Ethereum’s Trillion-Dollar Blunder: Proof of Stake or Just Proof of Confusion?

In a universe where the improbable is merely a Tuesday, Ethereum‘s grand leap from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) in 2022 was celebrated as a monumental technological revolution. It slashed the network’s energy consumption by a staggering 99%, which is quite impressive unless you consider that it also might have been a colossal blunder. 🤔

Enter Meltem Demirors, the General Partner at Crucible Capital and former CoinShares executive, who boldly claims that this transition was akin to trading a spaceship for a particularly shiny rock. 💎

Ethereum Missed A $1 Trillion Opportunity

According to Demirors, Ethereum’s switcheroo to PoS has devalued the network faster than a Vogon poetry reading, allowing Layer-2 (L2) solutions to proliferate like rabbits on a particularly fertile planet. She believes these L2 scaling solutions dilute the core Ethereum ecosystem, much like adding too much water to a fine wine. 🍷

Had Ethereum stuck with its PoW model, it could have become a $1 trillion protocol, harnessing a robust energy-computation ecosystem that would make even Bitcoin green with envy. Instead, it seems to have opted for a more leisurely stroll through the garden of missed opportunities.

In a parallel universe where Ethereum retained its PoW model, it could have driven innovation in GPU computing, much like how Bitcoin miners propelled advancements in hardware technology. Imagine the possibilities! 🚀

“Proof of Stake was a mistake. Ethereum could have been a trillion-dollar protocol with its own robust energy to compute ecosystem. Instead, MEV extracts billions in value from users and apps,” she lamented, possibly while sipping a cup of tea. ☕

Her argument suggests that under PoW, Ethereum could have sustained a stronger, more centralized Layer-1 (L1) network without the fragmentation introduced by those pesky Layer-2 scaling solutions.

In 2022, Ethereum made headlines as ultra-sound money, achieving ‘zero net issuance’ 55 days after The Merge, which sounds impressive until you realize it followed the London Hard Fork in 2021, where they decided to burn a portion of transaction fees like they were on a mission to reduce ETH’s total supply over time. 🔥

However, recent data suggests that Ethereum has been experiencing its longest inflationary period since the shift to PoS. According to Ultrasound Money, Ethereum’s annual inflation rate is now 0.76%. As of this writing, the network issues 943,000 ETH annually while burning only 27,000 ETH annually. Talk about a math problem! 📉

This contradicts the earlier deflationary narrative that positioned ETH as a better store of value than Bitcoin, which is now looking more like a bad joke at a cosmic comedy club.

“At the current rate of network activity, Ethereum will not be deflationary again. The narrative of ‘ultra-sound’ money has probably died or would need much higher network activity to come back to life,” CryptoQuant analysts recently highlighted, possibly while shaking their heads in disbelief. 🤦‍♂️

Was Ethereum Ever Meant to Be Money?

Recently, Peter Szilagyi, a key Ethereum team lead, stated that ETH was never meant to be money. This revelation is like discovering that your favorite childhood toy was actually a prototype for a highly advanced alien weapon. 😱

“ETH was never meant to be money. ETH was meant to support a decentralized world, which does entail ETH having value. That said, none of the OGs wanted ETH to be money, ever. Bring forth the tar and feathers,” Szilágyi wrote, possibly while preparing for an angry mob. 🏴‍☠️

What would its ultimate purpose be if ETH was not meant to be money? Critics argue that this lack of a clear vision weakens Ethereum’s long-term value proposition, much like a spaceship without a destination. Despite these changes, the Ethereum network is witnessing significant scaling activity.

Vince Yang, CEO of zkLink, noted that the EIP-4844 upgrade remains beneficial for Ethereum, especially for Layer 2 networks, which are now

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2025-03-21 12:01