Following this discussion, I would like to add my thoughts on Vitalik's current predicament with Ethereum, as follows:
1) "Ivory Tower" thinking restricts innovation: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has exhibited a certain elitist culture detached from the market during the 2020-2024 period, continuously stacking technical concepts while neglecting the real needs of users.
In the face of widespread criticism and directional guidance, the EF management chose to "ignore" it, which led them to miss the critical time window for addressing issues, allowing competitors like Solana and Sui to escape the oligopolistic effects of the Ethereum ecosystem and grow wildly.
2) Overstacking technical narratives leads to market fatigue: From DeFi, NFTs to various Layer 2 scaling solutions, the Ethereum ecosystem resembles a narrative production factory, constantly launching new technical narratives but failing to form effective value capture.
This has resulted in users gradually feeling fatigued by a purely technical approach that does not translate into ecological and price developments. Ethereum has always hoped to stimulate a market build-up frenzy by raising technical barriers, but it has proven difficult to sustain ongoing market prosperity solely through technical narratives.
3) Layer 2 strategy causes ecological fragmentation and liquidity dispersion: Projects like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base have technically addressed certain scaling issues, such as reducing gas fees to negligible levels and significantly increasing TPS, but they have also led to a complex abstraction of user experience and excessive liquidity dispersion.
The compatibility issues between OP Stack, ZK Stack, and various Ethereum-native factions, along with interoperability barriers, have turned these market darlings into vampires that issue tokens for the sake of issuing tokens, failing to provide effective nourishment to the Ethereum ecosystem and instead contributing to its ongoing stagnation.
4) $ETH value capture model fails: After the implementation of the EIP-1559 burn mechanism, the value capture effect of ETH has not continued to function as expected. ETH lacks a direct value accumulation mechanism linked to network usage, and the prosperity of the Layer 2 market has not fully transmitted transaction fees to the mainnet. The modular architecture concept advocates for the separation of the base layer and application layer, resulting in ETH becoming a basic infra settlement layer rather than a necessary "value hub."
Therefore, when competitors like Solana achieve several-fold growth in a short period, ETH still fails to effectively break through historical highs.
5) Geek community culture is detached from mainstream markets: The Ethereum community, primarily composed of geeks, has long embraced technical purism, creating a rift with current mainstream market players. The refusal to embrace seemingly "low-level" innovative forms like "Meme culture" has led to a cognitive gap with the new generation of users.
In contrast, the Solana ecosystem has successfully attracted a large influx of fresh blood and market attention with its inclusive and diverse innovative attitude, forming a positive cycle of development.
That said, like many friends who love Ethereum deeply yet are frustrated, even though the various issues within Ethereum are clear, I still believe that its current predicament is not irreversible. It is undeniable that its active developer ecosystem and accumulated DeFi infra security consensus remain the strongest.
Once the market's main theme of technical narrative + long-termism is set, Ethereum will still occupy a core position. For most Ethereum enthusiasts and holders, letting go of the overly ambitious expectations of being "the second in the crypto universe" and viewing ETH from a purely decentralized network asset perspective in the broader market context may lead to more accurate choices.
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