jakiro
Jessy(@susanliu33), bitchain vision
Vitalik disappeared on X for over 20 days.
During these 20 days, Ethereum’s price has repeatedly fallen below investors’ psychological defense. On March 12, the exchange rate of ETH against BTC hit a new low, falling to 0.022676, a new low since June 2020.The exchange rate of ETH against BTC continues to decline, giant whales flee during the ICO period, retail investors trampled, and Fuds kept ringing.
In February, a quarrel broke out in the Ethereum community, and the community wanted Vitalik to lower its noble head and see what the industry is playing at the moment.In the face of criticism, Vitalik said that he does not think that the current prevalence of PVP is the best product of blockchain, and that what he and Ethereum insist on is to make better products.
During the more than 20 days when Vitalik disappeared on the Internet, Binance’s two founders, CZ and He Yi, took the lead in playing memes on X. With the investment of Abu Dhabi investment institutions in Binance, a “white cloth market” of Meme on the BSC chain was launched.
In this cycle, the Meme track is popular with PVP, and crazy gamblers are flooding the crypto community.In addition, a wider sense of confusion lingers over the crypto community, and the real innovation that can lead the industry to flourish.
The industry is deserted, and Meme has become the main narrative.People are beginning to miss the summer of 2020 when DeFi is popular on Ethereum.
In the past, it was called “V God”, but now it is called “Little V”.
Once upon a time, people called him “God of V”, regarded him as a spiritual leader, and used him to point out the direction of crypto development.Now people call him “Little V” and ask him to “get out” of Ethereum.
Vitalik’s latest focus was in early February.At that time, the community was filled with voices about Ethereum FUD.Faced with people’s doubts, rational suggestions, or emotional abuse, Vitalik finally responded on X, with the general idea of the response: he does not agree that the current PVP model is the best product, and he pursues better products.As well as facing everyone’s requirements and responsibilities for the reform of the Ethereum Foundation, Vitalik also expressed his fatigue in the advice of people who knew nothing within the foundation.
Vitalik became the target of public criticism, which was unimaginable two years ago.
Groups often desire strong leaders and urgently need an object that they can worship, so as to gain psychological support and guidance.This prompted them to be keen on creating God, infinitely amplifying the advantages of a certain individual, and shaping an omnipotent “God”.Once this shaped “God” cannot meet the people’s excessive expectations, the change in group attitude will be extremely rapid and cruel.They changed from the moment of blind worship to fierce criticism, pushed “God” down from the altar, and vented their disappointment and anger through insults and slander.
Vitalik has gone through a complete process of creating and de-God by an encrypted community.Once upon a time, in the crypto community, what Vitalik said and the ideas proposed pointed out the direction for the crypto industry.Vitalik is willing to express various ideas, such as SBT, network countries, etc. in the early years. They are concepts proposed or strongly supported by Vitalik. It was also under the vigorous promotion of Vitalik that these new concepts were sought after and practiced by project parties in the industry at that time and became a temporary trend.
Especially in a bear market, major projects will be extremely planning a track that will explode in a bull market. At that time, Vitalik was optimistic about Web3 social networking, and entrepreneurs flocked to it, and after a short period of time, they were all out.
As the bull market is approaching, the directions that Vitalik “points” in the bear market have not ushered in a major explosion at the application level in the bull market.Chaos and confusion have become the feelings of most project parties.
Without real innovation, no new narrative that can inspire the industry, the grand occasion like DeFi Summer that once happened on Ethereum has not appeared in the crypto industry again.
The blockchain infrastructure has been built, and the expressways have been built, but there are no cars to run away.The core contradiction in the current blockchain industry has nothing to do with infrastructure.But what can blockchain bring to this world change human life, or products that are the world’s products.What is the answer to this question?
If the answer is payment, it is the answer given by Bitcoin in 2008. If the answer is DeFi, it is the answer given by Ethereum in 2020.The most implemented application in the currency circle can be said to be stablecoins. In various fields such as cross-border payments, it is truly changing the traditional world.
Apart from these, is there no innovation in the blockchain industry?During this cycle, asset launch platforms on various chains are popular, which is just an innovation in asset issuance methods, and the casino core has been replaced with a new coat.Another thing that everyone is optimistic about is the blockchain AI track, which has raised a lot of money, but the bubble was exposed by Deepseek’s emergence.A more prominent problem in this track is that the main body of the narrative is still AI. Blockchain technology can help AI Agent obtain on-chain identity, build economic systems, etc., but it is always matching AI.This track is not a crypto-native track.
In the midst of a wilderness, casinos are considered to be the best product in the crypto industry.Faced with the advice of many people, Vitalik himself and Ethereum can devote more to the gameplay of “casino”.Vitalik refused, “If I look at my heart, I will find something worth fighting for.”
Vitalik also enjoyed the feeling of being praised by people on the altar, and when Vitalik was pulled down from the altar, people also saw his side as a human being.As a human side, in the eyes of some people, this is stubborn, arrogant, and inability to listen to other people’s opinions.But it was also these traits that led him to create Ethereum.
Love that makes time pass quickly when you are young can change the world
Jung once said, “When I was a child, what I did could make time pass quickly and make you happy. The answer is your pursuit in the world.”
For Vitalik, what is worth fighting for has long been written in his childhood experiences.At the age of 4, Vitalik received a computer from his father. Other children played computer games. He was obsessed with Excel software and could soon write automatic calculation programs in Excel. At the age of 7, he created a “Rabbit Encyclopedia” document full of charts and mathematical formulas, and was soon determined to have the talent in mathematics and programming. At the age of 10, his three-digit mental arithmetic speed was more than twice that of his peers. At the age of 11, he began to study mathematics, programming and economics in the “genius teenager class” in advance…
Programming technology itself makes Vitalik happy, and using technology to change the world is his pursuit.Compared with some speculators in the currency circle, he is relatively conservative.
In 2018, Ethereum plummeted and was questioned by the community. Vitalik once warned not to let Ethereum become a “tulip” for speculators to make money.At that time, like now, Vitalik also considered leaving Ethereum and “Should I dorp ethereum and work for Google”.
Questions about Ethereum will appear every time the currency price is sluggish.In the face of community doubts and abuse, Vitalik always thinks of “leave”.
Vitalik has always had his own persistence.The persistence of technology and the vigilance of “bubble” have never changed.It is these persistence that has brought change and innovation to the crypto world.
Looking back at the history of crypto development, the most important innovation leading the development of the industry has occurred in Ethereum, which is the “world computer” in the past decade: Ethereum has widely adopted smart contracts to provide a platform for the prosperity of innovative financial mechanisms such as DeFi such as liquidity mining, and the construction of a variety of second-layer solutions such as Rollups, Plasma, and the practice of Dao’s governance model, etc.
At present, more and more major institutions such as the Trump family’s DeFi project, Sony’s Layer2, and Deutsche Bank’s Layer2 are building Web3 applications and infrastructure solutions on Ethereum.The Ethereum ecosystem is mature and leading in terms of technical resource reserves, development team support, on-chain fund size, client security, etc.
Moreover, Vitalik is not only using Ethereum to realize his technological ideals, but also placing his social ideals on Ethereum, not just limited to Ethereum.For example, the concepts such as decentralization, censorship resistance, and square voting methods advocated by him involve democratic practice, Internet structure, business and public welfare organizations.This puts his influence beyond the crypto community.
Is Ethereum really unsuccessful?
Is there anything else to look forward to in Ethereum?The answer is yes.
In April, Ethereum will usher in the upgraded main network of Pectra.This time, changes in the execution layer (Prague upgrade) and the consensus layer (Electra upgrade) are integrated.Pectra has introduced 11 key Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) to enhance scalability, staking flexibility and user experience.Overall, overall, after this upgrade, the performance and stability of the Ethereum network will be improved at the technical level; at the economic level, the staking economic model of Ethereum will be changed, which will affect the supply and demand relationship and market price of Ethereum; at the application level, it will attract more developers and users to enter the Ethereum ecosystem, promote the innovation and development of decentralized applications, etc.
In the United States, pledged Ethereum spot ETFs may also be passed.In the first quarter of 2025, asset management company 21Shares submitted an application on behalf of CBOE BZX exchange, planning to introduce staking functionality into its spot Ethereum ETF.In addition, Fidelity submitted a S-1 form for the proposed Ethereum spot ETF, which includes the staking function.Grayscale has also applied to provide pledge function for spot Ethereum ETFs.
The implementation of Pectra upgrade is expected to shorten the unbinding period for Ethereum staking, a major obstacle in the initial introduction of staking for spot ETFs.The second upgrade may become a catalyst to promote the passage of pledged ETFs.
There is a consensus in the industry that one of the main reasons why the current spot ETFs are weak is that the current ETFs do not have pledge functions.The launch of the staking function will allow holders of Ethereum spot ETFs to receive rewards for pledging Ethereum.After pledge, investors will receive an annualized compensation of 3 to 3.5%.With the launch of pledged Ethereum spot ETFs, it may greatly increase the inflow of Ethereum spot ETFs, thereby pushing up the price of Ethereum.
Both of the above are substantial positives in the Ethereum price that can be predicted this year.
But the other truth is that the changes that are worthy of anticipation in Ethereum are just some improvements in the foreseeable path.These changes are just to build the highway wider and flatter.This is not a disruptive industry innovation, or a pioneering product or application.
Ethereum’s use cases have actually reached its peak.During this cycle, no projects with the participation of the entire Ethereum main chain have emerged, and the prices have not exceeded the previous high.The highest TVL volume remains in 2021.
Once it was the first choice for building a smart contract platform. Now, when infrastructure in the blockchain world has developed and has more and more, more, cheaper platform public chains to choose from, Ethereum is no longer the only one.During this cycle, public chains such as Solana, Sui, and TON have their own ecological characteristics.The top Ethereum Layer2, such as Base, has also made its own achievements.
Vitalik’s demystification is a good thing for an industry. The industry is developing and mature, and Ethereum is no longer the only one. More up-and-coming stars can compete with it, which can inspire a richer ecosystem.With the establishment of a rich blockchain ecosystem, Ethereum’s importance in the industry will inevitably decline.
Vitalik once said in an interview with Duan Media, “My life is to become a bridge to everything.” Since 2015, the Ethereum Foundation has spent more money on external funding than the internal operation costs.These funding has enabled Ethereum to connect more teams and promoted the development of various projects in the crypto industry.What Ethereum itself or Vitalik does is laying the foundation for encryption.
Ethereum and Vitalik themselves should not bear people’s confusion and anger at the lack of innovation in the entire industry.
“If you look inside yourself, you will find things worth fighting for too.” Vitalik, who knows why he should fight, will return again after a brief disappointment.
People who are confused and angry in the crypto community will also make a choice after asking about their hearts, which is to stay and be a “builder” and calm down on the desolation to create something new.Just leave and go to the next moment to continue to be a shrewd “speculator”.
