Ethereum == MySpace

Ethereum has had a first-mover advantage when it comes to smart contracts and Defi. But there are already pretty clear signs that it’s a jack of all trades and it isn’t doing anything particularly well. So let’s not kid ourselves here: it’s on its way to becoming crypto’s MySpace.

• It’s ultra unsound money. Constant changes to the base protocol, some of which proved to have near-fatal bugs, make it an untrustworthy SoV. PoS increases implementation risks and will anyways make the network more centralized and thus less neutral than Bitcoin. Sure, EIP1559 will have a nice effect on pumping the price of ETH but it will still be as much an SoV as AWS credits are.
• Users don’t care about decentralization. BSC already flippening Ethereum in terms of transactions, continuing increase in traction for other more centralized chains, and the proliferation of sidechains like Polygon show that users don’t really care about decentralization on the application layer, but care more about usability/performance/low fees. Even if L2 finally makes a dent there are major caveats. Bitcoin will be the base money protocol whereas other, more centralized chains will be basically layers on top of Bitcoin’s base layer through bridges. Even protocols on top of Bitcoin like RSK/Stacks will eat into Defi. Ethereum is stuck in the middle.
• It doesn’t have a clear vision. Retail normies have no idea what Ethereum really does and would rather go all in on dog coins. It’s a playground for web devs and early investors who can afford the stupendously high fees. Web2/Tradfi normies have lately been joining in on the altcoin casino fun. But it won’t ever be a platform for banking the unbanked.