Author: Haotian

Translation: Wu Blockchain

Over the past few days, amidst attending talks and numerous social events, I’ve been absorbing a wealth of information. Among it lies the frustration of builders grappling with a market indifferent to technical narratives, the joy of secondary market FOMO resulting in MEME successes, and of course, the disorientation of those like me — old-value coin holders who remain devoted to the integrated development of technology, markets, and products but feel increasingly out of place with the prevailing industry ethos.

Frankly, I’d love to find an answer to this contradiction, fragmentation, and sense of powerlessness, but I know it’s unlikely. So here are some scattered thoughts that have been floating in my mind these days.

1) The Ethereum main event attracted a large crowd and offered a range of sessions, but few stood out. The only somewhat eye-catching one, “Beamchain,” was misinterpreted by the market. Beyond the market’s disappointment in secondary market performance, Ethereum is undoubtedly in a “delivery phase” for its roadmap and technical innovation narratives. This means mediocre innovations go unnoticed, and minor issues are magnified geometrically, leading to FUD.

2) Despite being the largest Devcon in Ethereum’s history, Bangkok hosted 100+ events during these days, with no clear main theme. Ethereum became a mere stage, while the “performances” went unnoticed. More people channeled their enthusiasm into niche vertical tech sessions or recreational side events like parties and barbecues. I focused mainly on ZK, chain abstraction, and BTCFi, finding more value there than in the main conference.

3) The rising wave of MEME culture is undeniable. While I attend sessions exploring the cultural roots behind MEME tokens, I often say, “Eliminating meaninglessness is itself meaningful.” If technical narratives fail to deliver and lack wealth effects (i.e., meaninglessness), then isn’t the community’s turn to MEME tokens the greatest meaning?

I firmly believe MEME has value in carrying community emotions and attracting new users. However, the core theme of innovation — where mainstream VCs invest money, builders invest time, and holders invest their MAXI commitment — must not wane. Otherwise, if project teams and VCs openly manipulate MEME tokens, the industry could fall into financial nihilism. Wouldn’t that spell disaster for crypto?

4) Ethereum’s community is deeply fragmented. Superficially, it’s about the lackluster price action, but fundamentally, it’s the tension between “right-wing” groups holding core resources but resisting openness and “left-wing” groups on the fringes fighting for change.

Ethereum maintains the strength of its monolithic chain approach, ensuring that technical iterations and standard optimizations are inherently orthodox — but it’s slow. Take account abstraction (AA), for example: the 4337 standard has birthed numerous AA wallets, but despite receiving grants and working extensively, they’ve gained little user traction. Meanwhile, in the age of multi-chains, chain abstraction solutions are emerging, offering more flexibility, wider reach, and user-centric construction.

How does Ethereum respond? By relying on Vitalik’s endorsement and technical orthodoxy, masking stagnation and resistance to new challenges under the guise of protecting technical purity. Let’s not forget that many chain abstraction solutions also use AA standards as core primitives. This is the “internal struggle” I refer to. Similar dynamics exist in areas like AVS and zkVM.

5) The “external challenges” (in quotes) Ethereum faces aren’t true threats but rather potential breakthroughs in its stable delivery phase. For instance, Optimism has delayed launching its fraud-proof system, and when hurriedly launched, some OP Stack chains failed to sync.

What’s the response? The so-called external challenges come in the form of zk-optimized optimistic proofs based on AVS security consensus and ZK technology, accelerating adoption. Similarly, while the Verge phase promises SNARKs on Ethereum, systems like Risc-V and zkMIPS have long provided generalized zkVM solutions. EigenLayer’s AVS security consensus paradigm, though yet unproven, complements Ethereum’s delivery challenges with its financial attributes.

Why doesn’t Vitalik advocate for AVS mechanisms? It doesn’t deviate from Ethereum’s decentralization ethos but could integrate a vast amount of external innovative development into its ecosystem. In my view, zkVM, chain abstraction, and PayFi represent three rising “insurgent forces” rallying on the edges, launching their assaults on Ethereum’s fortified walls. If Ethereum regards these innovations as external challenges, what exactly is it protecting?

6) Many fail to understand Ethereum’s alignment and contraction strategy. Indeed, when a decentralized organization reaches such scale, everything should be left to the community to battle, conflict, and evolve, while Ethereum enjoys the outcomes.

But Ethereum’s ecosystem is a large ship with limited agility, meaning its challenges and solutions often have existing market parallels. I’ve been particularly interested in discussions about Ethereum L2 interoperability. How will these siloed Layer 2s “align”? As expected, the talks were as unproductive as departmental blame games in corporate meetings. You sense activity but no results.

The timeline for balancing internal interests, achieving interoperability, and benefiting developers and users remains uncertain.

7) Regarding CEXs, the offline gatherings are rife with conspiracy theories. While I rarely analyze issues from a conspiracy perspective, I understand why MEME tokens have replaced VC coins as exchanges’ new favorites. The intricate dynamics of liquidity accumulation, exit strategies, and cost-effectiveness aside, it all boils down to interests.

Facing growing on-chain TXs and shrinking trading volumes and user bases in mainstream tokens, exchanges naturally make choices favoring their interests. Calls for exchanges to guide the industry’s values are futile. The market’s choice is never wrong, and if it is, corrections will follow. I only hope that most of us won’t become collateral in this on-chain and off-chain organizational struggle.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for now. Each point could be expanded into an essay, but after days of exploring, the broadening of horizons and inner exhaustion coexist. Positive feedback and negative emotions — who will prevail? I tend to let them cancel each other out, allowing my inner crypto faith to shine. Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve heard anyone mention “faith.”

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