Ethereum’s heed has been struggling, notably when put next to bitcoin and solana. The value of 1 ETH when put next to one BTC is down 30% in the past year, and the ratio has been repeatedly declining at some level of the final three years, after peaking in November 2021.

Why is that this taking place? Many expose Ethereum’s reliance on Layer 2 solutions, which some articulate were “parasitic” to the most important Ethereum Layer 1. Critics argue that Ethereum’s “rollup-centric scaling roadmap” has taken the level of curiosity some distance flung from enhancing the unpleasant layer itself. But any other part is the migration of the Ethereum neighborhood to platforms honest like Farcaster, leaving X—the set mighty of the retail crypto attention resides—dominated by initiatives delight in Solana that hang adopted a more aggressive public presence.

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Video: Are Layer 2s Parasitic to Ethereum and ETH as an Asset?

Some hang pointed fingers at Vitalik Buterin for now not “bull posting” sufficient—i.e., pushing Ethereum with the identical energy that other blockchain leaders comprise. In response, Buterin posted a meme in boring August that contains a bull wearing a signal announcing “Ethereum is correct.” But now, it appears delight in the meme is popping exact into a truth.

This week, Buterin printed two main blog posts addressing some of Etheruem’s main challenges. In them, he proposed lowering the staking requirement from 32 ETH to 1 ETH, making Ethereum more accessible, and supported the premise of “single-slot finality,” which would possibly well well decrease transaction finalization occasions to 12 seconds. He additionally reaffirmed his commitment to scaling Ethereum to 100,000 transactions per 2nd via “The Surge,” combining sharding and L2 solutions.

Read more: Ethereum’s Key Impartial for ’The Surge’ Is 100,000 TPS: Vitalik Buterin

In end, Buterin appears to hang long gone “founder mode.” Not simplest is he standing by Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, nonetheless he’s additionally specializing in scaling Ethereum’s Layer 1—a anxiety that’s been a rising topic at some level of the neighborhood.

One part that sets Ethereum apart is its excessive decentralization. There’s no CEO to manage with marketing and marketing and marketing or hype the mission with bullish tweets. And to be vivid, Vitalik has by no method truly cared about ethereum’s heed. There’s a clear custom in the Ethereum neighborhood that appears to almost forget heed actions, notably when put next to the tribes supporting Solana or Bitcoin. Buterin himself has expressed on more than one occasions that he desires blockchains would transfer beyond exact being about money.

This orientation has now not long gone left out; without mentioning Buterin by name, DeFi entrepreneur Kain Warwick criticized him and the Ethereum Foundation in a tweet in August “being anti DeFi.” But on the side of his contemporary posts, it appears Buterin is doubling down on making Ethereum now not exact quicker, nonetheless more decentralized and accessible for all individuals—no matter the value of ETH.

Buterin stepping up mirrors a broader pattern, as Ethereum’s key figures, honest like Steven Goldfeder, CEO of Offchain Labs (the group in the back of the Layer 2 answer Arbitrum), hang additionally adopted a more vocal stance. Goldfeder has been pushing back in opposition to claims that L2s are now not a allotment of Ethereum, even getting exact into a though-provoking alternate with Solana investor Kyle Samani.

Now, with Vitalik seemingly embracing a more active feature, the interrogate is: can ETH bag its footing, or will it proceed to walk in the shadow of its competitors?

Read more: Ethereum Has Had a Banner Yr in Most Areas. Excluding Trace.