The World Deserves Ethereum - The Daily Gwei #192
We've got one shot at this - let's make it count.
Ethereum is special for many different reasons and I believe the strongest reason is that it gives us the best shot at creating a truly world-changing platform that no one can control - we need to preserve this at all costs.
The reason why Ethereum is our best shot at what I mentioned above is because it is, by far, the most decentralized smart contract platform in existence today. Iām not just talking about decentralization of network nodes - Iām talking about decentralization of core protocol research & development, app development, the community, Ethereumās token distribution and more. I believe that other platforms are going to have an extremely hard time achieving the same level of decentralization that Ethereum enjoys for a few reasons which Iāll outline below.
These days what you may notice is that pretty much every single smart contract chain now launches itself as Proof of Stake - skipping a Proof of Work phase entirely. I actually believe that this is detrimental for a few reasons. Firstly, the coin distributions of these platforms are typically heavily skewed towards insiders with the community getting scraps (usually after the insiders have scooped up coins/tokens at a steep discount). Secondly, these other chains normally use a form of distributed proof of stake (DPoS) which heavily favors whales and, of course, the whales are usually the insiders who got access to early investment deals. So from day 1 you have a system that is essentially controlled by a small group of validators and the rewards for validating blocks on the network go to them.
Because of the above, it becomes very hard to bootstrap an organic community that actually cares about the platform because they are all aware of the fact that the chain is essentially controlled by a cartel. Donāt be fooled by bull markets either - there will be pockets of people that look like a ācommunityā but in reality they are just here for the gains - it is in bear markets that communities truly come together for reasons beyond just making money and this is why Ethereum and Bitcoin have the strongest communities by far.
Ethereum is also in a special place here because not only is the Proof of Stake mechanism that it is using extremely decentralized and fair, but Ethereum also has had both an āimmaculate ICOā where anyone couldāve participated & no insider deals were had and also a long Proof of Work distribution phase (miners sell their coins to cover costs which distributes them to others). I believe that this is impossible to replicate today which means that Ethereum, just like Bitcoin, has a very unique place among cryptoassets.
Now, back to the statement in my tweet, I would like to pose the question: why would we settle for less than the most decentralized, censorship-resistant, programmable and neutral base layer? The world needs this now more than ever and I believe that we only have one real shot at this with Ethereum. This isnāt to say that other platforms wonāt find their niche or use-cases but they are not even competing in the same arena as Ethereum and probably never will. This is why Iām so bullish on layer 2 technologies - they get to inherit and enjoy the decentralization and security of Ethereum layer 1 while offering sorely-needed scalability gains - we get the best of both worlds with this approach.
At this point you may be thinking Iām being too ideological about this and you might have a point but Iād push back and argue that in order for something like Ethereum to retain its extremely desirable properties, you need a vibrant, dedicated and devout community to ensure that it stays on course. Weāve still got a long way to go until Ethereum takes over the world but I truly believe that the community can work together to get there.
Have a great weekend everyone,
Anthony Sassano
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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.
Amazing post, Anthony. I couldnāt agree more. Kudos to you, mate.