* Ethereum Geth and Parity clients need to be upgraded due to security risks (30% or parity clients and 40% of Geth clients have not upgraded) This weakens the network itself and leaves it more vulnerable to hackers.

https://youtu.be/GNiDN9Zm9vk

The patch for a security flaw of the Parity client was released back in February and another was released the first week of March but [according to data found](https://srlabs.de/bites/blockchain_patch_gap/) on ethernodes.org up to 30% of Parity nodes have not been upgraded and are therefore still vulnerable to hackers crashing them remotely. 

There is a very similar story for Geth clients as well.
While many of these security updates occur automatically for the Parity nodes, some of the patches still require the node operator to manually upgrade its client. Geth clients on the other hand do not automatically update by design. 
If any of you watching this video happen to run either a Parity or Geth node for Ethereum, it seems like chances are your node is still vulnerable to remote crashing. 

If you care much about the network that you are actively participating in (or maybe a bit passively participating in) I highly recommend you take the time to update what needs updating. There is a strength in decentralization, but if the majority of the decentralized nodes are vulnerable, the network is also vulnerable. 

## Speaking of participating in a decentralized network: This crypto space is about much more than owning a strange crypto coin and hoping that the price skyrockets. 
*It’s about creating platforms and opportunities to participate in something called self-governance, where quite frankly it’s my opinion these are your best bet for having a vote that really matters.*
 You hopefully have heard of the phrase, “vote with your dollar” well there are a lot of new platforms that now exist which put this into literal practice. 

Take for example the [MakerDAO](https://makerdao.com/en/). Now I won’t be going into detail in this video exactly how this platform works, but to give you a basic understanding:

The Maker platform brings together collateralized loans, stable coins and community governance like this:
Holders of Maker tokens can stake their coins in a way that represents how they would prefer to enact certain changes. Most relevantly, the platform holds a weekly vote to determine the percentage of fees to be paid by those who have taken out loans on this platform. These fees play an integral role in determining the stability of the Dai token. Reason being, these fees determine how many of the Dai tokens are created to match the demand and establish a peg to the US dollar. 

Sounds pretty cool right? In theory I’d say it is, but in practice at this point it seems like only two people who take their voting abilities seriously and as is par for the course here in crypto land, there’s one troll who just likes to stir the pot. 
There are [a lot of kinks that Maker needs to work out](https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-votes-to-decrease-stablecoin-fees-for-first-time-in-5-months) in addition to inspiring more participation from the community, which I won’t be going over right now, but I will be speaking more about it in future videos. 



**But this issue begs the question, do you participate in any voting systems like this? Why or why not?**
When considering the masses, I can’t help but think they won’t want to be inconvenienced like that every week and will more than likely result in said platforms becoming centralized despite their efforts to allow for decentralized governance. 
Instead, I think it’s much more likely that a platform will be successful if they are able to integrate with pre-existing trends, which unfortunately seem to be going the way of convenience and passivity. 

#### What are some ways that you are seeing cryptocurrency projects successfully integrating with pre-existing trends? 



# Additional Reading/Links:

[Geth & Parity Issues](https://www.coindesk.com/unpatched-ethereum-clients-pose-51-attack-risk-says-report) 
[Security Research Labs Findings](https://srlabs.de/bites/blockchain_patch_gap/) 
[Maker](https://makerdao.com/en/)
[MakerDAO Voting](https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-votes-to-decrease-stablecoin-fees-for-first-time-in-5-months)