Vitalik wants a story, DAT wants five, while investors just want to know which one to choose.

Written by: Byron Gilliam

Translated by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

"People always respond better to a clearly expressed single idea. When 'complexity' starts to speak, they tune out." Ken Segall

When Jobs met with the advertising experts at Chiat Day to create an ad for the new iMac, they were asked to pick a single new feature to highlight to consumers.

Instead, Jobs insisted on a 30-second TV ad that could include four or five features he believed everyone needed to know.

The executives at the ad agency argued that no one could remember four or five things and urged him to pick a favorite.

When Jobs refused, the legendary advertiser Lee Clow decided to illustrate his point to his colleagues in a more concrete way.

As Ken Segall later recounted, Clow tore five sheets of paper from a notepad and crumpled them into balls.

Jobs watched as Clow said, "Catch this," and threw one of the paper balls across the table to him. Jobs caught it and threw it back.

"This is a good ad," Clow explained. "Now catch this."

Clow threw all five paper balls at him, and he didn't catch a single one.

"This is a bad ad," Clow told him.

The demonstration seemed to work, as Jobs eventually agreed to let Chiat Day create a much simpler ad than he had initially requested.

"Minimization is key to making a point stick," Segall explained.

"Give people one idea, and they'll nod. Give them five, and they'll just scratch their heads."

Mixed Messages

Over the years, investors have heard many reasons why they should invest in Ethereum: the world computer, digital oil, interest-bearing internet bonds, super sound money, crypto app store, stablecoin chain.

None of these narratives have truly resonated, perhaps because they are often presented simultaneously, like the five paper balls Clow threw into the air.

Last weekend, Vitalik proposed another narrative: "low-risk defi."

Vitalik acknowledged at the beginning of his latest blog post that there is a "disconnect" in the Ethereum community, caused by the seemingly contradictory goals of generating income for token holders while maintaining the chain's neutrality and decentralization.

He hopes that "low-risk defi" will be an application that can "satisfy both requirements at the same time."

If that is the case, it could help integrate many of Ethereum's competing narratives, as David Hoffman anticipated: "Now everything is starting to integrate."

Others are more skeptical. For example, Mert Mumtaz believes that Ethereum's self-imposed technical limitations are incompatible with Vitalik's emphasis on payment and financial inclusion: "You can't serve enough people on L1 because it doesn't scale!"

However, from a marketing perspective, the risk is that Ethereum's investment messaging may become even more fragmented.

"Low-risk defi" seems to me to be a good elevator pitch, distinguishing Ethereum from income-less Bitcoin and over-income Solana; it is specific enough to convey meaning while being abstract enough to remain open-ended; it combines both lofty and pragmatic elements.

But this carefully balanced message may be drowned out by the digital asset treasury companies that are currently shaping crypto narratives.

Joe Lubin stated that this is precisely the clear purpose of his role as Chairman of SharpLink Gaming DAT: "To tell the story of Ethereum."

Unlike Vitalik, he considers traditional investors when telling this story: "What does Wall Street care about? It cares about whether it can make money."

Joe Lubin has at least thrown three paper balls into the air, promoting Ethereum as a productive asset, a monetary asset, and a "trust commodity."

Another major Ethereum DAT, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee, has added stablecoins, RWA, and even AI agents to the narrative mix.

Clow would likely lock them in a room and not let them out until they chose just one message to promote to investors.

However, DATs are more like a competition than a community effort, and Tom Lee is currently in the lead: BitMine holds 2.15 million ETH, while SharpLink holds 838,000.

This tells us something about the power of marketing: Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin is receiving less attention from investors than Tom Lee, who is primarily known for promoting various things on CNBC.

The ultimate outcome of this competition could have real consequences.

For example, Tom Lee believes that once BitMine's ETH supply exceeds a certain magical threshold (5%), it will have too much influence over Ethereum's development.

From a governance perspective, this is unlikely, as no one "owns" the Ethereum network (not even ETH holders).

But I suspect it will be the case from an information dissemination perspective, and information is important.

In this sense, the emergence of a single DAT holding over 5% of the ETH supply could actually help simplify the information that investors hear, thereby aiding the investment argument.

But the DATs themselves are already struggling to maintain message consistency.

For example, Tom Lee's Ethereum DAT recently invested in a Worldcoin DAT, while the Solana DAT—DeFi Dev Corp. invested in a DAT focused on 0G tokens (which do not yet exist).

When even the creators of the information cannot maintain consistency, how can we expect investors to keep up?

The most obvious counterexample is Bitcoin, which has attracted investor attention by offering a single investment proposition: digital gold.

Of course, Bitcoin is much more than that.

For example, I find it much more interesting as a resistant currency.

Others believe what makes it interesting is the Lightning Network.

Fortunately, Lee Clow might tell you that it can have all these characteristics.

With his crumpled paper balls, Clow was not asking Jobs to eliminate four of the five new features of the iMac, but simply to pick one to highlight.

Blockchains and DATs should do the same.

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