Lead developer says Ethereum needs to ‘watch what Bitcoin is doing’

In its day, Ethereum saw several hard forks and EIPs, the most recent being the London hard fork and EIP 3554. Even at the time of writing, Ether was incorporating the Ethereum 2.0 staking contract. However, the second largest blockchain and smart contract platform is often criticized for the way it is governed.

During an episode of the What Bitcoin Has Done podcast, host Peter McCormack spoke to Ethereum developer Core Lane Rettig. Rettig resigned for a number of reasons which he explored during the conversation and also made some troubling allegations.

Bitcoin vs. Ethereum

During the conversation, McCormack and Rettig frequently returned to the question of the centralization and control exercised by the Ethereum Foundation over the blockchain.

To begin with, Rettig noted the difference between the Bitcoin and Ethereum white papers. He said,

“The Bitcoin whitepaper itself is immutable, like the Genesis block. The Ethereum whitepaper is a markdown document on a wiki on GitHub.

Speaking of Ethereum’s Difficulty Bomb, Rettig noted that pushing it back increases the issue, affecting users’ holdings. About the block subsidy and other decisions related to the Ethereum blockchain, Rettig made a troubling claim. He said economists had not been consulted, adding,

“We don’t know what the right amount to pay for insurance is. We don’t, really. The best thing we can do is watch what Bitcoin is doing, watch what other networks are doing, okay? [For example] Ethereum Classic has been attacked, [so] it’s not paying enough – we have to pay more.

In addition, Rettig added that “pseudonymous whales” had already reached out to him. He claimed that they had “pushed” him or sent funds to influence changes in the mining algorithm.

Bets and actions

Discussing the Ethereum Foundation itself, McCormack suggested that the people who held large volumes of Ether were “proxy shareholders”. He also compared the pre-mines to the actions of the founders. For his part, Rettig admitted that the pre-mine was the “biggest reason” for his departure.

Rettig described Ethereum’s governance as “the worst of both worlds,” saying blockchain is somewhere between minimal governance and formalized governance. As McCormack brought up Ethereum’s monetary policies, Rettig admitted that “the skin in the game” could be a positive thing. However, he also pointed out that conflicts of interest were “commonplace” within the Ethereum Foundation and among major developers.

At the time of going to press, 415,606 ETH had been burned.