Block Muncher

@weerlig8 @YearOfTheKraken Losing big in one sense, but winning by making us lose enormous resources and time. This could be another Iraq or Vietnam - an endless war begging for boots on ground or destruction of major industry

No, they have not been rational. These are the exact reasons why they are losing BIG. They just don't act early, and don't act strong. Perhaps, the total decapitation of their effeminate leaders who studied useless philosophy will bring the next set of people who will prioritize action ahead of words!

Many people wouldn't have liked it when I called Iran a rational actor. But consider their actions so far. -Did not close Strait of Hormuz until there was an existential threat to their country -Did not attack critical energy infrastructure until theirs was targeted -They have once again threatened that they will destroy the regional energy infrastructure if theirs is attacked, prompting Trump to announce no more of Iran's will be targeted -They have demonstrated the capability to destroy the entire energy infrastructure of the Gulf and yet, they are holding themselves back. Compare this with Israel and USA's actions so far: -Decapitation strike against Iran while negotiations were progressing well (Oman confirmed this) and a ceasefire was in place. -Targeted Iran's energy infrastructure knowing fully well that there will be retaliation. -Initiated a war they have no means of winning without plunging the entire world into an apocalypse. Which side is the rational actor here?

@notsofast @CamiRusso Carlson-Wee has long looked like a band member from flock of seagulls. Barefooter is Danny ryan, lead of Etherealize. And then 2 Opensea founders/leaders

This VF photo and article ("Crypto’s True Believers Demand to Be Taken Seriously") feel so off to me and I was trying to figure out why. I think it's because it feels like something that was written in the 2018 era of crypto -- where belief was almost everything the industry had going for it. blockchains and tokens were live but mostly just to gamble with. so a photoshoot that portrays crypto people as this excentric rag tag group who somehow still hang on to their weird ideals even as prices crash made sense back then. But not today.

@zGuz @coinage_x_daic What’s the gist of the article?

I covered the Terra collapse. I covered the FTX collapse. Honestly the crypto piece in Vanity Fair may be more damaging 😅

@wmougayar @antiprosynth We get that. It’s why I liked 8 or 9 yrs ago. It’s doing a good job at this. But it can do CROPS *and* focus on growth/users/BD.

Over the weekend, the X-sphere was still reverberating with mixed sentiments about the Ethereum Foundation’s Mandate release. Let me put it simply for you about what it means: 1/ espousing strong beliefs about freedom empowerment, absolute ownership, privacy, openness, and unwavering security pushes the envelope on creating new use cases where user-agency, digital ownership and self-sovereignty are key principles. We need this. 2/ the EF’s dogmatism about these principles squarely positions it in the camp of absolute neutrality as an infrastructure, arguably putting it, aspirationally at the same ideal levels as the Internet. It’s a high bar, but realistic for Ethereum. None of this should be surprising. These North Star principles clearly differentiate Ethereum from other blockchains, and they do not weaken institutional relevance. If anything, they strengthen it. Because the same properties that protect individuals,- neutrality, openness, and security, also make Ethereum a uniquely credible choice for the next generation of trust-based systems, financial rails, and global digital infrastructure.

@divine_economy @stableshaman It’s the lack of what isn’t in it. It’s numerous things. All conflating to a team that doesn’t feel like it’s saying “let’s f’n go! Let’s get users and grow our base!”. Not at all. It’s off.

@stableshaman yeah i think that's actually the issue most people are having, but are struggling to articulate (myself included) x.com/divine_economy…

there's nothing wrong with ethereum focusing on cypherpunk values. CROPS is dope. massive ideological differentiator. something the world desperately needs. the real issue here is perfectly encapsulated by the literal visualization of miladies in a manifesto that virtue-signals its apolitics and refusal to support ethereum projects. i don't really care whether or not you feel personally aligned with milady, or are eager to defend the fact that they're no longer an anorexia suicide cult and seem a little less vocally pro-trump than they used to. all good! you can support whoever you like. step back. i actually don't think it matters much that there's alignment with an openly political group in this manifesto. every blockchain is ideological, and identifying that ideology is important. what matters is how it punctures the very premises of the manifesto itself, as it should. it's a perfect reminder that tech can be credibly-neutral, but distribution never is. someone is always getting support. vitalik is talking up projects, ethereum is retweeting private companies, and L2s that were evangelized by ethereum are marketing their apps. and this is not a bad thing! attention is not zero-sum, and supporting one app publicly does not hurt another; it gives them a path and incentive to winning public support as well. giving attention to apps, i would argue, is also *the real mandate* of ethereum in 2026. every blockchain is an app store, both as a play to develop apps *and* a place to distribute them. abdicating all responsibility to distribute apps at all is not just a death sentence towards getting anyone to build on you, but purposefully ignores every lesson of tech from apple's iOS to video game consoles. and this is the issue of the mandate. it tells us its real mandate is *not* to support apps and focus on the tech, somehow believing, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the users will come, and the best tech will win. just incredibly sad slap in the face to everyone who's been building here for a decade.

@itamarl IT rails and Finance rails work different. Other uses have yet to manifest in any meaningful amounts. Until then, focus is needed on growing eth finance for the real world - while still sticking to being CROPS.

Ethereum's focus on open-source and censorship resistance gives it zero chance to compete with centralised commercial alternatives. If that strategy could work, we would all be running our infrastructure on Linux instead of Windows Server.

@deww400 @TrustlessState @VitalikButerin @tkstanczak I don’t think this points at centralization by itself, but yeah, why the fuck they switch and switch back. Like I feel a double coup happened or they never really changed

@TrustlessState @VitalikButerin 1) it's crazy the eth community is STILL calling sol centralized in march 2026 2) most people cheering for this new mandate also cheered for last year's mandate from @tkstanczak which was to focus more on apps and BD, and this new mandate is a complete 180 capitulation of that

Hey @VitalikButerin, if Ethereum doesn't build for the real world then what's the point

@ianrainey @grok @stranger4599 @FezWeb3 Yeah looks suspect

@grok @stranger4599 @FezWeb3 Haha! Gotta love AI.

She was ahead of her time. Volume up ⬆️ Do you think she's still holding?

@zxstim @stonecoldpat0 Seeing institutions using your protocol in a way that is still CROPS can be done I believe. L2’s for when not. Having as many people and orgs and projs on-board is optimal for growth and use and propagation. Focus can also be hugely on helping existing legit eth DeFi.

@block_muncher @stonecoldpat0 why should the EF be spending half of its time begging institutions - the literal antithesis of crypto - to be using the chain?

The Ethereum Foundation focusing on CROPS isn’t wrong. We should build a chain that is maximally decentralised, focused on privacy, self-sovereignty, and open source. No one disagrees with this. It is what we all signed up for when deciding to work on Ethereum. At the same time, we all want the EF to be the primary actor that is engaging with industry. Many institutions want to build on Ethereum, but do not yet promote those values. They will look to the most authoritative voice in Ethereum -- the EF itself. This is why the EF should continue focusing on expanding Ethereum, but also be its strongest BD and sales. Ironically, if we all play our cards right, we may witness the financial sector become the actors who legitimise on-chain privacy. A repeat of the 90s where it was the financial sector that pushed for strong TLS encryption to make e-banking and e-commerce possible. Of course, I do not work at the EF. I do not know what their future plans are. My hope is that they continue building their BD and engagement arm. We witnessed a significant transformation last year and it should really continue from its current strength. Hoping for the best for Ethereum and the EF. The next 10 years will be even more fun than the last.

@shawmakesmagic @TrustlessState @VitalikButerin I want to grow the ecosystem, create value in it, and also share in the ownership of ETH and profit off that. But I don’t feel like it’s gonna grow like that in the next 4 years, just like the last 4 yrs. So why get behind it?

Dude I’m so fucking tired of the real world, finance is not the use case of the internet, we are stuck in a local minima and Solana is not the answer. I reject the frame and I’m 10000% more in on Ethereum, especially once all the price complainers leave Most builders seem to fee this way Never been more excited

@lex_node @TrustlessState @VitalikButerin Tru, it’s a bad choice of word. I feel like SOL is too far in the other direction. But wishing ethereum had quite a bit more of the ‘lets grow mofos’ vibe

@TrustlessState @VitalikButerin "captures" as a verb says it all lmao

@hanni_abu @TrustlessState @cptgrumpus @Bankless Change the vibes to be half BD/ecosystem and half CROPS

@TrustlessState @cptgrumpus @Bankless and what exactly is it you suggest be done?

My latest piece in Ethereum Weekly on @Bankless is out! For Bankless subscribers only

@Kevinm2c @_Enoch U can push for both cypherpunk AND growth. I think it’s possible. But I feel they just go for the one mostly :-/

@_Enoch cypherpunk ideals don't set price.

why ether number go up if mandate too cypherpunk?!

@_Enoch Bc technicals

@0xlibratus @stonecoldpat0 Not at this early stage still. They still need to rocket propel to the clouds. Growth. They are going to lose growth mindshare audience

@stonecoldpat0 I really don't see why foundations should do BD if there are many alternatives in the ecosystem If anything, it would make them more capture-prone and less attractive to build on

@Snapcrackle @stonecoldpat0 Interesting. What overall EF % of attn and funds wer/are involved with ecosystem? Cause - I sure don’t see them talk anything appearing to be over 5-8%.

@stonecoldpat0 Good points. I spent the last year building this out and will have a few updates soon

@colludingnode @stonecoldpat0 EF should be like 30-60% BD and engagement at this point in their lifecycle. Or paying other parties to do it for them. They could do half BD and half CROPS

@stonecoldpat0 Seems arbitrary to ascribe this specific job to that specific entity

@zxstim @stonecoldpat0 EF should be 50%+ spending their time and money and efforts on this. I feel like it’s 5%. They do so bad a job and so little of it that Etherealize had to be invented.

they do and i think they already done enough. They have a small team in different regions in support roles. given the amount of institutions, different required languages, you can’t expect the EF to talk to everyone. ethereum is not solana to just US maxxing or dubai maxxing. we basically need to multiply etherealize many times in different countries. they have the right structure to do promo with institutions (which they are doing in the US)

@stonecoldpat0 This is exactly what I’ve been trying to say. But I don’t think they are putting hardly *any* thought into industry growth and BD engagement. I don’t see any signs they are. In fact, opposite. I’m out for time being.

@bittybitbit86 Naw I don’t think that’s the thinking of many. I think they think they can prolong the situation and lead to slowing of world oil

People really think Iran is going to win with drones and cluster bombs?