Chia was supposed to be a less wasteful version of Bitcoin that would remain inherently decentralized, but already three days before release it's chewing through the high-end SSD supply chain, and the number one request farmers have is to be able to centralize into big farming pools. And these pools won't be along some co-operative model where everyone can pool their existing plots—pooling will require re-plotting, so the centralizing dynamic will be in full swing.
This was not just predictable but repeatedly and boringly predicted, and yet here we are. Good luck getting high-performance drives next year because Bram Cohen went and reinvented bingo.
The immense technical sophistication of this project, coupled with the failure to anticipate even the most basic first-order effects, make me wonder what's going on in the minds of the founders.
I think you may be making a false assumption that sophisticated and interesting technology reflects some sort of moral intention.
I find it at least a tad disingenuous to ponder this "What could this soon-to-be-very-wealthy technologist possibly have been thinking?" line of thought. It's cliche at this point.
I've met Bram Cohen and have no difficulty believing he's sincere about his aims, and also so smart in some dimensions that it's overflowed into foolishness.
This was not just predictable but repeatedly and boringly predicted, and yet here we are. Good luck getting high-performance drives next year because Bram Cohen went and reinvented bingo.
The immense technical sophistication of this project, coupled with the failure to anticipate even the most basic first-order effects, make me wonder what's going on in the minds of the founders.