Ethereum faces challenges, and market sentiment is low. To rebuild its image, the community has launched the ETHDenver hackathon, using culture and innovation to help Ethereum regain its market position. This article is based on a piece written by Tyler, compiled and translated by PANews.
(Background: Ethereum Pectra test fails again! Mainnet upgrade in April may be delayed, ETH market sentiment hits rock bottom)
(Additional context: Highlights from the Ethereum Foundation's 13th AMA: Native Rollup, Blob fee model, DA value capture...)

World

One of the most promising blockchains, Ethereum has faced challenges during the peak of the cryptocurrency market boom. Over the past few years, the Ethereum community has undergone severe tests. In 2024, the price of Bitcoin rose from $39,000 to $106,000 (a 2.7-fold increase), while Ethereum rose from $2,200 to $4,000 (a 1.8-fold increase). The ETH/BTC ratio is at its lowest level since the 2018 ICO bubble burst.

Historical ETH/BTC Ratio (2016-2025)

Market Sentiment and Ethereum's Positioning

The market is currently more inclined towards short-term speculative trading rather than long-term investment, with scams rampant and speculators being idolized. The cyclical nature of the crypto market means that when market sentiment becomes overly pessimistic, fundamentals will ultimately drive the trend. Although the mood on Crypto Twitter is gloomy, the atmosphere in the Ethereum ecosystem is improving, with some positive changes brewing.

Recently, some members of the Ethereum community have launched the ETHDenver brand hackathon, hoping to reshape Ethereum's market image through crowdsourced marketing ideas and drive grassroots promotion of the ecosystem. This initiative has led to the emergence of an Ethereum marketing group on Telegram, aiming to address the lack of marketing efforts for Ethereum.

From first principles, the core value of blockchains lies in decentralization, as otherwise, their efficiency would not surpass that of centralized databases. The appeal of blockchains lies in their immutability, trusted neutrality, censorship resistance, and non-stoppability, which depend on the trade-offs in the degree of decentralization.

The Scalability Trilemma, which was a hot topic of discussion from 2016 to 2020, is now rarely mentioned.

This theory states that among scalability, security, and decentralization, only two can be achieved simultaneously. Most competing L1 blockchains have sacrificed decentralization and security to improve scalability, in other words, they have become more centralized.

In comparison, Ethereum insists on decentralization, which seems to be a wise choice overall. Although the market does not currently value decentralization, users clearly appreciate this aspect. For example, in terms of stablecoin TVL, Ethereum still far exceeds Solana.

Rollup solutions can 100% inherit Ethereum's basic security and scale the network through L2 or economic scaling suites. Bitcoin plans to expand through Rollup solutions such as BitVM and BitVM2, while Ethereum's scaling suite path is more clear. If Solana reaches its maximum capacity at the base layer, they will also need to use L2 for scaling.

Ethereum represents all of crypto-punk, it represents a vision that is faithful to the mission rather than a speculative casino.

How can Ethereum win?

What problems does Ethereum currently face? If its mission is so great, why is it not reflected in the price? The current challenge for Ethereum is how to interact with those crypto areas (such as attention economy, Meme, radical marketing, etc.) that it has traditionally overlooked, while upholding its principles.

After the ICO bubble, Ethereum's leadership understandably kept a distance from anything that might damage its reputation. The focus shifted to "serious" use cases like DeFi, while cultural phenomena like Meme were largely ignored and rejected. But in this process, Ethereum lost the cultural ground, which was occupied by public chains like Solana that embraced these elements.

Ethereum can be more proactive in shaping its own culture and promoting projects that align with its values. It's time for Ethereum to become "cool" again.

1. Make Ethereum "cool" again

Ethereum needs to re-embrace the crypto-punk culture and regain its early rebellious spirit. Vitalik's best move was using the Milady avatar, which was a highly symbolic gesture. The organization behind Milady, Remilia, dominates the crypto Twitter culture, advocating for crypto-punk finality and recognizing that cryptocurrencies are not just about technology - they are a combination of politics, economics, computer science, meme-ology, philosophy, governance, and art. Miladys are both cool and avant-garde, breaking the boundaries of social acceptability in the name of defending online freedom (such as freedom of speech).

The political stance of Ethereum's leadership is often criticized for seeming disconnected from user needs. Once a company loses user resonance, it becomes difficult to succeed.

Why can subcultures like Milady have greater influence than Ethereum itself? The core issue is that Ethereum lacks strong cultural shaping and leadership, and is too passive. The best founders are fighting alongside users, deeply understanding their pain points.

Just study how @charlottefang77 actively conveys the dynasty mindset (with the goal of elevating community status and strengthening values) and creates dialogues that can be understood by all Milady community members, regardless of their status, intelligence, or technical background. The ability to communicate with all levels of the community is powerful.

In the past, the Ethereum Foundation has even failed to actively use major DeFi protocols, showing its lag in ecosystem building. Rather than political discussions, Ethereum should return to the crypto-punk ideology and revive the rebellious spirit of the early cryptocurrency era. This is not just a technological revolution, but also requires cultural and philosophical support for Ethereum to truly win the future.

Solana's market recognition is due to its clear identity and vision: fast and cheap. They embrace KOLs and Meme culture, dare to promote themselves/products/ideas, and strive to gain market share. In the current environment, "either lead the discourse or be led by the discourse", and the best way is to defeat competitors with better ideas.

Ethereum cannot be afraid of competition, but should fully support excellent on-chain projects and communities, whether they are Meme coins, DeFi applications, or NFT projects - the customer is always right.

2. Embrace modern media and the power of Meme

Ethereum has few allies in the media and social platforms, which are becoming increasingly important. Ethereum has not yet formed a systematic media cooperation strategy, while Solana actively embraces media and KOLs. For example, @DegenerateNews, which appears to be a neutral news account, is constantly disseminating positive news about Solana. Additionally, Blockworks also seems to be more biased towards Solana. This strategy is successful for Solana, but detrimental to Ethereum.

The Ethereum community is migrating to Farcaster, which is a long-term plan, but in the short term it has led to a decline in influence on X (Twitter). Farcaster has not yet attracted mainstream users, so Ethereum still needs to prioritize maintaining its discourse position on X, or its influence will further decline.

3. Clarify the competitive landscape

Ethereum not only faces competition from Solana, but also from Bitcoin L2. Bitcoin emphasizes monetary properties, Solana emphasizes technical advantages, so what is Ethereum's positioning?

In fact, Ethereum's core value proposition - decentralization - still has a strong advantage, but the market's understanding of it is not clear enough. Solana's popularity is mainly due to two factors:

• The Phantom wallet is highly acclaimed and considered the most user-friendly.
• Solana has only one chain, so users don't need to bridge assets between multiple L2s.

In comparison, although the concept of Account Abstraction has been proposed for years, no wallet has truly obscured the differences between L2s, allowing USDC/USDT to flow seamlessly across different L2s. If Ethereum wants to improve the user experience, it must simplify L2 interactions and make the experience closer to the mainnet.

4. Strengthen ecosystem cooperation

Does Ethereum have a truly effective incubator? Although ConsenSys is seen as a supporter of the Ethereum ecosystem, it has not been able to drive project development in a bottom-up manner. In comparison, DeFi Alliance's support for Solana is more systematic. So how can Ethereum provide support for potential projects? If no organization takes on this responsibility, decentralization may become a disadvantage.

5. Establishing a Unified Information Hub

The Ethereum website is actually quite good, but ironically, this is the problem. In an era where social media dominates information dissemination, it seems foolish to expect users to browse the FAQ. Ethereum needs a unified information platform, such as a decentralized application store, and ensure that this information is disseminated on social platforms to directly reach users.

In the long run, the ideal state is for users to use Ethereum seamlessly, just like the infrastructure of the Internet, but waiting for companies like Apple to integrate it is not the best solution, Ethereum needs to take the initiative to move forward.

Ethereum Branding

The Ethereum community needs a simple sentence to describe the function of Ethereum. In information dissemination, Memes play a decisive role. Just like the Meme of Bitcoin as "digital gold", people can immediately understand its meaning. The answer to this problem will guide the development direction of the Ethereum brand hackathon.

• "Web1: Read, Web2: Write, Web3: Own" - A good starting point, but too long.
• "World Computer" - The concept is not intuitive enough, and may not resonate, as people usually understand computers as the laptops or desktops in front of them, the concept of a "World Computer" is difficult to understand: is it just an exceptionally large computer?
• "Digital Oil" - Although it seems to be imitating "Digital Gold", it does convey the function of ETH very well, indicating that the value of ETH comes from its practicality and its status as the currency of the digital economy, but it is too dependent on the framework of Bitcoin, and it is difficult to become the dominant Meme.
• "Monetary Internet" - The concept of the Internet of Things mainly resonates with engineers, but it is too abstract for ordinary users to understand.
• "The People's Internet" - The concept is good, but still too abstract.
• "Incentivized Open Source Software" - This Meme is most suitable for VCs and investors who understand that open source software is changing the world, but they need a model to understand how tokens and cryptocurrencies fit into it. Ordinary users find it difficult to resonate.
• "Global Settlement Layer" - May be suitable for traders and funds, but difficult to popularize.
• "Ethereum - The Internet You Can Own" - This statement has the most potential. It meets all the requirements: it explains the value proposition, is easy to understand, and can arouse universal resonance. People understand the Internet, know that the world's largest tech companies are very valuable, and wonder what it would be like if they could own the Internet itself and buy its "shares"? The Internet is becoming stronger and more ubiquitous every year. "Ethereum - The Internet You Can Own" tries to strike a balance between promoting the technology and the ETH asset.

Considerations for Redesigning the Logo

1. Be careful when using "≡thereum", as most ordinary users will read it directly as "thereum", for example "Built on ≡thereum" may cause confusion;

2. Avoid being too "cyberpunk" to avoid alienating ordinary users

3. Do not be too "awakened", as Ethereum is more focused on value delivery and technical capabilities, rather than social ideology.

Lessons from Intel Inside: Ethereum's Branding and Marketing Strategy

The success of the Intel Inside program was not just due to branding, but also its subsequent marketing strategy. To achieve similar success in branding Ethereum, both brand building and marketing need to be considered.

The core of the Intel Inside program was to collaborate with computer manufacturers (OEMs) to display the Intel Inside logo on their products, thereby conveying to consumers that the devices use high-quality, cutting-edge processors. Intel not only provided the logo, but also used subsidies to incentivize manufacturers to adopt this branding strategy. By 1992, more than 500 manufacturers had joined the program, and 70% of related advertisements displayed the Intel Inside logo. By 2001, Intel was investing $1.5 billion (equivalent to about $26.9 billion today) annually in the program, making its brand deeply rooted in people's minds.

It is worth noting that Intel adopted a strict brand management mechanism, requiring all partners' advertisements to comply with brand standards, and even had a brand usage guideline as long as 100 pages. Any violations would result in the withdrawal of subsidies or even the loss of cooperation qualifications. This decisive market strategy has made Intel an industry benchmark and ensured that its brand dominates the minds of consumers.

Thoughts on Ethereum's Branding Strategy

If the Intel Inside model is applied to the Ethereum ecosystem, DApps would be equivalent to OEMs, and Ethereum would be equivalent to Intel's chips. To expand its brand influence, Ethereum may need to invest resources on a scale comparable to Intel, and adopt a more forceful execution strategy.

A key question is: If Intel would not subsidize OEMs that also use competing chips, should Ethereum fund applications that support multiple chains?

Currently, long-time Ethereum allies such as MakerDAO/Sky, Uniswap, and Aave have all adopted a multi-chain deployment strategy. Does this mean they need to be more "Ethereum-aligned" in brand partnership programs? If so, how should this degree of alignment be defined? These questions need to be discussed and consensus reached within the community.

Submission Proposal for the ETHDenver Brand Hackathon

In this brand hackathon, the team proposed to design a brand logo similar to Intel Inside, combined with a marketing plan.

• The logo can serve as a brand asset, requiring applications to prominently display it on the UI interface in exchange for the support provided by the plan.
• The core information is: the application is built on Ethereum and inherits Ethereum's decentralized trust attributes.
• The logo design balances technical and asset attributes, retaining the classic Ethereum visual elements, while incorporating one of the most powerful ETH narratives - "The Internet You Can Own", and adding "Powered by Ethereum" to enhance the brand's communicative power.

Designed by @pdes_igns

In addition, market promotion also needs to be accompanied by a corresponding organizational structure, such as accelerators, alliances or dedicated BD teams, to ensure the execution of the promotion plan. Ethereum can learn from Intel's cooperation model, providing resource support while establishing clear access standards to avoid dilution of brand assets.

Conclusion

The most important revelation is that Ethereum needs to take practical and feasible brand promotion measures to drive a unified marketing plan for the entire ecosystem. Otherwise, DApps may become self-reliant and even depart from Ethereum as they develop to a certain stage, thereby weakening the ecosystem value. Ethereum should take the initiative to encourage projects within the ecosystem to maintain a consistent vision, rather than relying on the market's spontaneous alignment.

Historically, the former social media giant Myspace has been eliminated, and the once-popular Bored Ape has also gradually lost market enthusiasm. The establishment of a millennium dynasty cannot be separated from the support of the tribes. It's time for Ethereum to show its strength.