In an impassioned response to allegations that the Ethereum Foundation irresponsibly sold off its ETH holdings, co-founder Vitalik Buterin strongly denied the accusations against X. In an explanation, Buterin provided detailed insights into the foundation’s financial practices and contributions to the ecosystem.
The controversy arose after User Buterin quickly turned to X to address these concerns, confirming that not only has he not sold any ETH himself recently, but the amount of ETH he holds has actually increased.
Is the Ethereum Foundation dumping ETH?
On October 26, 2024, he rose available Clearly refuting the rumours, he said: “I haven’t sold a single ETH in the last month? The amount of ETH I hold has actually increased.” Responding to further inquiries about the ETH Foundation’s actions, Buterin explained the significant expenses incurred by the Foundation, which are essential for the development and maintenance of the Ethereum network.
“The ETH Foundation pays the researchers and developers responsible for (making) Ethereum non-bleeding 5 million ETH per year for proof of work, your fees are low today, and your transactions are listed in less than 30 seconds instead of 1-30 seconds.” Minute (EIP 1559), show some respect “Buterin said.
Buterin spoke further about the foundation’s contributions, detailing several key initiatives that underscore its commitment to technological advancement and network security. He pointed to the development of zero-knowledge (zk) technology, which facilitates private use of Ethereum, citing projects such as railways as examples.
Additionally, Buterin discussed advances in account stripping technology, which aims to simplify user interactions with Ethereum by eliminating the need for traditional seed statements and mitigating central points of failure reminiscent of the Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) incident. The ETH co-founder wrote that this innovation “will allow standards to safely use ETH without seed statements *or* SBF-style central points of failure.”
Buterin also highlighted the Foundation’s role in strengthening the global Ethereum community through local events around the world. He noted that many of these events often downplay the importance of enterprise involvement, but they play an important role in spreading knowledge and promoting collaboration between developers and enthusiasts.
Security and network reliability were other focal points in Buterin’s defence. He proudly stated that Ethereum has maintained no downtime due to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and consensus failures since 2016. Furthermore, he praised the organization’s “various security works (internal development and grants) that have prevented many fund losses.”
Buterin concluded by emphasizing the foundation’s contributions to the broader Ethereum ecosystem, including “the libraries that contain all the types of code you use (wallets, challenge apps…).”
At press time, Ethereum was trading at $2,521.
Featured image created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com