Péter Szilágyi, the core developer of Ethereum , is a member of the Ethereum Foundation and the development leader of Geth, the most mainstream Ethereum execution layer client. On the evening of August 5, perhaps after witnessing the violent mood swings shown by the community in the face of violent market fluctuations, Ethereum core developer Péter Szilágyi tweeted with emotion and wondered whether he had chosen the wrong industry, revealing his distaste for the encryption industry. Deeply disappointed and sparked widespread discussion.
The following is Wu Blockchain compilation of the original text and corresponding key comments:
I often wonder if I am in the wrong industry.
Take SpaceX as an example: if they succeed in sending the rocket to Mars, this is progress for mankind; if they fail and the rocket explodes, mankind can learn lessons and improve; all results promote progress.
In comparison, the crypto space is like a casino for fools (apologies to the few). If the market goes up, people are clamoring to buy a sports car. If the market goes down, it will directly affect or even destroy life. What contribution does it make to mankind?
Yes, building a new currency system takes time. Yes... but can we make something useful along the way? Everyone is focused on becoming the next V (probably referring to Vitalik), but no one wants to do anything useful. Everyone is pursuing value extraction.
I really don't see why this system shouldn't collapse? Looking at the big picture, what do we have to lose? All the crypto space is doing is a huge transfer of value, but so far I don’t see any value creation.
Please note that getting rich through luck and then moving the funds into some non-crypto project is not a crypto success story. At most it's a success story of a philanthropic lucky man, but more likely it's the man who simply diversified his investments.
In my opinion, it's time for the industry to create something truly useful that people will want to use, or it should shut down.
At least Bitcoin is trying (albeit failing) to be a safe haven asset. But other projects are like merchants selling shovels without actually creating anything of value. Just like in the gold rush, the people selling shovels didn't care if there was gold to be mined, they just wanted to make a profit. The reality is that these projects do not provide any real innovation or practical value, but only pursue short-term interests and speculative opportunities.
On the evening of August 6, Péter Szilágyi tweeted again:
My complaints about Ethereum/cryptocurrencies are not to discredit them, but to keep expectations realistic.
Our most important mission is to keep those who put their savings into this world out of harm's way. Everything else is secondary.
Promising everything and failing to deliver will lead to rivers of blood in the streets. The same goes for persuading people to get into something they don't understand the risks.
Be honest and admit what is working and what is not, what has been accomplished and what has not. Highlight the risks of each part, including parts that may never come to fruition in the future.
I will always be against creating a frenzy because I don’t want to see regular people being brought down by some billionaire venture capitalist who doesn’t care that you exist.
Yes, I will probably always be in the minority. Yes, this would probably cost me most of my potential gains from cryptocurrencies. I think fairness is more important than financial gain.
Comments and replies
Stablecoins and defi need to be affirmed
The founder and former CEO of the decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform Shapeshift commented: Stablecoins, defi lending (such as Aave or Compound), decentralized exchanges (DEX), privacy coins, many excellent wallet applications, excellent finance Smart systems like Dune or Messari, high-throughput blockchains, there are indeed many great inventions in the crypto field. You yourself may be deceived by the speculative nature of casinos, but you should look beyond the appearances to see the real value.
To which Péter Szilágyi replied: I am by no means saying that nothing of value is created at all. But I feel like the speculative element is too dominant, and we seem to like this phenomenon because it brings money. For the creations you listed:
- I accept stablecoins.
- Borrowing requires collateral, so having on-chain wealth to access it is not really empowering to me.
- Decentralized exchange: Well, this one falls directly into the casino category in my opinion. If we had a lot of strong currencies that people actually wanted to exchange, a DEX would have been an essential tool. But right now, it's more about transactions and doesn't mean anything substantial to me right now.
- Privacy coins: They are not that common and we may see a crackdown on them (think tornado, etc.). I would be happy to see their development and acceptance.
- Wallet: It's just an auxiliary to the rest, but not a use case in itself.
- Dune/Messari: Well, you can analyze the casino situation, but that doesn't make it any less of a casino, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
- High TPS: Yes, we have reached this point, but what do we do with it? I'm using my shovel analogy to express this. Hopefully it will be put to some practical use other than releasing 1000 meme coins.
- I believe there are a lot of great things being built. But didn’t we let MEME coins and Lamborghini sports cars become our spokespersons?
transparent financial system
Crypto KOL @iamDCinvestor commented: Transparent on-chain liquidation is actually a great value-added for humanity.
Péter Szilágyi replied: What impact does this have on the 99.999% of people in the world who have no money to gamble?
@iamDCinvestor replies: 99.999% of people don’t need to use it directly to benefit. A more transparent financial system would benefit everyone because it would result in less behind-the-scenes shenanigans and opacity, lower costs, and more trust. The value may be hard to see if you only focus on degens being liquidated, but it's the important, world-changing ability that I truly believe in.
Péter Szilágyi: Of course, I fully accept that. But if we call it a "world computer" or something like that, shouldn't we build something more directly relevant to ordinary people?
@iamDCinvestor: I agree, we need other applications, at greater scale in other areas, I think we will achieve this huge value settlement layer, which is a good start, but there is more to come, I still think the identity of smart contract wallets, non-monetary digital assets, and other forms of currency will be very important in the future, but at the same time, booms and busts are not going away. Human greed is still too strong, the systems being built are really important for the future, and your work is important.
@0xemon commented: You should spend more time in emerging markets instead of the West. Many people rely on stablecoins and DeFi infrastructure to improve their economic well-being. The problem is that most people don't want to talk publicly about their financial decisions, so you only hear Lamborghini stories.
How to educate and encourage more emerging market investors and users
Péter Szilágyi: Stablecoins may have value. But if you need to rely on cryptocurrencies for financial reasons, are you really the target audience for all these DeFi protocols?
@0xemon: Maybe not, which is why I think we need to encourage more developers and investors from emerging markets. Supporting entrepreneurs in developed markets doesn’t really help target users at the bottom of the pyramid. I know a lot of people who use stablecoins because they live in countries with capital controls and can benefit from saving in stablecoins. They also use it as a form of getting paid. Anything that improves economic well-being is a big benefit to the people who use it.
Unfortunately, casinos take up so much of the market that we often overlook the other benefits. At the same time, however, access to casinos also means access to large amounts of liquidity that are not available to those living in emerging markets. Cryptocurrency is the next level fintech for the emerging market crowd. We just haven't done enough to highlight its unique use cases and support local developers. We’ve been in the decentralized finance space for years, but not a single VC firm has tried to invest in permissionless on-chain microfinance lending. Imagine if more venture capital firms were located in developing countries…
@nicnode commented: Look at how cryptocurrencies are being used in Latin America and other emerging markets – literally saving many lives. Bolivia is currently going through a huge crisis and the only refuge people have to ensure they have access to their savings is cryptocurrencies.
Péter Szilágyi: But they will not use the DeFi protocol, nor uniswap or nft.
@nicnode: Yes, they will in the future (some already have), but education (and easy translation) is still a long way off. In Latin America, most banks offer predatory lending rates, and DeFi solves this problem.
@vladlykhonis commented: Funding wise. Unfortunately though, no one funded anything "useful".
Péter Szilágyi: I thought about how this compares to the stock market. I agree that this part is necessary for "efficient capital allocation", but the opposite is true with the stock market: you have companies building utility, and the stock market funds them. Cryptocurrency seems to be the opposite: we have a super efficient way to allocate funds, but no utility to allocate it.
