Ethereum's market value reaches 3 trillion! Detailed explanation of the core values of the foundation, could the concept of great love become a stumbling block?

Editor's note: This year, the Ethereum Foundation has sparked community doubts about its governance and financial transparency due to multiple 'coin selling' incidents, even evolving into fear, uncertainty and doubt about Ethercoin. Today, the Ethereum Foundation officially released a report, providing a comprehensive introduction to the Foundation's core values, expenditure details, treasury status, and the overall state of the ecosystem. For details, please see: 'Ethereum Foundation Report in a Nutshell: 2.4 Billion USD Spending in Two Years, Nearly 30% for L1 Development'. Independent researcher Jason Chen Jian has read and analyzed the report on X platform. The full text is reprinted by BlockBeats below:

The Ethereum Foundation has just released its 2024 report. What information can be gleaned from it? Let's take a look.

At the beginning, it emphasizes that the core values ​​of Ethereum are long-term thinking, subtraction, and value management. Regarding long-term thinking, it says that "Ethereum is still very young, and the ecosystem may focus on very short-term goals, but the Ethereum Foundation should balance this trend and cross the peaks and valleys of the cycle" and emphasize that "this means that some behaviors at the moment may not have any return for decades to come". From the beginning, Ethereum has set a goal of long-termism and is not influenced by market fluctuations in its decision-making.

On the subtraction part, it says, 'We do not try to accumulate power and prestige, are willing to give credit to others, support independent organizations, and work quietly behind the scenes.' In fact, this is exactly what we said before, Ethereum is completely altruistic, so it will also make decisions such as fully promoting L2, reducing the cost of DA, allowing L2 to use gas other than Ethercoin to light up others.

From a moral and long-term perspective, I really respect the Ethereum Foundation's values of self-discipline and self-restraint. However, from a business perspective, I still have doubts about whether this concept is too advanced for an organization with a 300 billion dollar Market Cap. I'm not saying we must hype up meme stocks, I don't support that either, but let's not be too selfless.

After setting the tone under the premise of adjusting the values, the next step is to talk about the foundation's spending. First and foremost, the allocation of funds is the key. I have previously analyzed that over 60% of the funds are used to support various projects each year. The report included three cases. The first is the @0xAA_Science's @WTFAcademy_Developer Education Platform, and the other two are the Security Alliance and Devcon. Therefore, for the Ethereum Foundation, education, security, and community are the most valued categories. The following is the cost structure for 2023, totaling $130 million. The largest portion, New Institution, accounts for 35%, which refers to support for various organizations and institutions in the Ethereum ecosystem. Next is Community Development. To be honest, there is a lot of profit in these two areas. I'm not saying that the Ethereum Foundation is corrupt, but from what I know, there are many who take advantage of the Grant issuance standards to obtain excessive returns. After all, the evaluation and issuance in this area are more subjective, unlike R&D, which has more objective evaluation standards.

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The national treasury currently holds 970 million US dollars, 80% of which is Ethercoin. The report states that the financial goal of the Ethereum Foundation is to provide funding for important public goods in the coming years, so it is necessary to regularly sell Ethercoin to ensure sufficient Fiat Currency. However, the entire report does not mention staking Ethercoin, nor does it mention how to increase the financial reserves of the Ethereum Foundation.

The following is the entire fund reserve of the Ethereum ecosystem, amounting to 22 billion US dollars. This includes all the money that can be categorized as the treasury of projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. However, you can also see projects like MakerDAO and DYDX that betray Ethereum and turn to Solana and Cosmos, as well as Polygon, which you really can't clearly define as 'belonging to' Ethereum. This is the problem I mentioned earlier. Ethereum is really too selfless. It is like a very kind parent. No matter how naughty the children are, it will unconditionally treat everyone well, considering everyone as its closest family. Alas, I admire it, but...

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Everyone has their own position and perspective. A healthy ecology allows everyone who has a reasonable and well-founded opinion to exist. Of course, malicious insults, criticism, and yin-yang strangeness are definitely not allowed. I still believe in Ethereum, respect Ethereum, and hold Ethereum, but many times I also feel helpless.

In addition, I actually hope to see greater improvements in transparency from the Ethereum Foundation, especially regarding the entry and exit of core personnel, such as the current election, appointment, and tenure processes of the Foundation's chairman, president, etc. I haven't found any explanatory materials at the moment. I also hope for more transparency in the distribution of grants.

Note: There is a prevailing trend of political correctness in the Ethereum community, where people cannot tolerate different opinions or any negative comments. They label any criticism as FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and respond with all sorts of strange and abusive remarks. It's like playing word games. I will not engage with such individuals and will block them immediately, including those who think this article is FUD.

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[Disclaimer] The market is risky, and investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article are applicable to their specific circumstances. Invest at your own risk.

This article is authorized to be reprinted from: "Rhythm Blockbeats"

Original author: Jason Chen, independent researcher