Vitalik Buterin defends solutions to finance the Ethereum ecosystem

Ethereum is based on common goods, essential to the whole community and the ecosystem. For the co-founder of the blockchain ETH, Vitalik Buterin, it is necessary to find solutions to finance these contributions.

Documentation, developer contributions, protocols, mining, security, audit of smart contracts … all these different elements constitute public goods within the ecosystem Ethereum. If they benefit everyone, their funding however, is not obvious.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the blockchain Ethereum, so took advantage of his participation this week inEthereum Community Conference (EthCC) to make the community aware of this issue and put forward proposals. To note that Joseph Lubin was also there to talk about ConsenSys.

Zcash, an inspiration to raise funds

For the developer, two major issues arise on this question of funding: at what level to finance and how to allocate funding? But reaching consensus on this within the Ethereum community is no small task.

The use of donations and would not generosity be a remedy for all controversy? "They are largely insufficient" considers Buterin to guarantee this funding. Other options exist, however.

Funding could thus take place directly at the protocol level. This is the track chosen by the community Zcash. A part (20%) of the reward generated during the creation of a block is reserved to finance developments. Bitcoin Cash is another “interesting” example, underlines Vitalik Buterin.

Other avenues are possible, such as a percentage on transaction costs or an intervention in mining. Block producers generate value. The solution would be to intervene at this level to raise funding for public goods in the ecosystem.

Coin Vote deemed a bad solution

Vitalik Buterin here refers to the concept of MEV or " Miner Extractable value " However, whichever funding method is chosen, there is still a question of how to allocate funds within the community.

The status quo, based on a small number of decision-makers, a quasi-Soviet regime, clearly does not have the favors of the young programmer of 26 years, who judges this approach " opaque " Another certainty: the vote based on the holding of cryptocurrency presents too much drift.

This system tends to be hijacked by some crypto-exchanges to impose decisions. And for that, they exploit the assets deposited by their customers on their service by taking advantage of the associated voting rights – even if they only store the funds in cryptocurrencies.

Vitalik Buterin’s 40 minutes speech at EthCC certainly didn’t resolve the issue of funding. And perhaps that’s not the critical subject of the moment in the ecosystem either. The foundation still has the equivalent of $ 200 million to carry out its projects.

The priority is without a doubt Ethereum 2.0. The implementation of the first stage, the deployment of the proof of stake, could intervene this summer.