What happens if a long-time Ethereum insider refers to the Ethereum ecosystem as a “religion” What’s the difference between that and reality? A critical look at Soleimani’s thread — and why it struck a nerve.
Ethereum is called out “again”
In April, Ameen Solimani published a thread in which he criticized Ethereum for what he deemed to be its ( Ameen Solimani published a lengthy thread (on X) that praised what he believes to be Ethereum’s strengths.ETH( ) a growing disengagement from practical considerations.
Soleimani presented his comments as a reply to Justin Drake’s post on values, which Vitalik Buterin had endorsed and shared.
Soleimani argued that the Ethereum network’s narratives are often distorted by its reliance on aspirational messages and abstract ideals.
He was concerned that Ethereum’s culture could become too comfortable in vague slogans, at the cost of accountability and problem-solving grounded on reality.
Soleimani does not speak from the margins. MolochDAO was created by him in 2019. It is a collective of decentralized funds that supports Ethereum infrastructure.
MolochDAO has also contributed to the coordination of resources during the transition from Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0. proof-of-stake.
Ses involvement with Ethereum goes back further. He founded SpankChain on Ethereum, an adult-content platform that investigated use cases for direct crypto payments as well as censorship resistant.
In addition, Reflexer Labs developed RAI (a non-pegged, decentralized stablecoin) and he participated in the public discussion around Tornado CashA privacy-centric protocol that is under scrutiny by both U.S. law and Europe.
Examine the main arguments Soleimani made and see how they reflect deeper tensions in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Ethereum stablecoins
Ethereum’s dependence on stablecoins – a centralized currency – is one of the most important issues that Soleimani brings up in his post.
Ethereum may present itself as an open-source platform for decentralized financial services, but a significant portion of the day-today activities are still carried out by assets that have been issued by private firms.
In April 2018, stablecoins like Tether and other stablecoins will be available. Stablecoins like Tether (USDTUSD Coin) (USDC( ) are responsible for a large portion of Ethereum’s trading volume and liquidity. According to DeFiLlamaUSDT, USDC and their combined values are worth more than 100 billion dollars.
The tokens are also used to settle settlements across various DeFi protocols. These tokens are used by many Ethereum-based applications because of their wide integration.
This level of dependency brings with it different choices. USDT is issued by companies operating under national regulatory systems. iFinex manages Tether, and USDC is issued through Circle The Centre Consortium is the governing body.
Issuers of fiat currency maintain reserves in the form of regular attestations and have the right to block or freeze wallets.
These powers, while used with caution, introduce counterparty risks that are incongruent with Ethereum’s larger decentralization narrative.
Ethereum’s protocol is open and permissionless. It resists censorship. However, the most common tools used by its application layer are dependent on infrastructure that is susceptible to being altered or restricted.
It is crucial to make this distinction. The decentralization of Ethereum in all its layers is not equal, particularly in financial instruments which are subject to issuer and regulatory control.
Politics neutrality and engagement
Soleimani raised concerns about Ethereum’s changing relationship with the political system. Although the protocol has been described as being apolitical, it is clear that recent developments have shown its ecosystem to be increasingly interconnected with various legal and policy frameworks.
The core Ethereum design remains open and permissionless. This shift reflects an increasing need to interact with regulators.
Infrastructure tied to Ethereum — including validator operators, custodians, and development teams — frequently operates under national laws and is subject to local compliance requirements.
Most of these entities have active enforcement systems. Ethernodes will be available in April 2025 data According to the report, over half of active Ethereum nodes reside in Germany, Singapore and the U.S. where there are established crypto-related laws.
Geographic distribution gives Ethereum a global reach but exposes it also to different degrees of regulation oversight.
Ethereum Foundation Members have also participated in discussions on policy with governments from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Vitalik Buterin, a crypto-leadership expert from the United States and Argentina, has met numerous times with government officials to examine national approaches.
These interactions are informal but they do suggest an effort to influence policy without necessarily guiding the protocol into a political direction.
Functionally, the engagement in question is nothing out of the ordinary. Legal clarity is becoming more important as Ethereum’s integration into real-world infrastructure and finance grows. In order to reduce operational risk, many protocol developers, node providers and wallets require stable regulatory environment.
During this time, the policymakers seek out more and more technical information to guide emerging regulations. The result is a two-way exchange — policy shaped by protocol insight, and protocol development influenced by regulatory context.
Ethereum’s technical operations are not dependent on government endorsement and remain decentralized. Nevertheless, individuals and organizations working within the Ethereum ecosystem usually work within legal bounds.
The result is not full detachment, but conditional independence — one where neutrality is preserved at the protocol level, even as engagement with political systems continues at the edges.
When ‘permissionless innovation’ meets the law
Soleimani also targets the Ethereum community in his thread. “permissionless innovation,” The principle is that any person should be allowed to build, without the need for approval.
Soleimani says that while this idea has been a major driver of Ethereum’s growth in the early days, its effects are now becoming more difficult to ignore.
Tornado Cash, an anonymous protocol launched by smart contracts that are autonomous on Ethereum is the example he gives.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control The United States sanctioned this protocol on the grounds that it facilitates money laundering by criminals, including North Korea. Lazarus Group.
Arrests followed the sanctions. Roman Storm and Alexey Prittsev were two Tornado Cash developers who have been detained both in the United States of America and The Netherlands.
Storm is now facing charges related to money laundering, violations of international sanctions, and operating an unlicensed money services business — charges that carry a potential prison sentence of up to 45 years.
Soleimani believes that the Ethereum Community’s reaction to this legal action is more important than the actual lawsuit itself. Some people defended the developers and others supported the argument of “code is speech” The legal system is therefore unable to protect you.
Soleimani considers this belief to be misguided. According to him, developers should not be shielded from liability by relying solely on code neutrality.
He criticizes the idea that developers don’t need legal assistance. In his article, he mentions legal teams and advocacy organisations that filed amicus curiae briefs on behalf of Roman Storm.
In these briefs, it is argued that open-source writing and deployment should be protected by free speech and that decentralized tool creators should not be held accountable for third party misuse.
Although these positions are popular in some parts of the crypto-industry, their legal status is still uncertain.
The case is a significant one for the development of Ethereum. Technically, the right to build is still intact. However, legal risks associated with privacy tools and international transactions continue to grow.
Soleimani believes that defending innovation without permission now demands more than idealism. Legal foresight is required, as are active engagement and an understanding of risks associated with building products in a highly regulated market.
Do ETH coins need a value?
Soleimani is also concerned about Ethereum’s reliance of the price ETH in maintaining its network security. In his blog post, he revisits a previous disagreement with Ethereum Foundation research Justin Drake. Drake had suggested in the past that ETH market price is not important.
Soleimani pushed his argument back, asking a question directly: if ETH was to lose its worth, how could Ethereum secure its network in the future?
It is important to understand that this issue has a foundational nature in Ethereum’s architecture. Ethereum has stopped using miners since the switch to Proof-of-Stake, which took place in 2022. It relies instead on validators, who stake ETH in order to verify transactions.
This model’s effectiveness depends both on the value of the token and how much ETH is staked.
The rewards for validating ETH are reduced if the price drops too low. This makes it less appealing for people to stake.
At the same, cost to attack the system becomes lower. In this way, both the motivation to protect the network and deterring malicious activity are weakened.
On April 18, ETH is trading around $1,570. This represents a drop of over 52 percent from recent highs. 18 ETH trades at around $1.570. This is a 52 percent drop from the recent highs. According to data Beaconcha.in currently has more than 34,000,000 ETH staked. This represents approximately 28 percent of total supply.
Soleimani argues that Proof-of-Stake does not distinguish between monetary and security value. ETH isn’t just a market metric. This is how the system remains robust.
Ethereum: Can it move forward and reconcile?
Soleimani concludes his blog post with a query that goes beyond any one disagreement. Ethereum can still move forward if it is able to recognize and accept its contradictions as both a system, and a group.
He does not dismiss the network despite his harsh criticism. He reflects instead on moments in the past where changes did happen. Early debates about the price of ETH eventually led to the emergence “ultrasound money” narrative. This is his proof of the ability to adapt.
It is his hope that this can be repeated. The challenges facing Ethereum today are different in nature — they involve legal risk, coordination problems, and questions about how power is distributed. They aren’t just technical problems. It is important to consider how the protocol will fit into the larger world.
Ethereum’s ability to resolve these tensions will depend on its response. This includes being realistic with regards to the risks that developers are exposed to, as well as the tools and systems on which it relies. Accepting that there are tradeoffs with decentralization is also important.
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Source: crypto.news
