d/acc: A Review and Outlook One Year Later

Decentralized Accelerationism ( d/acc ) was proposed a year ago, and we have seen the practice and development of this concept in multiple fields. This article will review the core connotation of d/acc, explore its applications in areas such as artificial intelligence safety and cryptocurrency, and look forward to future development directions.

The Connotation and Denotation of d/acc

The core idea of d/acc is: decentralized, democratic, and differentiated defensive acceleration. It emphasizes the construction of technologies that can tilt the balance of offense and defense toward defense, while avoiding the transfer of more power to central authoritative institutions. These two aspects are closely linked: decentralized, democratic, or free political structures tend to thrive when defense is easily implemented, while they face severe challenges when defense encounters numerous difficulties.

One way to understand d/acc is to compare it with the concepts generated by abandoning decentralization, defensiveness, or acceleration.

1. Decentralization accelerates, but ignores "differentiated defense": this may avoid the risk of specific groups implementing a dictatorship over humanity, but fails to address potential structural issues.

2. Differentiated defense acceleration, but ignoring "decentralization and democracy": accepting centralized control to achieve security goals may lead to the center itself becoming a source of risk.

3. Decentralized defense, but exclusion of acceleration: Attempting to slow down technological progress or promote economic recession, this strategy faces dual challenges.

In contrast, d/acc is dedicated to:

• Adhere to principles and build specific things to make the world safer and better.
• Recognize the inevitability of exponential technological advancement and enhance protective capabilities.
• Build technologies that genuinely protect us, rather than relying on the assumption that "good people ( or good artificial intelligence ) will control everything."

Artificial Intelligence Security and Regulation

In the face of the risks posed by artificial intelligence, d/acc has proposed some countermeasures:

1. Liability mechanism: Holding accountable for damages caused by artificial intelligence can be directed towards users, deployers, or developers.

2. Global "soft pause" button on industrial-scale hardware: has the ability to reduce global available computing capacity by about 90%-99% during critical periods.

3. The role of d/acc technology in AI risks: Network defense, biological defense, information defense, etc. can address potential attack methods of artificial intelligence.

Cryptocurrency and d/acc

There is an important connection between cryptocurrency and d/acc:

• d/acc is the extension of the fundamental value of cryptocurrency to other technological fields.
• The cryptocurrency community is the natural early adopter of d/acc technology.
• Many cryptocurrency technologies can be applied in the d/acc thematic area.
• There are win-win cooperation opportunities in adjacent technologies.

Public Goods Funding

Powerful decentralized public goods funding is crucial to the d/acc vision. Mechanisms like deep funding attempts to address challenges in public goods funding, such as avoiding central planning and enhancing funding rigor. This is significant for supporting open-source science and technology projects.

Future Outlook

In the coming decades, we face important challenges, such as the rapid arrival of powerful new technologies and the decline in global cooperation. However, we now have powerful tools to accelerate the work process:

• Artificial intelligence can be used to build other technologies and improve governance.
• Large-scale coordination becomes possible
• Cybersecurity technology is constantly advancing
• Breakthroughs have been made in biotechnology

d/acc provides us with a framework to build a brighter 21st century while protecting human existence, freedom, and agency. Although the task is challenging, we are confident that we can handle it.