Core members left to form a "copycat EF". How long can the Ethereum Foundation last?

Author: Kaori , Penny , BlockBeats

On January 21, Eric Conner, a well-known core developer of Ethereum, announced his withdrawal from the Ethereum Foundation in a post on social platforms, pointing out that the Ethereum Foundation has a series of problems such as opacity, disconnection from the community, and resistance to change.

The verbal attack on the Ethereum Foundation (EF) has been protracted for a long time. The weak trend of Ethereum in recent months has also promoted the fermentation of community dissatisfaction. Many famous investors and developers have expressed their opinions and dissatisfaction with EF. , but the departure of veteran developers shows that EF's internal differences have reached an irreconcilable point, and EF has been directly pushed to the forefront.

While public opinion continued to ferment and the community's anger had not subsided, the Second Foundation was quietly established by the public.

Ethereum is suffering from internal and external troubles and is in urgent need of reform.

Who is Eric?

Eric Conner, a well-known core developer of Ethereum, has left the ecosystem community after nearly 11 years of working with Ethereum, citing Vitalik's dismissal of a leadership reorganization proposal.

Eric is the co-author of EIP-1559, a major network change that changes how transaction fees work on Ethereum. He is not officially employed by Ethereum, but has been consulting, investing, and is one of the people leading the ecosystem's development since its early days.

On January 21, Ethereum core developer Eric Conner posted on the social platform, "I am no longer ".eth". Maybe one day people in leadership roles will realign with the community, but for now, I'm out. Deep down, I really want Ethereum to succeed. good luck. "

Later, he posted another post about why he entered Ethereum and why he chose to leave. Eric first came into contact with Bitcoin in 2012. After experiencing the Mt Gox incident, he witnessed many friends suffer heavy losses due to their reliance on centralized exchanges. Eric and a few friends tried to develop the first decentralized exchange (DEX) on Ethereum - 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 disconnected from the community. The foundation could have cut its budget by 80% and Ethereum would have functioned and developed normally. The problem is that today’s foundations don’t report to stakeholders, are getting bogged down and resistant to change. The foundation currently exhibits an "anti-winning and competitive mentality," which has led many community members to question whether to stay.

Three feet of ice does not freeze in one day

Since EDCON in Montenegro last year, industry dissatisfaction with the Ethereum Foundation has begun to manifest. As a solution to improve the scalability of Ethereum, L2 has been shackled by "Ethereum alignment" from the first day, accepting and executing the will of EF. Everyone is showing their loyalty to Ethereum and building the most EVM-compatible L2. This has made for a long time, how to obtain the recognition of EF than the product and technology itself has been the project team's greater concern. Ethereum Ecology began to deform under the pressure of EF.

The intricate nepotism of interests within EF, EF’s constraints on the “orthodoxy” of the project in terms of ideology, and the fact that big protocols are gradually escaping from Ethereum and being backstabbed. This organization seems to have entered a mid-life crisis. In terms of structure, efficiency and culture, are in trouble. With the rise of Solana driven by the meme trend, the weak performance of Ethereum when Bitcoin broke through the previous high mark several times, and the recent issuance of coins by Trump on Solana, which caused sol to break new highs, the decline of Ethereum has been fully demonstrated, making the community pay attention to Dissatisfaction in Ethereum gradually fermented. Under the pressure of public opinion, on the 18th, Vitalik himself issued an article to directly respond to the doubts, explaining that large-scale changes to the EF leadership structure are being carried out, as well as the specific goals of the changes.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and a crusade about EF ensued.

On the 20th, Kain Warwick, the founder of Synthetix and Infinex, first posted a message expressing his dissatisfaction with L2: "If I were to operate EF, I would definitely put pressure on Layer 2 and ask them to use the sequencer revenue to destroy ETH. Ethereum is in this situation It has a great advantage in negotiations..."

At the same time, Aave founder Stani Kulechov also said that after reading Ethereum’s 2024 budget report, he believes that there are 12 aspects that can be improved to ensure the sustainable development of EF, including slowing down the rate of cash burn, reducing the number of employees, and establishing a sustainable Ongoing revenue models, etc. But on the 21st, Stani Kulechov wrote again: "I do not advocate the dissolution of EF, but a better, faster, stronger and wider EF path... We should pay less attention to internal politics or neutrality, and More attention should be paid to advancing technological progress as quickly as possible.”

In the evening of the same day, Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of Wintermute, the industry's top market-making institution, also issued an article expressing his views on Ethereum, and mentioned that Ethereum is currently at risk of falling into a "death spiral": "If there are no casinos, all uses of ETH will be lost." Just send things in Zazulu, then the price will be very low and the security will be very low. As the price of ETH drops, there will be fewer and fewer dapps. Thinking it is safe and will flee to other chains, this could create a very (death) spiral that further reduces the price.”

Faced with the sudden outburst of the community, EF obviously did not take complete measures to calm the public anger, and even went the opposite direction, selling ETH in response to the community's staking suggestions. The next day, Vitalik issued a document announcing the financial update of the Ethereum Foundation. The Ethereum Foundation has established a new 3-of-5 multi-signature wallet. EF will use this new wallet to participate in the DeFi ecosystem and has already implemented it on aave. Test transaction.

But the community didn’t seem to buy it, and ridiculed whether it was “preparing to sell again.” In this EF crusade, the community's anger has not subsided, and the smoke is still filling the air.

There is even a second foundation. To the left or to the right?

On January 22, market rumors claimed that Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk had established the Ethereum Second Foundation (Second Foundation). Currently, the official Twitter account of Second Foundation (@2nd_foundation_) is online, and Konstantin Lomashuk has also retweeted its first tweet immediately.

On January 23, Lido founder Konstantin Lomashuk tweeted that this tweet was just an idea and that a “second foundation” had not yet been truly 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 ever established in the future, it must have a clear purpose that complements the tremendous work being done by current contributors. "Thank you all for your support. I also think that Ethereum needs more organizations to jointly promote development. I will share more ideas after further communication with those who contacted me."

Although this plan has not been actually implemented at present, combined with the departure of Eric Conner, the community has had a heated debate on the development of Ethereum's internal and external problems.

No matter how fiercely the Chinese and foreign communities debate, there is a consensus that the Ethereum Foundation needs to make a choice, because there are natural differences between left and right, and one person cannot be both left and right. When the industry is in difficulty, it needs the idealism of the left, and when the industry develops, it needs the accelerationism of the right. Some netizens commented, "If Ethereum follows the path of network nation-building, political diversity will inevitably exist. If confrontation and cooperation between multiple foundations can be ensured, it will lead Ethereum to a greater future."

The Second Foundation currently looks like a troublemaker, but some people have expressed why they don’t expect more control departments in decentralized organizations to share power, as Vitalik said in an article on January 21 The Ethereum Blockchain The future of chains is decentralized, and the Ethereum Foundation is just a part of it. He further pointed out: "EF should not "overreach", it should confidently represent the parts of Ethereum that it can effectively represent, while consciously creating and cultivating open spaces for other organizations to represent other aspects of Ethereum. Among them Some aspects are even more suitable for a profit-oriented form.”