Six Major Complaints from an Ethereum Developer
Author: Reid
Compiled by: Jiahua, ChainCatcher
When you don't want to blame those who have turned Ethereum into what it is today, you say, "ETH has received its deserved market cap limit." But the reason this limit is what it is now is due to specific individuals and specific dates, rather than some abstract coordination theory.
Before making accusations, let me make a statement. As an early financing participant, I am still developing on Ethereum. I respect its vision and liquidity.
At the same time, I am also a disgruntled holder who is stuck, and this is the key point: this is an insider speaking candidly, not a Solana shill throwing stones from the sidelines.
Not in Power, Yet Retiring Honorably
At some point between 2021 and 2023, the discourse of the Ethereum Foundation shifted.
"We are building" turned into "We are infrastructure."
Vitalik shifted his focus from the Casper specification to articles about diversity, multiple identities, and network nations.
David Hoffman's portrayal of a "trustworthy, neutral, and generously giving noble image" is precisely the rhetoric mature institutions use to justify ceding ground.
This is acting like a sitting ruler before even securing the position. In the market, your posture leads to outcomes. Acting like a winner before winning is precisely why challengers take your job.
Ethereum has not yet won the chairmanship but has already positioned itself as an honorary retiree, and the price chart accurately reflects this: since the merge, ETH has dropped about 65% against BTC.
Environmental Promotion is a Signal
The core marketing of the merge is to reduce energy consumption by 99.95%. Go check the official Ethereum website. This choice exposes the Ethereum Foundation's communication target: they are speaking to their own conscience, not to the market. Institutions want returns. Developers want certainty. Users want cheaper transactions.
Promoting ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) instead of user experience indicates that Ethereum is answering questions that capital providers never even asked.
For years, ESG critics and climate activists have used carbon emissions issues to attack PoW. This attack has no effect on Bitcoin because it is unfounded, and more importantly, those allocating capital simply do not care.
Ethereum spent its most significant narrative moment defending against a harmless attack instead of promoting speed and returns. Meanwhile, Solana is promoting speed.
Seven Years in the Making
Proof of Stake (PoS) has been on the roadmap since Ethereum launched in 2015. Vitalik was discussing the slasher algorithm as early as early 2014. The merge did not take place until September 15, 2022. It took seven years from the announcement, spanning two complete crypto cycles.
Solana launched its mainnet beta in March 2020. While Ethereum spent its most significant narrative window delivering PoS, Solana delivered wallets, multiple decentralized exchanges, aggregators, money markets, and the foundation of an alternative DeFi tech stack.
The cost is not just the passage of time on the calendar but also the dominance window required for ETH to enter the 2021 bull market. By the time PoS was implemented, the debate over modularity versus monolithic structures had become a hot topic, and Ethereum was no longer in a dominant position.
Lack of Native Staking User Experience
PoS is central to the argument of "ETH as currency." Issuance discipline. Native yield. Sound money.
Three years after the merge, the Ethereum Foundation still has not launched a first-party staking application suitable for ordinary users. The official route is: operate using command-line tools on a completely offline computer, stake at least 32 ETH, and also run and maintain a validator node yourself.
Users can only circumvent this through Lido, which still maintains around 25% of the share. Vitalik himself has pointed out this centralization risk.
Every asset that wants to become a currency has a default custody and yield pathway. Bitcoin has Bitcoin Core. The dollar has banks. Yet the most important currency characteristic of ETH lacks a standardized interface.
When an organization does not want to compete, it will say, "We do not pick winners." This is a constructive failure hidden beneath all other failures.
A Managed Decline
The rollup-centric roadmap clearly weakens the base layer. EIP-4844 will go live on March 13, 2024. The blob base fee will be at or near 1 wei for most of 2024 and 2025. Ethereum's quarterly fee revenue has dropped about 95% from the peak of $4.3 billion in Q4 2021.
Arbitrum's own marketing blog states: "Arbitrum L2 occupies 90% to 98% of the operating profit margin." By mid-2025, Base will account for about 70% of all rollup profits. Every major L2 has issued its own token, leading to severe fragmentation of capital flows within the Ethereum ecosystem.
This cannot be justified by architecture. From a revenue perspective, this is a strategic surrender. The timing of the base asset being hollowed out coincides with Solana proving that an integrated L1 can capture fees and accumulate value for its native token. Modularity does sound elegant in slides.
Ideology Over Product Delivery
This is an uncomfortable topic. The vocabulary of the Ethereum Foundation is filled with philosophical meanings: trustworthy neutrality, public goods, secondary financing, diversity, regeneration, multiple identities. Ethereum culture values philosophical correctness over product victory.
Vitalik writes articles trying to distance this chain from financialization, while at that time, the only thing the market was willing to pay for was precisely financialization.
Call it "wokeness" or "academic capture," it doesn't matter what you call it. The essence is the same. Every successful consumer tech company optimizes for what users truly want, rather than pursuing philosophical purity.
The iPhone is closed. AWS is centralized. Uber broke legal restrictions. Stripe ignored established standards. They delivered what users didn't even realize they wanted and built a moat.
Solana is organized around one question: what do users want, and how do we deliver it together? The ecosystem coordinates with each other, products combine, and value returns to the base asset.
Ethereum, on the other hand, is organized around philosophical purity.
One side is focused on doing the work, while the other is engaged in empty philosophical talk.
When you stop competing, you start calling yourself a "noble giver."
A Real Diagnosis
Dressing up the current downturn as a "decent fig leaf" is self-deception. The true essence is accumulated execution debt.
What hinders development is not a coordination issue. It is a delivery issue. Ethereum had an absolute structural advantage in 2021 but spent its best three years on governance debates; meanwhile, Solana, as an ecosystem, collaborated efficiently and completed the pricing of the next L1 cycle without Ethereum's participation.
"ETH has received its deserved market cap limit" is correct. This deserved limit is simply below the expectations of the bulls and below my own expectations. The reasons behind it are specific execution failures, not some coordination theory.
Selling off because the logic "has been realized" is a decent way to exit. The truly honest statement is: the sell-off is because Ethereum has given up fighting for asset appreciation.
You may also like
SpaceX vs Tesla vs xAI: Which Elon Musk Trade Has the Biggest Upside in 2026?
OpenAI Reveals It Has Confidentially Submitted an S-1 to the SEC, Keeping the Door Open for a Future IPO
On June 9, according to an OpenAI announcement, the company recently confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), beginning the preliminary compliance process for a potential initial public offering. OpenAI said it chose to disclose this proactively because it expected the news might leak; however, the company has not yet set a specific listing timeline, and related arrangements may still take some time.
Latest research from 13 top universities including Cornell University: The current state, challenges, and misconceptions of the fusion of Crypto and AI
Deconstructing Anthropic: The Best AI Company, Possibly Also a Type of Organizational Invention
Apollo and Blackstone Reportedly Back $35 Billion Anthropic Chip Financing as Deal Details Remain Unclear
On June 9, according to currently available news alerts, Apollo and Blackstone Group participated in a $35 billion financing for an Anthropic “chip project.” Based on the original wording of the report, the funding has already been raised, but public information remains limited. The financing structure, use of proceeds, project entity, and whether Apollo and Blackstone participated through equity, debt, or project financing have not yet been disclosed.
Humanity Protocol Security Incident Escalates: More Than $31 Million Stolen From Related Addresses as Attacker Continues Selling H for ETH
On June 9, according to monitoring by Onchain Lens, more than $31 million has been stolen from addresses linked to Humanity Protocol, and the attack is still ongoing, with the hacker continuously swapping H tokens for ETH. Project founder Terence Kwok later confirmed the security incident on X, saying the issue involved a private key leak.
Bloomberg: As Bitcoin Weakens, Stablecoins and RWA Continue to Drive Expansion in Crypto Businesses
In June, Bloomberg reported that despite Bitcoin falling below $60,000 last week, wiping out about $235 billion in market value within seven days, and dropping close to 50% from last year’s peak, some core businesses in the crypto industry are still expanding, mainly in stablecoins, real-world asset tokenization (RWA), payments, and infrastructure. The report also noted that overall altcoin activity has contracted significantly: altcoin market capitalization has fallen from a peak of about $431 billion in November 2021 to around $170 billion, and among the tens of millions of tokens issued in recent years, fewer than 1,700 still maintain meaningful trading activity.
Galaxy Deep Research Report: How Hyperliquid's HIP-4 Upgrade Changes the Landscape of Prediction Markets?
Binance Research: RWA Market Expected to Expand Nearly 6x from Early 2025, with Public Equities and Onchain Payments Heating Up Together
In June, Binance Research said in its monthly market report that the real-world asset (RWA) market is expected to grow by about 589% from the beginning of 2025. Bond- and money market fund-related RWA expanded by about $6.5 billion, up 83% year over year, while publicly traded equity RWAs grew by about 422%. The report also noted that monthly crypto debit card transaction volume exceeded $747 million in May, up 48.6% year to date.
Japan to Assess a Framework for Yen Stablecoins and Crypto ETFs as Asia’s Compliant Payments Narrative Heats Up
Recently, according to the original report, Japan is considering the launch of yen stablecoins and cryptocurrency ETFs. Public information remains limited at this stage, and there is still no complete policy text, regulatory draft, or clear implementation timeline, so this is better characterized as a “policy discussion” rather than formal implementation. The original wording also noted that advancing stablecoin regulation in Asia is driving XRP usage and supporting growth in the XRPL ecosystem. However, based on currently available public information, there is not enough evidence to directly establish a clear causal relationship between this round of discussion in Japan and XRP or XRPL.
ZachXBT: Humanity private key leak and abnormal surge in H token should be viewed separately
On June 9, according to related disclosures, on-chain investigator ZachXBT posted an update on Humanity’s roughly $31 million security incident, saying that after further analyzing fund flows, he currently tends to believe the project team was not involved in an “inside job” or a self-staged attack. According to him, the official explanation about the private key leak was broadly accurate, but before the token unlock, the price of H had been artificially pushed higher, and the hacker later took advantage of that market environment; therefore, the private key leak and the earlier abnormal price pumping should be regarded as two separate and independent events. This reframing has shifted the market’s understanding of the nature of the incident. Earlier discussion around Humanity had focused on whether the team directly participated in the attack or used the security incident to cover up internal operations. ZachXBT’s latest remarks shift the focus from “whether it was self-theft” to “whether there were pre-unlock market structure issues.” He also questioned whether the team may have.
Morning Report | OpenAI has submitted an S-1 registration statement draft to the U.S. SEC; Morpho completes $175 million financing
Morning Report | BitMine increased its holdings by 126,971 ETH last week; trader Eugene announced his exit from the crypto market
Wang Chuan: How can one not feel anxious after the neighbor Old Wang made thirty times profit by investing in storage stocks? (Seven) - A quarter-century cycle
Cryptocurrency CEXs are flocking to sell US stocks, and traditional brokerages are facing an "uninvited guest."
$75 billion in foreign capital has fled, and South Korean retail investors have absorbed it all using leverage
Japan’s Three Megabanks Plan Joint Stablecoin Issuance in Fiscal 2026
MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho reportedly plan to jointly issue fiat-pegged stablecoins in fiscal 2026, signaling Japan’s growing push into bank-led digital payment infrastructure.
Humanity Discloses H Token Dual-Chain Attack Details, With Losses on Ethereum and BSC Exceeding $36 Million
Humanity said the H token attack across Ethereum and BSC caused more than $36 million in losses after leaked ProxyAdmin keys enabled malicious contract upgrades and token minting.
SpaceX vs Tesla vs xAI: Which Elon Musk Trade Has the Biggest Upside in 2026?
OpenAI Reveals It Has Confidentially Submitted an S-1 to the SEC, Keeping the Door Open for a Future IPO
On June 9, according to an OpenAI announcement, the company recently confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), beginning the preliminary compliance process for a potential initial public offering. OpenAI said it chose to disclose this proactively because it expected the news might leak; however, the company has not yet set a specific listing timeline, and related arrangements may still take some time.
Latest research from 13 top universities including Cornell University: The current state, challenges, and misconceptions of the fusion of Crypto and AI
Deconstructing Anthropic: The Best AI Company, Possibly Also a Type of Organizational Invention
Apollo and Blackstone Reportedly Back $35 Billion Anthropic Chip Financing as Deal Details Remain Unclear
On June 9, according to currently available news alerts, Apollo and Blackstone Group participated in a $35 billion financing for an Anthropic “chip project.” Based on the original wording of the report, the funding has already been raised, but public information remains limited. The financing structure, use of proceeds, project entity, and whether Apollo and Blackstone participated through equity, debt, or project financing have not yet been disclosed.
Humanity Protocol Security Incident Escalates: More Than $31 Million Stolen From Related Addresses as Attacker Continues Selling H for ETH
On June 9, according to monitoring by Onchain Lens, more than $31 million has been stolen from addresses linked to Humanity Protocol, and the attack is still ongoing, with the hacker continuously swapping H tokens for ETH. Project founder Terence Kwok later confirmed the security incident on X, saying the issue involved a private key leak.
