This post is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of Ethereum.

Author: @ShivanshuMadan

Translation: Plain Blockchain

The depth of this article is comparable to "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind," and it comes at a time when Ethereum needs such insights the most.

Why do I say this?

As Yuval Noah Harari explains in "Sapiens," humans coordinate through shared ideas, which distinguishes us from other species. While most people can maintain about 120 close relationships, we organize around abstract and extraordinary ideas, breaking through this limit: religion, corporations, nations.

The larger the group, the more important these ideas become. They can keep people aligned, moving in the same direction, and attract new participants.

The same is true for blockchain.

Blockchain needs a "why"—a grand, clear idea to inspire builders and users, drive collaborative efforts, and promote growth.

The scale of Ethereum is its scale.

1. Advantages of Ethereum

So far, Ethereum has been able to maintain a relatively consistent direction for several reasons:

1) First-mover advantage: For a long time, Ethereum was the only smart contract platform.

2) Smaller ecosystem: As @parithosh_j pointed out in a recent podcast: in 2018, there were fewer than 10 teams actively developing on Ethereum, leading to faster development and smoother progress.

3) Short-term goals: Ethereum has some smaller guiding goals, like the Merge, which have united the community.

But today, Ethereum has become a $450 billion asset, with the ecosystem expanding to hundreds of teams, each with its own incentive mechanisms. Without a unified idea, these teams will inevitably develop in different directions, prioritizing different upgrades, leading to fragmentation on both social and technical levels.

This not only slows down innovation but also weakens Ethereum's ability to attract users and maintain influence.

2. The Rollup-Centric Dilemma

Since shifting to a Rollup-centric roadmap, Ethereum has found itself in a strange middle ground: The positive side: This shift has attracted a large number of developers into the ecosystem, building applications on Rollups or developing Rollups themselves. There is reason to believe that if Ethereum had not shifted to a Rollup-centric roadmap, these teams might have considered creating an independent L1, which would lead to the fragmentation of Ethereum's influence. The negative side: Rollups siphon MEV and value away from Ethereum's base layer. In the long run, value will flow to the base layer in three ways:

1) Cross-chain MEV (across applications, across Rollups, etc.),

2) Hot congestion fees,

3) Monetary value.

Under the Rollup-centric roadmap, Ethereum currently faces a dilemma:

If all applications migrate to L2, hot congestion fees will disappear.

• Cross-chain MEV currently flows to external bridges and shared liquidity providers, rather than Ethereum.

• The narrative of monetary value is unsustainable—Bitcoin has already dominated this space and is now attracting the attention of institutions and nations.

3. The Argument for a "World Computer"

@jon_charb succinctly stated: Ethereum needs a grand idea to coalesce consensus, and the "World Computer" is the perfect guiding goal.

Unlike the Rollup-centric roadmap, the "World Computer" positions Ethereum L1 as the best platform for both L1 native applications and Rollups. This vision does not push applications out of L1 but makes L1 an equally attractive development option, thereby attracting developers and maintaining the cohesion of the ecosystem:

Hot congestion fees: Applications on L1 retain value for Ethereum.

• Cross-chain MEV: Captured by Ethereum, not external bridges.

• Monetary value: ETH as a core asset continues to appreciate through its use as gas fees in applications and L2.

This approach not only ensures that value flows into Ethereum's ecosystem but also directly empowers the ETH Token. We need to embrace this direction and move towards making Ethereum the "World Computer" with every upgrade and priority decision. This is a unified vision that can accelerate innovation, maintain influence, and solidify its position in the long term.

It is time to choose a clear direction; it is time to ensure that the symbol representing Ethereum is always ETH!

Article link: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/12/5571.html

Source: https://x.com/ShivanshuMadan/status/1864458883772895438

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