Shai (Deshe) Wyborski@DesheShai
Partnership announcement
I am thrilled to announce a new partnership that has been in the making for a while now. I have to admit, it was hard to keep it under wraps, so I did troll a little bit about it.
The name of the project I will be cooperating with starts with a Q... followed by a U...
Yup, you guessed it! @QuaiNetwork generously offered me a grant to support my work on educational proof-of-work content!
I've had a lengthy conversation with the wonderful @jdowning and @mechanikalk, and it appears that we are very much aligned.
It is always a pleasure to see entrepreneurs who understand the value of education, documentation, and scientific communication, and how crucial it is to the process of removing obstacles and friction in the way of new contributors. In a world where satellite projects often shut down due to a lack of support, it is reassuring to encounter individuals who recognize that educational and technical content is far more than just the icing on the cake.
In light of potential concerns over conflicts of interest, I would like to commend these gentlemen for their integrity. In the past, I have expressed critical (though not dismissive) opinions about some of Quai's approaches. Whether it is things that I think need more elaboration, or interpretations I downright disagree with. I clarified that I will not renege on or suppress my opinions. Gladly, they responded that they won't have it any other way. As research-oriented individuals who greatly respect theory and science, they strive to succeed by overcoming obstacles, not suppressing them. I have tremendous respect for this mentality, and honestly, despite being a bit concerned about bringing this up, their response just made me want to work with them even more. (It also helps that they are already in partnerships with several well-respected researchers I'd love to cooperate with.)
Other things we discussed (and were in perfect alignment on) are that I maintain complete creative control, and that my role at Quai is non-ambassadorial. I mean, I can represent Quai in spaces/conferences if I feel like it, but I'm not expected to.
Our work together will shape itself as it goes, but the initial plan is to pursue it in three channels:
1. I will resume working on my book. The focus of the book will change, and it will no longer be a book dedicated to GHOSTDAG.
In a sense, this was always my original vision. Understanding GHOSTDAG is what I came up with when I tried to adapt it to Kaspa's needs. Trading off a lot of universal proof-of-work knowledge to accommodate a detailed documentation of Kaspa's implementation of GHOSTDAG, pruning, and other "exotic features"
The original book I wanted to write is just called "Proof of Work". It aspires to provide a more thorough treatment of the various existing approaches to PoW, rather than outlining a geodesic path to GHOSTDAG, and go into essential and interesting subjects such as quantum-mining, merged mining, selfish mining, the depths of difficulty adjustment (I'll need your help for this one @zawy3!), and many more.
I hope to create a book that devs of any PoW project can read to learn how to make better design choices, and general academics who want to delve into the nitty-gritty of proof-of-work can read as a primer. Quai also generously offered to provide data from their simulations to support the theory in the book with empirical demonstrations.
2. The video I planned to create about the history of proof-of-work protocols will be expanded into an entire series of videos, covering many more stops along the way, basically providing a video companion to the first two chapters of my book (in its extended, not-yet-written form).
3. I will lend my skills to help Quai in the "usual" ways: writing tech posts, participating in public and private discussions, brainstorming research ideas, and helping bridge the gap between R&D (research and development) and R&D (rubes and degens).
Can't wait to get started!
And for PoW fans, from Quai or otherwise, I will take the opportunity to remind you that we have a small TG community where I hope to cultivate a more general tech/theory PoW and crypto discourse, everybody is welcome, link in bio.
Let's do this!
