In response to claims that the Ethereum Foundation irresponsibly sold off its ETH holdings, co-founder Vitalik Buterin categorically denied the accusations against X. In his explanation, Buterin provided detailed insight into the foundation’s financial practices and contributions to the ecosystem. .
The controversy arose when user Buterin quickly went to
Is the Ethereum Foundation dumping ETH?
On October 26, 2024, he gave a clear refutation to the rumor, saying, “You haven’t sold a single ETH in the past month?” In fact, the amount of ETH I hold has increased.” In response to further inquiries about the activities of the ETH Foundation, Buterin elaborated on the significant costs incurred by the Foundation, costs that are crucial for the development and maintenance of the Ethereum network.
“The ETH Foundation is paying researchers and developers responsible for ensuring that 5 million ETH per year is not shed for proof-of-work on Ethereum. Current fees are low and transactions are contained within 30 seconds rather than 1-30 seconds. Boone (EIP 1559), please show respect,” Buterin said.
Buterin further elaborated on the Foundation’s contributions and detailed several key initiatives that highlight its commitment to technological advancement and network security. He cited the development of zero-knowledge (zk) technologies to facilitate civilian use of ETH, citing projects such as railways as examples.
Buterin also discusses advances in account abstraction technology, which aims to simplify user interaction with Ethereum by eliminating the need for traditional seed phrases and mitigating centralized points of failure reminiscent of the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) incident. I did it. “This innovation will allow everyday users to safely use ETH without an SBF-style central point of failure,” the ETH co-founders wrote.
Buterin also emphasized the foundation’s role in fostering the global Ethereum community through local events around the world. He noted that while many of these events often downplay the involvement of foundations, they play an important role in disseminating knowledge and fostering collaboration between developers and enthusiasts.
Security and network reliability were another focus of Buterin’s defense. He proudly stated that Ethereum has maintained zero downtime due to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and failed consensus since 2016. He also acknowledged the foundation’s “various security work (internal developments and grants) that has prevented the loss of many funds.”
Buterin concluded by highlighting the foundation’s contribution to the wider Ethereum ecosystem, including “all kinds of code libraries that users use (wallets, DeFi apps…).”
At press time, ETH was trading at $2,521.
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