Defense First Decoding Vitaliks Advocacy of dacc

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
Today, Vitalik’s blog has updated a long article titled “My Technological Optimism”, elaborating on his views on recent technological optimism, AI risks, and methods to avoid centralization in today’s world.
The perspective and focus of the article itself are high, and the content is lengthy. Interested readers can directly view the translation.
Vitalik’s blog is often interpreted as a technical beacon, and the concepts within it occasionally stir up waves in the crypto community. In this article, Vitalik also mentioned an important and seemingly unfamiliar yet familiar concept: “d/acc”.
d/acc, this abbreviation that looks like a code symbol, what exactly is it?
Before you fully understand, a trend in the crypto community has already begun:
Many big shots like Solana’s co-founder raj have already changed the suffix of their names to d/acc, somewhat reminiscent of when Vitalik changed his Twitter name to Tunk Woods, causing many accounts to follow suit.
Subsequently, both Ethereum and Solana quickly saw the emergence of dog coins named d/acc, becoming the new target for degens today. From a blog idea to a meme symbol and then to a type of crypto asset, the speculation speed in the crypto community is indeed fast.
But beyond speculation, with a practical attitude, we should also figure out what Vitalik means by d/acc.
Similar to e/acc
The reason why this d/acc looks both unfamiliar and familiar is that a similar term was popular 2-3 months ago – e/acc.
In the article “Silicon Valley Giants are Pursuing “e/acc”, What’s this new thing?”, we have introduced that at that time, A16Z founder Marc Andreessen and YC incubator CEO Garry Tan were the first to add “e/acc” as a suffix to their social media accounts. Afterwards, you would find many people adding these letters at the end of their names.
And this previous trend was related to the discussions in the GPT and AI craze.
The so-called e/acc, translated as “Effective Accelerationism”. If you find it hard to grasp, you can understand it in a simple way:
A typical example is AI, when products like GPT make everyone taste the sweetness and marvel at technological progress, the viewpoint of e/acc should be to continue to vigorously support the development of AI, making it more intelligent and serving more scenarios.
In the eyes of e/acc followers, any innovative idea that provides assumed value should not be denied, even if it seems too absurd, too outrageous, or too far-fetched.
Therefore, using e/acc as a suffix for your account is actually a “attitude display” in the venture capital or tech circles.
What is d/acc?
Let’s go back to Vitalik’s mention of d/acc.
First of all, Vitalik definitely knows the true meaning of e/acc, so based on this, he made an expansion in terms of thinking: acc still means “acceleration”, but the letter d can be given multiple meanings from the representation:
With this word combination, you can extend it to acceleration defense, acceleration decentralization, acceleration democracy, and acceleration differentiation in these directions.
It sounds a bit abstract, but Vitalik in his blog converges the ideas, pointing these different directions to the same concept – a worldview of “defense first”.
Vitalik believes that a defense-oriented world is a better world because it not only directly enhances security, reduces conflicts, but also makes healthy, open, and respectful forms of governance easier to thrive.
What exactly do we need to defend against?
Vitalik elaborated on various aspects of the macro and micro aspects of the world we live in, which also means that defense is actually everywhere:
Cyberattacks: Enhancing internet security to reduce the threat of hacking.
Privacy infringement: By strengthening network security, reducing personal privacy violations and unnecessary international diplomatic strategies.
Information warfare: Combatting fake information and online scams, increasing the authenticity and reliability of online information.
Biological safety and public health: Rapid response to disease outbreaks, such as rapid development and distribution of vaccines, reducing the spread of viruses.
And, what means do we use for defense?
Technical tools and applications: Developing personal defense tools, such as software that blocks network attackers, browser tools that identify scams.
Data security and encryption technology: Using blockchain and cryptography to enhance data security and immutability.
Smart contracts and decentralized applications: Using blockchain technology to provide transparent, secure network services and transactions.
Fast response and innovation: In the field of biotechnology and medicine, responding to health crises by rapidly developing and deploying new therapies and vaccines.
By now, we have actually touched on all the contents of the d/acc concept: accelerating technological development in different fields to defend against potential attacks and risks in different areas.
Considering that Vitalik has given multiple explanations for the letter d, such as defense, decentralization, and differentiation, we can also see how the above measures embody these explanations:
Defense
Security and protection: d/ACC emphasizes enhancing security and protection capabilities in technological progress, especially in the fields of cybersecurity, information security, and biological security.
Against external threats: Defending against network attacks, information warfare, and public health threats through technical means embodies the importance of defense in d/ACC.
Decentralization
Application of distributed technologies: Using decentralized technologies such as blockchain to enhance data security and system resilience, reducing reliance on a single centralized entity.
Enhancing personal privacy and autonomy: Decentralized technologies help protect personal privacy, enhancing individuals’ control over their data and online behavior.
Differentiation
Promoting technological innovation and diversity: By encouraging technological development in different fields, d/ACC promotes diversity of technological solutions to address various challenges.
Differentiated defense strategies: Customizing defense measures in different areas such as cybersecurity and biotechnology.
Overall, Vitalik in his article showcases the practical application of the d/ACC concept through these defense measures and strategies, highlighting the importance of emphasizing security, decentralization, and differentiation in technological development to better form the defensive world he mentioned.
Similarities and differences between e/acc and d/acc
Now we can quickly compare the previous e/acc with Vitalik’s d/acc in terms of concepts:
Overall, whether it is e/acc or d/acc, both emphasize the importance and impact of technological progress, considering the influence of technological development on social structures and operations.
However, the difference lies in the areas of technology and implementation that the two consider, with Vitalik focusing more on improving existing social, economic, and technological frameworks, rather than encouraging complete disruption and progress like e/acc.
Finally, you may feel that these concepts have nothing to do with you or the crypto world.
But in reality, high-level discussions often gradually permeate into all aspects of the industry in a subtle way; staying informed and understanding is not a bad thing.
This article is authorized to be reprinted from Deep Tide TechFlow.