Dieter Shirley I Rethinking infrastructure to Onboard Millions to Web3 | Pragma Waterloo

Mon, Oct 2, 2023, 12:00 AM

Join Dieter Shirley, CTO and co-founder of Dapper Labs and co-author of ERC-721, in this fireside chat with Kartik Talwar at Pragma Waterloo. Dive deep into how Web3 infrastructure must evolve to onboard millions of users. From the lessons of CryptoKitties and the creation of Flow blockchain, to rethinking smart contract design with the Cadence programming language, Dieter shares insights on scalability, account abstraction, social consensus, NFT evolution, dynamic assets, and cross-chain interoperability. Whether you’re a developer, product builder, or crypto enthusiast, this session is packed with actionable ideas and reflections on the future of blockchain usability and consumer-grade onboarding. 00:00 Intro to Web3 infrastructure and Dieter Shirley 01:04 CryptoKitties and the origins of Dapper Labs 03:15 How putting cats on the blockchain became real 04:50 Crypto onboarding hurdles and early scalability 05:56 CryptoKitties impact on Ethereum and beyond 07:32 Designing Flow to solve user and dev pain points 08:39 Built-in scaling via separation of concerns 10:11 Why account abstraction is critical for Web3 11:15 Moving beyond seed phrases with key management 12:21 Building Cadence: a new smart contract language 14:24 How resource-oriented programming changes security 15:55 Ethereum token ownership vs Flow model explained 17:25 From CryptoKitties to NBA Top Shot to Flow 19:10 Lessons from custodial wallets and Dapper 20:36 Account abstraction enabling hybrid custody 24:05 Gaming UX with account linking and shared custody 25:33 Multi-brand learnings: Top Shot, UFC, NFL All Day 26:37 Missed opportunities for dynamic NFTs and gameplay 28:01 Why mainstream users still need familiar metaphors 29:24 On-chain composable farming game demo 30:48 Open systems and NFT interoperability vision 32:21 Real-time games vs on-chain strategy experiences 33:50 Inspiration from Dark Forest and opcraft 35:18 Designing infrastructure for the next generation 36:18 Zones of sovereignty and social consensus 38:04 Liveness vs safety in blockchain failures 40:20 Bridges, eigenlayer, and shared consensus limits 42:03 Flow’s view on bridging and LayerZero architecture 44:01 Multi-bridge security models and message integrity 45:29 On-chain media storage: tradeoffs and new tooling 48:36 User-side pinning, IPFS enhancements, and ideas 49:10 What decentralization really means to Dieter 50:35 Backward and forward-looking guarantees 52:29 Why participation and censorship resistance matter 53:05 Critique of MEV culture and Flow’s design to prevent it 54:14 Closing thoughts and thank you to Dieter Shirley _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇨🇦 *Pragma Waterloo* The now third edition of Pragma kicked off with a curated series of high-quality talks that sparked thought and discussion among attendees as they were storming into the Auditorium of the CIGI Building. Pragma Waterloo 2023 was an opportunity discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. Watch the full Pragma Waterloo 2023 playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7i8oFx5vCB9qTdadQqAjF0&si=NS2W71SteTbEs4T8 ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Dieter Shirley* X: https://x.com/dete73 ✅ *Follow Flow* X: https://x.com/flow_blockchain ✅ *Follow the Kartik Talwar* X: https://x.com/therealkartik Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/kartik ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _