The Aave community has initiated a criticism of the Ethereum Foundation, which has sparked reposts from many long-time supporters of the Ethereum ecosystem. They believe that Ethereum has a better way of handling the dumping issue, and that the Ethereum Foundation is also controversial in its marketing and promotion…
(Earlier summary: Ethereum ETF sees a net inflow of $2.6 billion in December, growing for 8 consecutive weeks. Can ETH return to glory this year?)
(Context: Bitcoin returns to $95,000, Ethereum surges to $3,400. Is market liquidity returning?)
Aave, the largest lending protocol in the Ethereum ecosystem, yesterday (6th) launched a “diss Ethereum Foundation” statement in the community. Marc Zeller, the founder of Aave’s contribution team, posted on X to criticize the Ethereum Foundation’s inaction in recent years. Zeller believes that most of the idle positions and team leaders in the Ethereum Foundation should be immediately dismissed, and although he did not mention Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, the post also had many people who believed that Buterin should also take responsibility.
Five reform proposals
Zeller mentioned that the Ethereum Foundation should achieve the following five points to save its inefficient ecosystem operations and controversies:
1. Fire 80% of non-developers and current team leaders.
2. Convert the held ETH into long-term, battle-tested collateral substitutes.
3. Cut 95% of sponsorship projects, especially those that only run nodes in specific cities (Vorkuta).
4. Do not dump or borrow Ethereum, use collateral substitutes in lending protocols to borrow money and reduce operating costs.
5. Hand over the Twitter account to people who truly understand Ethereum technology and marketing, such as @JimmyRagosa, @ethereumintern_, and @antiprosynth. They can post 20 tweets per person every day.
How to solve the Ethereum foundation issues
1) Fire 80% of non-dev and current leadership roles on the spot
2) convert the ETH left into a balanced basket of battle-tested LSTs
3) Cut 95% of current grants, especially “run a node in Vorkuta” initiatives
3) Instead of dumping…
— Marc “Billy” Zeller (@lemiscate)January 4, 2025
Community reaction
After the post was made, it sparked extensive discussions, including why the Ethereum Foundation does not handle fund issues through lending protocols. Some community members mentioned that Ethereum has always been reluctant to side with any DeFi or LST protocols, but it has spent $2 billion on maintaining Danksharding and beamchain, while not willing to spend a penny on marketing. This should be an area that needs coordination, otherwise, it should be dissolved.
@0xVoltaireon, a community member who has participated in Gitcoin grant reviews in the past, also fired shots simultaneously, stating that the Ethereum Foundation is just a place full of money:
“The saddest thing I witnessed judging fellowships was that EF has essentially been a honey pot that was captured and drained by the WEF gang. Endless projects with no relevance to decentralisation just using the hymn sheet of social-good fraud.”
— Voltaireon (@0xVoltaireon)January 4, 2025
The post has also led to many long-time Ethereum supporters quoting and reposting “How to save Ethereum,” including Manta core contributor @victorJi15, former eznyme finance core contributor @deepcryptodive, Ethereum OG @intocryptoast, and many others. How to calm down this wave of criticism initiated by the Ethereum internal community depends on how the Ethereum Foundation can regain the lost public support in the near future.
