- Ethereum developers have seen harsh criticism from several crypto community members following its slow price growth.
- Vitalik Buterin has responded to these criticisms, stating how developers have been addressing some of the concerns of community members.
- Ethereum could see a further rise as it outperforms Bitcoin for the first time in May.
Ethereum (ETH) saw a quick rally on Friday, posting a 5% gain as its co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, responded to recent criticisms from the crypto community.
Read more: Ethereum drops below $3,000 again, spot ETH ETF sparks debate in crypto community
Daily digest market movers: Processing speed, Buterin’s response
Ethereum scaling solutions and layer 2s are yet to register higher processing speed compared to many other layer 1 blockchain networks despite the recent Dencun upgrade, according to data from CoinGecko. Ethereum and its scaling solutions achieved a total of 500 transactions per second (TPS), 50% lower than Solana and 70% lower than Sui.
Meanwhile, following Ethereum’s slow price growth compared to Bitcoin and Solana, many crypto community members on X have targeted core Ethereum developers through a series of criticisms.
Many criticized Ethereum’s “acceptance of MEV” after the Department of Justice arrested two brothers for an MEV-related exploit on the number one smart contract blockchain. Others complained that Ethereum folks need to post more about the protocol and its updates.
Read more: US Department of Justice charges brothers for alleged 12-second MEV fraud
One X user, @chainyoda, shared his plight:
Ethereum has a very bad case of cosmos infection. Last cycle the ethereum discourse was human usable apps like uniswap and aave. This cycle all the ethereum devs and investors speak only PhD eg based sequencer, shared sequencer, intercontinental rollup… and one else gives a fk
— chainyoda (@chainyoda) May 17, 2024 More importantly, Geth core developer Peter Szilagyi expressed dissatisfaction with the several upgrades the Ethereum network has undergone in a short while. “My criticism is that you (Ethereum developers have) […] have abandoned due process and rushed to hotfix things.”
Private transactions. Check.
Proprietary settlements (MEV). Check.
Staked Ether issued by central auth. Check.
0 local miner tips will nuke local stakers.
Gigagas hardware reqs will nuke local nodes.
Voila, the banking system recreated. All privately held and operated.
— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) May 16, 2024 The increased concerns sparked a series of posts from several Ethereum core contributors, including Josh Stark, Tim Beiko, Dankrad Feist and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
Buterin gave a detailed response to these criticisms in a blog post, stating that the concerns raised by community members are valid and “are already being addressed by protocol features that are already in-progress.”
He also stated that several other concerns from the community can be “addressed by very realistic tweaks to the current roadmap.” Buterin addressed three major areas that he believes form the majority of the concerns raised:
- MEV and builder dependence
- Liquid staking
- Hardware requirement of nodes
He discussed how Verkle trees, EIP-4444, robust solo staking, and a peer-pressuring development process for MEV reduction can solve these issues.
“There is a near-unlimited number of blockchain projects aiming for the niche of ‘we can be super-fast, we’ll think about decentralization later.’ I don’t think Ethereum should be one of those projects,” said Buterin.
“We should have deep respect for the properties that make Ethereum unique, and continue to work to maintain and improve on those properties as Ethereum scales,” he added.
ETH technical analysis: Ethereum could attempt to break $3,251 resistance
Ethereum posted a 5% gain on Friday after it broke the $3,103 resistance. The rise follows a general appreciation of assets in the crypto market. However, Ethereum notably outperformed Bitcoin in the past 24 hours after several community members highlighted the ETH/BTC ratio was nearing a bottom.
As a result, ETH short liquidations are outpacing longs for the first time. With a total liquidation of $24.5 million in the past 24 hours, short liquidations sit at $17.54 million compared to $6.76 million long liquidations, according to data from Coinglass.
The recent ETH rise has also caused a spike in ETH open interest, which increased by 6.6% in the past 24 hours. This signifies renewed investor interest in ETH, meaning it may see less sideways movement in the coming days.
ETH/USDT 4-hour chart
If renewed confidence prevails, ETH could attempt to break the $3,161 resistance and, if successful, move past the $3,251 mark. However, it’s important to watch out for volatility in the days leading up to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) decision on spot ETH ETFs on May 23.
Ethereum development FAQs
After the Merge, the Ethereum community is looking at the Sharding upgrade next, which has been slated for sometime later in the year. The development can be summarized in four words, “scalability through more efficient data storage.” The software update will increase the capacity of the blockchain, widening the amount of data that can be stored or accessed. At the same time, all services running atop the Ethereum blockchain will enjoy significantly reduced transaction fees.
A fork is the splitting of a blockchain after developers agree and proceed to implement upgrades. The decision comes after these developers reach a consensus for a software upgrade. The ensuing part will see one part continue with the status as is, while the other one will proceed with new features combined with the former ones. A hard fork basically entails permanent divergence of a new side chain from the original one, while a soft fork is doing the same, only difference being that it is temporary.
EIP-4844 is an improvement proposal for the Ethereum network. The upgrade promises reduced gas fees, which is a valuable offering considering the high transaction cost that continues to daunt crypto players. It has been a long-standing concern for the Ethereum network. The proposal is also referred to as “proto-Danksharding,” with an unmatched ability to increase the speed of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. At the same time, it helps to reduce the transaction cost as everything becomes decentralized.
Gas token is a new, innovative Ethereum contract where users can tokenize gas on the Ethereum network. This means they can store gas when it is cheap and start to deploy the gas once the market has shifted to the north. The use of Gas token helps to subsidize high gas prices on transactions, meaning investors can do everything from arbitraging decentralized exchanges to buying into initial coin offerings (ICOs) early.
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