Poor Critics - The Daily Gwei #522
Ethereum critics leave a lot to be desired.
There’s long been an issue in Ethereum of a lack of good critics and criticisms that come from outside of its own ecosystem. Typically the criticisms from those outside the Ethereum ecosystem will come from a place of tribalism and irrationality rather than a place of facts/reality. As I point out in my tweet below, this is why you constantly see Ethereum critics shifting the goal posts around - their criticisms are empty to begin with so they don’t cope well with the tests of reality.
The reason that this lack of good criticism annoys me is because I strongly believe that good critics are the lifeblood of a successful ecosystem. I mean, there are countless examples of big companies that went bust because they were just full of “yes men” who never questioned anything - hell, there’s even nations that have fallen apart for this same reason! The importance of good critics cannot be overstated and it’s something we as an ecosystem need to put a broader focus on.
In saying that, I do think Ethereum has compensated somewhat for this lack of good ‘outside criticism’ by bringing it in-house as you’ll rarely see the entire community fully aligned on anything. Even EIP-1559, the most popular EIP in Ethereum’s history, had lots of push-back from within the community which resulted in many studies being done to make sure that EIP-1559 would work as advertised. This is an obvious example of good criticisms leading to good outcomes but again, these tend to only come from within the community (and be limited in nature).
I think that if people were less concerned with scoring ‘dunking points’ with their respective tribe then we’d easily get better critics. But, as we’ve seen time and time again, the easiest way to get attention online is to say inaccurate or outright misleading things that lead to controversy. Saying things like “Proof of Stake is centralized” and “Ethereum is a scam” to your following made up of 90% Bitcoiners is of course going to do well engagement-wise - you’re literally preaching to the choir!
Anyway, I think as long as Ethereum retains its inner-circle critics, it should do just fine over the long-term. Though I do worry that sometimes we’re “missing something” because our good ‘outside critics’ are pretty much non-existent. Maybe this will change over time as we onboard more people into crypto who aren’t tribal about any particular network - or maybe we’re doomed to deal with the poor critics forever - I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.