Say Ethereum - The Daily Gwei #88
Say Ethereum - The Daily Gwei #88
Say my name.
Before we jump into today’s piece I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who made donations to my Gitcoin Grant during the matching round - it is very much appreciated! Okay, now onto The Daily Gwei!
You may have missed it but a grassroots movement has been springing up in the Ethereum community over the last few months and it’s called the “Say Ethereum” movement. While the movement is mostly informal and more of a meme, there does exist a dedicated Twitter account and a few core community members that spread the message. Though, over the last few days it seems the movement has caused a bit of a stir.
First, it’s good to reflect on why this movement exists. For the longest time (especially during the bear market of 2018/2019) certain media outlets and individuals would omit the mention of “Ethereum” in articles or tweets that were covering things built on Ethereum or within the Ethereum ecosystem. The omission was quite obvious for certain publications and individuals due to their inherit bias whereas for others it was indeed an honest mistake. Now, this brings us to the drama from the last few days.
Arjun Balaji, a long-time crypto community member and investor at Paradigm, penned a piece titled ‘Crypto Market Structure 3.0’ in which he described the evolution of the crypto market over the last decade and where we are today. The piece itself is well written and I enjoyed it but some community members noticed that while the piece talks about DeFi, DEXs, on-chain liquidity and other related things, it doesn’t mention Ethereum even once (while it mentions Binance and Solana). Obviously this set alarm bells off for the “Say Ethereum” movement and they were quick to point this out on Arjun’s tweet.
Now, people pointing this out turned it into a debate around whether Arjun actually purposefully left the word “Ethereum” out of his piece or he just honestly forgot to include it (or didn’t feel the need). Some were arguing that he didn’t need to include the word in his piece since people will automatically think of Ethereum when you talk about DeFi or DEXs while others were arguing that the omission was too clear to just be an honest mistake. On top of these arguments, others like Hasu were quick to point out that Arjun works at Paradigm which invests in and helps some of the biggest projects in Ethereum (Optimism, Uniswap) so why would he want to belittle Ethereum?
I think sometimes people can attribute malice in places that it probably doesn’t exist but I really do sympathize with the viewpoint of those in the “Say Ethereum” movement as if you’ve been around long enough you will no doubt know just how much misinformation and lies have been spread about Ethereum for a long time. A better way to frame it might be to think in terms of trust and unfortunately it’s very hard for many in the Ethereum community to trust that certain actions aren’t malicious or intentional.
Anyway, you may think this whole thing is bizarre or even silly and I’d agree with you to an extent. Though, I think there are still many positives that this movement can work towards but only if they pick the right targets - going after honest people is never a winning strategy.
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.