The challenges currently facing Ethereum are actually similar issues encountered by all large enterprises: overall innovation is hindered, the management layer (the Ethereum Foundation) relies on its seniority and status, leading to inefficiencies.

Over the past week, the hottest topics in the market seem to be related to Ethereum. One is Vitalik Buterin's sharing of Ethereum's current predicament, problems, and some solutions during a community AMA, sparking numerous discussions. The other is the sudden theft of over 500,000 Ethereum coins over the weekend. These two events have brought entirely different impacts but have both made Ethereum the center of attention.

In the past year or two, the industry's evaluation of Ethereum's performance is often expressed in a very sarcastic manner: "If you bought Ethereum, you should have paid off all your debts from your past life," a phrase used to ridicule Ethereum's price. After all, the current industry status quo is that the price itself greatly reflects its development, similar to Solana.

So, let's return to reality. What challenges has Ethereum encountered that have caused both its overall market value and community reputation to shake?

After discussing with several core community members who have long focused on Ethereum, they provided several seemingly plausible feedbacks. These include the Ethereum Foundation being in a state of "existing in name only," often taking no action besides selling ETH; or the explosion of Layer 2 weakening Ethereum's intrinsic value; and the new narratives popular in the market basically not taking off on Ethereum.

These descriptions of problems seem to hit the mark, but I believe they may only be superficial presentations, not the core issues.

Regarding the topic of why large companies fail, there is a bestselling book called "The Innovator's Dilemma," also hailed as one of the 20 most influential business books of the 20th century. The book concludes that excellent large companies fail because small companies engage in disruptive innovation, thereby encroaching on the market share of large companies. Most innovations made by large companies are "sustaining innovations," which cannot prevent small companies from "disrupting" the market share of large companies.

This is precisely the real challenge Ethereum is currently facing.

Ethereum's Biggest Problem: The "Big Company Syndrome"?

Looking back, it has been almost a decade since the launch of Ethereum's mainnet. Ten years is not a short period for a company, especially in the rapidly evolving Web3 industry.

In a recent interview, Ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin did not acknowledge that Ethereum is a company. He stated, "I believe Ethereum is a decentralized ecosystem, not a company. If Ethereum becomes a company, we will lose much of its meaning."

However, if Ethereum's development over the past decade was not the result of corporate development, it might have taken a different path. After all, in the blockchain space, there is only one project that truly achieves "de-corporatization" – Bitcoin.

Therefore, the challenges Ethereum currently faces are actually similar to those encountered by all large enterprises: overall innovation is hindered, the management layer (Ethereum Foundation) relies on its seniority, leading to inefficiencies.

In the interview, Vitalik mentioned that the core solution for Ethereum to overcome its current predicament is the need for a new narrative, which essentially means innovation. He also mentioned that "the Ethereum Foundation has initiated many internal reforms in recent months," aimed at addressing organizational efficiency issues.

Although Vitalik denies that Ethereum is a company, when organizational issues surface, reforms can only be implemented using methods for managing enterprises.

Thus, another challenge regarding Ethereum's future development emerges: Is Vitalik ready to become a manager?

Despite being the first to voice his stance when facing numerous challenges, Vitalik now confronts the issue of transforming a large enterprise. After years of wild growth, Vitalik needs to transition from a tech expert to an "entrepreneur" who is not like a traditional entrepreneur and even rethink or balance "decentralization." Is he ready?

After reading the entire interview content, I am curious whether Vitalik will face significant psychological struggles during this transformation. After all, what needs to be reshaped is not only Ethereum itself but also this key figure himself. Perhaps he made up his mind when he changed his avatar more than a month ago. I don't know and don't understand, as the "dragon slayer" is no longer young and will inevitably change after experiencing the collisions of the world.

Finally, if you ask me whether Ethereum can overcome its challenges and my views on its future development, perhaps a down-to-earth summary would be: ETH still has a market value of $330 billion and remains the second-largest crypto project.

The challenges currently facing Ethereum are actually similar issues encountered by all large enterprises: overall innovation is hindered, the management layer (the Ethereum Foundation) relies on its seniority and status, leading to inefficiencies.

Over the past week, the hottest topics in the market seem to be related to Ethereum. One is Vitalik Buterin's sharing of Ethereum's current predicament, problems, and some solutions during a community AMA, sparking numerous discussions. The other is the sudden theft of over 500,000 Ethereum coins over the weekend. These two events have brought entirely different impacts but have both made Ethereum the center of attention.

In the past year or two, the industry's evaluation of Ethereum's performance is often expressed in a very sarcastic manner: "If you bought Ethereum, you should have paid off all your debts from your past life," a phrase used to ridicule Ethereum's price. After all, the current industry status quo is that the price itself greatly reflects its development, similar to Solana.

So, let's return to reality. What challenges has Ethereum encountered that have caused both its overall market value and community reputation to shake?

After discussing with several core community members who have long focused on Ethereum, they provided several seemingly plausible feedbacks. These include the Ethereum Foundation being in a state of "existing in name only," often taking no action besides selling ETH; or the explosion of Layer 2 weakening Ethereum's intrinsic value; and the new narratives popular in the market basically not taking off on Ethereum.

These descriptions of problems seem to hit the mark, but I believe they may only be superficial presentations, not the core issues.

Regarding the topic of why large companies fail, there is a bestselling book called "The Innovator's Dilemma," also hailed as one of the 20 most influential business books of the 20th century. The book concludes that excellent large companies fail because small companies engage in disruptive innovation, thereby encroaching on the market share of large companies. Most innovations made by large companies are "sustaining innovations," which cannot prevent small companies from "disrupting" the market share of large companies.

This is precisely the real challenge Ethereum is currently facing.

Ethereum's Biggest Problem: The "Big Company Syndrome"?

Looking back, it has been almost a decade since the launch of Ethereum's mainnet. Ten years is not a short period for a company, especially in the rapidly evolving Web3 industry.

In a recent interview, Ethereum's founder Vitalik Buterin did not acknowledge that Ethereum is a company. He stated, "I believe Ethereum is a decentralized ecosystem, not a company. If Ethereum becomes a company, we will lose much of its meaning."

However, if Ethereum's development over the past decade was not the result of corporate development, it might have taken a different path. After all, in the blockchain space, there is only one project that truly achieves "de-corporatization" – Bitcoin.

Therefore, the challenges Ethereum currently faces are actually similar to those encountered by all large enterprises: overall innovation is hindered, the management layer (Ethereum Foundation) relies on its seniority, leading to inefficiencies.

In the interview, Vitalik mentioned that the core solution for Ethereum to overcome its current predicament is the need for a new narrative, which essentially means innovation. He also mentioned that "the Ethereum Foundation has initiated many internal reforms in recent months," aimed at addressing organizational efficiency issues.

Although Vitalik denies that Ethereum is a company, when organizational issues surface, reforms can only be implemented using methods for managing enterprises.

Thus, another challenge regarding Ethereum's future development emerges: Is Vitalik ready to become a manager?

Despite being the first to voice his stance when facing numerous challenges, Vitalik now confronts the issue of transforming a large enterprise. After years of wild growth, Vitalik needs to transition from a tech expert to an "entrepreneur" who is not like a traditional entrepreneur and even rethink or balance "decentralization." Is he ready?

After reading the entire interview content, I am curious whether Vitalik will face significant psychological struggles during this transformation. After all, what needs to be reshaped is not only Ethereum itself but also this key figure himself. Perhaps he made up his mind when he changed his avatar more than a month ago. I don't know and don't understand, as the "dragon slayer" is no longer young and will inevitably change after experiencing the collisions of the world.

Finally, if you ask me whether Ethereum can overcome its challenges and my views on its future development, perhaps a down-to-earth summary would be: ETH still has a market value of $330 billion and remains the second-largest crypto project.