Key Points
- Charles Hoskinson, co-founder of Cardano, criticizes Ethereum’s governance structure as centralized.
- Cardano’s upcoming Voltaire-era governance model aims to balance efficiency and democracy.
Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Cardano [ADA], recently criticized the governance structure of Ethereum [ETH] during his appearance at Token2049 in Singapore.
He expressed concerns about Ethereum’s reliance on co-founder Vitalik Buterin, likening it to a dictatorship.
Cardano’s Governance Model
Hoskinson contrasted Ethereum’s structure with Cardano’s upcoming Voltaire-era governance model.
He believes this model will promote a more decentralized and democratic framework, avoiding both authoritarianism and the anarchy associated with the Bitcoin [BTC] model.
His comments ignited discussions on the contrasting trajectories of these leading blockchain projects.
Hoskinson questioned the future of Ethereum without Buterin, asking what the next hard fork would look like and how quickly it could be achieved.
Ethereum’s Roadmap Under Scrutiny
Hoskinson also critiqued Buterin’s influence on Ethereum’s roadmap, particularly his shift from sharding-based optimizations to a focus on rollups and layer-2 solutions for scalability.
This pivot has been criticized for empowering “extractive L2s” and leading to a decrease in fee revenue and Layer 1 network activity.
These changes have raised concerns about the long-term sustainability and health of the Ethereum ecosystem.
However, despite Hoskinson’s assertions, it’s crucial to note that Buterin does not have absolute control over the decentralized network.
The Cardano co-founder emphasized that blockchains face a key decision: to maintain a straightforward protocol like Bitcoin or to appoint a central figure to guide operations.
Cardano’s governance model addresses this “governance trilemma” of efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity through delegated representatives and a member-based organization called Intersect.
This approach simplifies complex governance issues for community voting, ensuring a more democratic and participatory approach.
Hoskinson stated that a balance of efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity could avoid the anarchy of Bitcoin or the dictatorship of Ethereum, and still represent everyone in a decentralized manner.