Core members left to form a "copycat EF", how long can the Ethereum Foundation last?
Author: Kaori & Penny
On January 21, Eric Conner, a well-known core developer of Ethereum, announced his withdrawal from the Ethereum Foundation in a post on a social platform, pointing out that the Ethereum Foundation was opaque andCommunityA series of problems such as disconnection and resistance to change.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has been under fire for a long time, and Ethereum’s weak performance in recent months has further contributed to theCommunityAs dissatisfaction grew, many well-known investors and developers expressed their opinions and dissatisfaction with EF. However, the departure of veteran developers showed that EF’s internal differences had reached an irreconcilable point, and EF was directly pushed to the forefront.
舆论不断发酵，社区的怒火尚未平息之时，民间又悄然成立了 Second Foundation（第二基金会）。
Ethereum faces internal and external troubles and is in urgent need of reform.
Who is Eric?
Eric Conner, a well-known core developer of Ethereum, left the ecosystem community after nearly 11 years of working with Ethereum, citing Vitalik’s rejection of a leadership reorganization proposal.
Eric is a co-author of EIP-1559, a major network change that changes how Ethereum transaction fees work. He is not formally employed by Ethereum but has been consulting, investing, and has been one of the people leading the evolution of the ecosystem since its early days.
On January 21, Ethereum core developer Eric Conner posted on social media, "I am no longer a .eth"I'm done. Maybe one day someone in a leadership role will realign with the community, but for now, I'm out. Deep down, I really want Ethereum to succeed. Good luck."
Later, he wrote another post about why he entered Ethereum and why he chose to leave. Eric first came into contact with Bitcoin in 2012. After the Mt Gox incident, he witnessed many of his friends’exchangeEric and a few friends tried to develop the first decentralizedexchange(DEX) - EtherEx, although the project failed due to premature timing, it allowed him to integrate into the Ethereum community
Eric has previously stated that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is becoming increasingly opaque and out of touch with the community. The Foundation could have cut the budget for 80%, and Ethereum would have operated and developed normally. The problem is that today's Foundation does not report to stakeholders, is gradually sinking into a quagmire and resisting change. The Foundation currently exhibits an "anti-winning and competitive mentality", which has caused many community members to question whether to stay.
The ice is three feet thick, it is not formed in one day
Since last year’s EDCON in Montenegro, industry dissatisfaction with the Ethereum Foundation has begun to become apparent.L2 As a solution to improve Ethereum's scalability, it has been shackled with "Ethereum alignment" since day one, accepting and executing EF's will. Everyone is loyal to Ethereum and wants to be the most EVM-compatible L2This meant that for a long time, the project team was more concerned about how to gain EF's recognition than the products and technologies themselves. The Ethereum ecosystem began to become distorted under the pressure of EF.
The complex nepotism within EF, the constraints of EF on the ideological "orthodoxy" of the project, the gradual escape of major protocols from Ethereum and the backstab, the organization seems to have entered a mid-life crisis, and is in trouble in terms of structure, efficiency and culture. With the meme boom driving the resurgence of Solana, Ethereum's weak performance when Bitcoin broke through the previous highs several times, and Trump's recent issuance of coins on Solana driving Sol to break new highs, Ethereum's decline is fully revealed, and the community's dissatisfaction with Ethereum is gradually fermenting. Under the pressure of public opinion, on the 18th, Vitalik himself issued a post to respond positively to the doubts, explaining that a large-scale change is being made to the EF leadership structure, as well as the specific goals of the change.
A single stone stirs up a thousand ripples, and a crusade against EF ensues.
On the 20th, Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, first published a post expressing his dissatisfaction with L2: "If I were to run EF, I would definitely put pressure on Layer 2 to use the sorter revenue to destroy ETH. Ethereum has a great advantage in this negotiation..."
At the same time, Aave founder Stani Kulechov also said that after reading Ethereum's 2024 budget report, he believed that there were 12 aspects that could be improved to ensure the sustainable development of EF, including slowing down the speed of burning money, reducing the number of employees, and establishing a sustainable income model. But on the 21st, Stani Kulechov posted another article sayingXiaobai Navigation"I am not advocating for the disbanding of the EF, but rather for a better, faster, stronger, and more extensive EF path... We should focus less on internal politics or neutrality and more on advancing technology as quickly as possible."
That evening, Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of Wintermute, a top market maker in the industry, also published an article expressing his views on Ethereum, and mentioned that Ethereum is currently at risk of falling into a "death spiral": "If there were no casinos, the only use of ETH would be to send things in Zazulu, then the price would be very low,SafetyAs the price of ETH drops, fewer and fewer dapps consider itSafety, and will flee to other chains, which could create a very (death) spiral, further driving down prices.”
Facing the sudden attack from the community, EF obviously did not prepare a perfect countermeasure to calm the public anger, and even went the other way by selling ETH in response to the community’s pledge proposal. The next day, Vitalik announced the Ethereum Foundation’s financial update, and the Ethereum Foundation has established a new 3-of-5 multi-signaturewalletEF will use this newwalletParticipate in the DeFi ecosystem and have conducted test transactions on aave.
But the community didn’t seem to buy it, mocking it, “Are you going to sell again?” The anger of the community has not yet subsided in this EF crusade, and the smoke of war is still everywhere.
There is even a second foundation, left or right?
On January 22, market rumors said that Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk had established the Ethereum Second Foundation. Currently, the official Twitter account of the Second Foundation (@2nd_foundation_) has been launched, and Konstantin Lomashuk has also retweeted its first tweet immediately.
On January 23, Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk posted another message saying that this tweet was just an idea and that the "Second Foundation" has not been actually established.
He said that Ethereum is the ultimate world computer, and every member of the Ethereum community can contribute to its growth, development and success. If a second foundation is really established in the future, it must have a clear goal to complement the tremendous work done by current contributors. "Thank you for your support, and I also think that Ethereum needs more organizations to jointly promote development. I will share more ideas after further communication with those who contact me."
Although this plan has not been actually implemented yet, combined with Eric Conner's departure, the community has had a heated debate on the development of Ethereum's internal and external troubles.
No matter how heatedly the Chinese and foreign communities debate, one consensus is that the Ethereum Foundation needs to make a choice, because there is a natural difference between the left and the right, and a person cannot be both left and right. When the industry is in trouble, it needs the idealism of the left, and when the industry is developing, it needs the accelerationism of the right. One netizen commented, "If Ethereum takes the route of building a nation on the Internet, political diversity is inevitable. If multiple foundations can be guaranteed to confront and cooperate, it will lead Ethereum to a greater future."
Second Foundation currently looks like a troublemaker, but some people also expressed their concerns about why they do not expect decentralized organizations to have more control departments to share power. As Vitalik said in an article on January 21, EthereumBlockchainThe future of Ethereum is decentralized, and the Ethereum Foundation is only a part of it. He further pointed out: "EF should not "over-intervene", it should confidently represent the part of Ethereum that it can effectively represent, while consciously creating and nurturing open space for other organizations to represent other aspects of Ethereum. Some of these aspects are even more suitable for a profit-oriented form."
The article comes from the Internet:Core members left to form a "copycat EF", how long can the Ethereum Foundation last?
Investing in ICOs early is the only way to achieve a 10,000x return. Without huge risks, there will be no huge returns. Author: Arthur Hayes Translator: Xiaobai Navigation Coderworld Disclaimer Any opinions expressed in this article are the author's personal opinions and should not be used as the basis for investment decisions, nor should they be regarded as investment advice.
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