In a heated response to allegations that the Ethereum Foundation irresponsibly sold its ETH holdings, co-founder Vitalik Buterin strongly denied the accusations against X. In an explanation, Buterin provided a detailed overview of the financial practices of the Foundation and its contributions to the ecosystem. .
The controversy arose after an X user accused the Ethereum Foundation of “dumping” ETH, implying that such actions had a negative impact on the price of ETH. Buterin quickly reached out to X to address these concerns, pointing out that not only had he not sold any ETH himself recently, but the amount of ETH he held had actually increased.
Is the Ethereum Foundation abandoning ETH?
On October 26, 2024, he clearly refuted the rumors, stating: “I haven’t sold a single ETH in the last month? The amount of ETH I hold has actually increased. Answering further questions about the ETH Foundation’s actions, Buterin explained the significant expenses incurred by the Foundation, which are crucial to the development and maintenance of the Ethereum network.
“The ETH Foundation pays the researchers and developers who are responsible for (ensuring Ethereum doesn’t bleed 5 million ETH/year for proof of work, your fees are low today and your transactions are included in less 30 seconds instead of 1 to 30 minutes (EIP 1559), show some respect,” Buterin said.
Buterin then expanded on the Foundation’s contributions, detailing several key initiatives that underscore its commitment to technological advancement and network security. He mentioned the development of zero-knowledge (zk) technology, which facilitates the private use of ETH, citing projects like Railway as an example.
Additionally, Buterin discussed advances in account abstraction technology, which aims to simplify user interactions with Ethereum by eliminating the need for traditional seed phrases and mitigating centralized points of failure reminiscent of the Sam incident Bankman-Fried (SBF). This innovation “will allow normies to use ETH securely without seed phrases *or* SBF-like central points of failure,” the ETH co-founder wrote.
Buterin also highlighted the Foundation’s role in promoting a global Ethereum community through local events around the world. He noted that many of these events often downplay the Foundation’s involvement, even though they play an important role in spreading knowledge and promoting collaboration between developers and enthusiasts.
Network security and reliability were other focal points of Buterin’s defense. He proudly stated that Ethereum has maintained zero downtime due to denial of service (DoS) attacks and consensus failures since 2016. Additionally, he credited the “various security work (internal development and grants) from the Foundation which avoided numerous losses of funds.
Buterin concluded by highlighting the Foundation’s contributions to the broader Ethereum ecosystem, including “libraries in every type of code you use (wallets, defi apps…).”
At press time, ETH was trading at $2,521.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
