- A prominent Ethereum developer has left the project.
- Many Ethereals are rebelling against the state of crypto.
- Vitalik Buterin stepped in to right the ship.
Ethereum has lost its luster – at least for one of its core developers.
Nick Conner, a star developer in the ranks of Ethereum, bid farewell to the project amid simmering discontent among several stakeholders.
“I’m no longer a dot eth,” Conner wrote on X on Tuesday.
“Dot eth” is “dot com” for Ethereum supporters, a subtle nod that transforms the bearer’s online username into a mark of allegiance to the blockchain project. It is derived from the suffix a user gets when creating an Ethereum service name for their wallet address.
This is the latest setback for Ethereum. It has failed to keep up with rivals Solana, XRP and Bitcoin over the past year. Despite optimism that the launch of Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds would replicate the success of US Bitcoin ETFs, the price of Ether has lagged its rivals.
It is even said that XRP could eventually overtake Ethereum as the second largest crypto.
Self-exile
Conner’s self-exile from the so-called “maxi Ethereum” ranks is seen as a visible symptom of a broader crisis brewing within the project community.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, called the news a “bad sign” for Ethereum.
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Conner co-authored EIP-1559, a major change in Ethereum code that transformed the network’s transaction fee market.
Explaining the reason for his decision, Conner said there was a disconnect between the direction of the project and the desires of the community at large.
Many Ethereum stakeholders have expressed similar sentiments and directed their discontent towards the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization that oversees the project’s development.
The organization has been criticized for failing to support the second largest cryptocurrency.
Angry Ethereals
Its critics have ridiculed the foundation’s large budget and lack of use of the network. These failures caused Ethereum to lose ground against its main rivals, they lament.
Aya Miyaguchi, the foundation’s executive director, is even facing calls for her removal from her position as foundation director.
Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin said changes are underway within the Ethereum Foundation leadership team.
Buterin, however, reprimanded prominent Ethereals responsible for vitriolic comments directed at Miyaguchi and other stakeholders.
“If you keep the pressure on, you create an environment that is actively toxic for top talent,” Buterin tweeted.
He warned the dissident crowd to tone down their rhetoric or he would have little interest in carrying out their wishes.
Ethereum at $10,000?
Of course, this is not just a disaster for Ethereum.
When its price rose above $3,500 in November for the first time in months, analysts suggested it could be the start of a bigger rally.
British bank Standard Chartered predicted that Donald Trump’s election victory would be one of the catalysts that would propel the digital currency to $10,000 in 2025.
Other bullish signs include growing institutional interest in Ethereum and crypto in general.
Crypto market players
- Bitcoin is up 0.7% over the past 24 hours to $104,175.
- Ethereum fell slightly during the same period to $3,276.
What we read
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our DeFi correspondent based in Nigeria. It covers DeFi and technology. Do you have any advice? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
