By Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum network may be in the process of “detaching himself” from his creation and possibly trying to allay concerns over the impact his potential departure may have on the future of the company.
In a tweet on 5 October 2018, Buterin said
“I think Ethereum can absolutely survive me spontaneously combusting tomorrow at this point”.
As part of a social media debate which covered various issues including his support of Ethereum-based altcoin projects, Buterin said that Ethereum itself could now continue even if it were impossible for him to continue contributing to the project. When asked whether he was planning to make a change, Buterin alluded that such a change was “in progress”, without providing any further details.
Ethereum and Bitcoin, Relative Offerings and Market Support
Ethereum continues to face mixed market reactions which recently saw the ETH/USD hit 15-month lows of below $170. In some cases, the price broadly conformed to forecasts while other analysts have favored a rebound, claiming that Ethereum could take a substantial share of Bitcoin’s market ostensibly because Ethereum offers a broader degree of uses and because it is backed with a superior blockchain technology.
Still, others disagree with this analysis, stating that each of these two market leaders is designed to solve a different problem and that the market share of the one is largely dissociated from the other.
Ethereum is not just a digital currency, but a blockchain-based platform with many aspects. It features smart contracts and it uses its currency, “ether”, for peer-to-peer contracts. Its smart contracts use blockchain stored applications for contract negotiation and facilitation, and the blockchain provides a decentralized way to verify and enforce the contracts, making fraud or censorship extremely difficult. Ethereum also allows for the creation of digital tokens that can be used to represent virtual shares, assets, proof of membership and more, and these smart contracts are compatible with any wallet, as well as exchanges that use a standard coin API.
In comparing Bitcoin with Ethereum, Bitcoin has at times been described as “a one-trick pony”, and thus limited in its application, whereas the application of Ethereum is touted as being much broader. Bitcoin delivers fully decentralized and censorship-resistant money, whereas blockchains have the disadvantage that they could be shut down with the flick of a switch. Detracting from Ethereum’s “superior” technology are issues such as scaling and network congestion.
Ethereum and Bitcoin are therefore vastly different projects with different intentions. Bitcoin has emerged as a relatively stable digital currency, while Ethereum aims to encompass more, with ether as just a component of its smart contract applications. Ethereum also has the potential of being used by other third-party entities such as Bitfinex, eyeing Ethereum as the basis for the nascent decentralized exchange industry.
Buterin’s Potential Withdrawal from Ethereum
Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap and its network has a strong developer ecosystem. Some consider its blockchain to be one of the most actively developed in the crypto industry, citing the example of the Constantinople update due to be taken to Ethereum’s TestNet in the near future. Other major developments are the migration from current Proof of Work consensus algorithm to Proof of Stake, the improvement of Ethereum’s coding language Casper and its fusion with scalability project Sharding, amongst others.
Yet with the possibility of Buterin exiting Ethereum, one can’t help wondering what the impact on this crypto giant will be.
What do you think of Buterin’s possible withdrawal from Ethereum? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
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