Ethereum’s Tariff Tango 🤔

Ye Zhang, a fellow with the grand title of “co-founder” of Scroll, a Layer 2 platform that sounds like something out of a Dostoevsky novel, has unleashed a torrent of criticism upon the so-called “bright minds” proposing to impose tariffs on Ethereum‘s Layer 2 solutions.

In a flurry of tweets, Zhang declared this idea “one of the most toxic” 💀 imaginable for the blockchain’s future. He argues that such a move would be a betrayal of Ethereum’s very soul, trading long-term growth and the promise of a decentralized future for the fleeting allure of quick profits.

Zhang reminds us that Ethereum’s true strength lies not in grasping at every last bit of crypto-currency but in its potential to be the bedrock upon which a multitude of rollups, like Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync, can flourish.

He paints a picture of a vibrant ecosystem where Ethereum acts as the central asset, its value magnified by the success of these rollups. But alas, he warns, these tariffs would be a siren song luring developers away, leaving Ethereum to stagnate in a sea of irrelevance 🌊.

Zhang’s words echo with fervor, but the harsh reality is that Ethereum’s core network is facing a dilemma. As execution shifts to these Layer 2 networks, the once-mighty flow of fees has dwindled to a trickle. This “value leakage,” as some crypto-pundits call it, has sent shockwaves through the Ethereum community.

The once-princely sum of $30 million in fees in March 2024 has shrunk to a paltry $500,000 a year later. This decline has not only impacted Ethereum’s treasury but has also led to a surge in inflation, a bitter pill for those who believe in the blockchain’s deflationary nature.

2025-04-03 07:03

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