ETHEREUM AND ITS INNER CONTRADICTION Ethereum is having an identity crisis on three axis. But all of them stem from one contradiction. Let's explore. world computer <> onchain economy ETH as a productive asset <> ETH as money feminized wef soyboy <> bronze age mindset — Axis 1: world computer <> onchain economy Ethereum has won as DeFi's Manhattan. It's the capital of the onchain business world. Even with Solana crushing it, DeFi TVL on Ethereum is 10x Solana's. World computer was a great motto when we didn't know precisely what people would use the computer for. Now that we know — it's DeFi — why not market it as such? The entire economy is going onchain, and Ethereum is its capital. Axis 2: ETH as a productive asset <> ETH as money ETH managed to establish itself as a productive deflationary asset after The Merge. Since then, all progress in burning supply has been reversed. Why? Blobs. The idea is that L2s will only be Ethereum aligned if they can settle on Ethereum for very cheap. Thus Ethereum forego 90% of its revenues to effectively subsidize L2 growth. The theory is that Ethereum will export ETH, the asset, as the gas token for all its L2s. Two issues here: 1. This gives a lot of leverage to the L2s, who own distribution. It is unknown whether L2s can just keep asking for subsidized blobs forever. 2. L2s don't have to use ETH as their gas token — they can even use a stablecoin. @jessepollak, for example, thinks that Ethereum should only monetize Base's activity later in the growth curve. Ethereum is a $400bn protocol, I'm not sure it can sustain that valuation with no revenues. I don't think Coinbase could, either — no matter if it has great growth prospects or not. Axis 3: feminized wef soyboy <> bronze age mindset There has been a growing sentiment that Ethereum is the "woke chain" and Solana is the "chad chain." Ethereum indeed displays some signs of wokeness: it seems to feel ashamed and guilty of its own success. When Trump launched a DeFi project on Ethereum, he was heavily criticized by the community. When Trump launched a meme coin on Solana, the Solana community rallied around him. The tides are changing though: more and more ethereans recognize that the wef soyboy times are over. It's wartime. Vitalik doesn't seem to agree. But this last one is, perhaps, where it all stems from: how Ethereum's culture feels about money and success. In 2016, we were a bunch of libertarians and some leftist revolutionaries. 2017 marked Ethereum's first success: capital formation (ICOs). The community's reaction marked Ethereum's first failure: to disregard ICOs as scams and look down upon them. This was a contradiction, as Ethereum funded itself with an ICO. In contrast, think about how Solana embraced memecoins — even if they are less useful than ICOs — at least some ICOs helped fund useful infra and products. @AragonProject, for example, helps govern >$30bn today. Does this constant self-loathing mindset remind you of something? Yes, the woke mind virus. Vitalik says that the EF is neutral — I don't doubt they are trying their best, but it's not the EF that I worry about anymore. The virus has spread across the whole ecosystem. Vitalik is himself more of a leftist revolutionary. I don't think he feels good about capitalism, and he projected that onto the Ethereum community. You cannot win if you feel guilty of winning.