TLDR
Hi everyone. While writing a proposal on translating Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains, I realized an concern for discussion: I suspect that for many members, this may not align with the goals of LXDAO. In my understanding, LXDAO is a community focused on development, primarily targeting developers and providing public products in the web3 world (particularily for developers). Members might not interest in engage too much in disseminating web3 knowledge and facilitating discussions and interactions with people from other backgrounds , which, I think translation is mainly about.
Why do I propose to translate this book:
- In the web3 world, Buterin is one of the leaders, maybe the most important one, so this book can also be considered as an important document in the web3 field. By sampling articles and searching their titles on Google , many articles in this book did not have suitable Chinese translations yet.
- Furthermore, if the translation quality of this book is good enough and receive recognition from readers (I assume the main readers of this book would be researchers, students, and those with relatively elite backgrounds), it would have a positive impact on LXDAO’s reputation and popularity (social capital, cultural capital, etc.).
Why I‘m not sure about the value of this idea to LXDAO community
- Buterin is well-known among Chinese individuals with computer science degrees or related business backgrounds, especially those with overseas experience and from elite institutions. Therefore, I believe this group would not be very interested in this proposal. If they wish to understand the content, they will make the effort, and they already have the necessary knowledge and language skills.
- Applications like ChatGPT and other “artificial intelligence” have greatly facilitated translation and reading tasks, making this project seem somewhat redundant.
The problem and my thoughts
However, information on this topic is scattered and of uneven quality on the Chinese internet, making it difficult for ordinary people (such as practitioners in other industries and students) to understand it (In my opinion).
If we believe that web3 will be the future of the internet, by having LXDAO translate this book into a high-quality open-source edition now, we can provide Chinese readers with some possibilities to understand web3, participate in web3, think about web3, and even change web3. If we cannot invite people outside of web3 to join, I don’t think we can influence the ecology of the Chinese internet.
So the target audience for this proposal is ordinary Chinese people without relevant backgrounds. Therefore, are educational or communication-related items something that the LXDAO community is willing to invest energy in? I am not sure about everyone’s thoughts and would like to see how you see the value of translating this book or similar documents (like the Ethereum EVM illustrated).
介绍
嗨，我在写作关于翻译《权益证明：以太坊的形成和区块链的哲学》的提案时，意识到一个问题，想和大家讨论：我怀疑对于很多成员来说，这件事可能不符合 LXDAO 的目标。在我的理解中，LXDAO是专注于开发的社群，它也主要针对开发者，提供 web3 领域的公共产品（与开发者有关的）。不太会将精力放在 web3 知识的传播以及与其它背景的人之间产生的讨论和互动上（我认为翻译大概属于这一类内容）。
为什么提议翻译这本书
- 在 web3 领域，布特林是领袖式的人物，因此本书也可以被看作是 web3 领域的重要文献。通过对文章抽样进行谷歌搜索，本书中的许多文章还没有合适的中文翻译。
- 如果这本开源书籍的翻译质量足够好、制作足够用心，受到读者（可以想见，本书的主要读者会是相关研究者、学生等具有相对精英的背景的人）的肯定，那么这对 LXDAO 的声誉和调性和知名度（社会资本、文化资本）也会产生积极的影响。
为什么担心这个想法是否与 LXDAO 社群理念相贴合
- 对于计算机科学和相关商业背景，尤其是有海外背景以及受过精英教育的中文使用者来说，布特林已声名在外。相应的，我认为这一群体也对这一提案也不会有多大兴趣，若有心了解自会付出精力，而且这类人已有相关知识储备和语言能力。
- Chatgpt 等“人工智能”应用大大方便了翻译和阅读的工作，因此这件事好像显得有些多余。
问题和我的想法
- 但在中文互联网，这方面的消息散乱且良莠不齐，对于一般人（其它行业的从业者、学生等等）来说，了解它的难度比较大。
- 如果我们相信 web3 会是互联网的未来，现在 LXDAO 将这本书翻译成高质量的开源译本，则为中文读者了解 web3、参与 web3、思考 web3、甚至改变 web3 提供了一些可能性。如果我们无法邀请 web3 之外的人进来，我们也不可能影响中文互联网的生态。
- 本提案所针对的需求对象是没有相关背景的普通中国人。因此，这类与教育或者传播相关的物品是否是 LXDAO 社群愿意投入精力去做的？我不确定大家的想法，也想先看看大家如何看待对于翻译这本书或其他类似文献的价值。