technical terminology and ornate word constructions, which are not perceived as cumbersome but result in a solid journalistic piece of work that is comprehensible and dynamic.
Notably, the technical definitions are simply explained in Vitalik’s writing. For instance, let’s take a look at this one, in which the author explains one of the benefits of using soulbound for governance rights:
If the goal is for governance power to go to the competent, then transferability is counterproductive because nothing stops the governance rights from being bought up by the determined but incompetent.
Simple and succinct, the information is perceived as even more simple and effective. In fact, this quote is the very case in point of Vitalik’s authentic bits and pieces of writing.
Besides, let’s not forget about the structure, or, to be specific, its visualization. The paragraphs in the regarded article are clearly highlighted, which lets the reader focus on the interesting part or, by contrast, skip the uninteresting one. Additionally, the topic disclosure is strictly structured; hence, there is no vagueness in the information.
Twenty years ago, humanity couldn’t even think about features like this one. We dreamed about the huge digitalization step forward, and now we’re here. And the technology of Soulbound is a clear indicator of such success. It’s sheer luck to watch such progressive technical development, and we’ve got to assist him as far as possible.
