Ethereum Isn't Fun Anymore

Ethereum was a very respectable proof of concept, but it's time is past. It gave a glimpse of a future that is really incredible for those of us who had time to poke around before fees got out of control. Sadly, Eth 2.0 does not look to be the messiah many seem to be preaching about. Sharding is a very questionable design decision.

My take away from dabbling in Ethereum land is that Ethereans, and crypto folks in general, got their values mixed up. They hold decentralization to the highest standard above all else. But upon close inspection, virtually nothing in the Ethereum ecosystem actually lives up to the standard of decentralization. The kinds of decentralization you see are very superficial and largely seem to be intended to dodge regulation above all else (which I have no problem with, but we need to be honest with ourselves).

After using the tech, you realize that whats really valuable about these systems is open APIs for value exchange, permissionlessness, and censorship resistance. The decentralization is not a value add. It is a hedge against counter-party risk. And that is important, especially as we go head first into an increasingly dystopic looking global financial system. But teasing apart these different aspects gives you a much better idea of what to focus on if you want to build the next generation of blockchain technology.

>Face it, there is no sexy killer app for the masses.

It's not only the volatility but also the inefficiency which is the price that has to be paid for the decentralization. I really have trouble coming up with an app where the constant fees that have to be paid for actions are justified compared to a centralized solution.

Asking for Ethereum to be usable by anybody is like asking for machine code to be usable by anyone.

Ethereum should focus on innovation (desperately) whilst other smart people and entrepreneurs should be working layers on top of ethereum so its more accessable to people like us.

For sure, I never said it was actually implemented/feasible. Just that it’s the current vector by which Ethereum is being marketed

That "for some reason" is that's obvious abd straight forward to anyone being honest and not trying to push propaganda is that Bitcoin, and other blockchains structures like it, are MLM schemes - and that it's decentralized and on a global scale is why it's been able to pick up so much energy - aligning people and industrial complexes globally to bring it mainstream.

Design a blockchain system where it's agreed upon consensus and use/adoption is voluntary through democratically elected processes (save regulatory capture), and we'll have a good system that's not unnecessarily and unreasonably transferring wealth from later adopters to earlier adopters. You won't be able to make a fortune on it by buying it and pumping it to make its value goes up, nor will you be able to make money selling shovels to desperate or greedy or gullible people once they catch wind of the "gold rush."

The one major benefit of all if this craziness is that the flood of money into blockchains has meant technology development and many more engineers with experience; whether there are engineers who'd work on non-Pyramid/MLM-Ponzi scheme blockchains though, if they're financially incentivized/aligned with Bitcoin et al, that's TBD.